By New Age Islam Edit
Bureau
21 October
2020
• Mohammad Reza Shajarian: When the Clocks
Stopped In Iran
By Hamid Dabashi
• Ibrahim Al Abed, A Man Of All Seasons, Will
Be Sorely Missed
By Shajahan Madampat
• Pro-Iran Militias A Time Bomb Al-Kadhimi Must
Defuse
By Osama Al-Sharif
• Israeli Protesters’ Simple Message To
Embattled Netanyahu
By Yossi Mekelberg
• Egypt's Pro-State Media Reignites Clinton
Email Controversy as US Vote Nears
By Shahira Amin
------
Mohammad Reza Shajarian: When the Clocks
Stopped In Iran
By Hamid Dabashi
20 Oct 2020
A fan displays an image of the famous singer Mohammad
Reza Shajarian on his phone, outside the Jam Hospital where Shajarian died at
the age of 80, in Tehran Iran, October 8, 2020 [AP Photo/Vahid Salemi]
-----
“Khosrow-e
avaz-e Iran par keshid!” “The prince of Persian music flew to heavens!”
Iran is in
mourning. Mohammad Reza Shajarian has passed away. Who was he? What was his significance
for Iranians?
How can I
convey the depth of the pain of his loss to non-Iranians?
Think of Um
Kalthum for Egyptians and the larger Arab world, think of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan
for Pakistan and the Indian subcontinent, think of Mercedes Sosa for Argentina
and the Latin American world. Think of Edith Piaf, Charles Aznavour, Luciano
Pavarotti, think of Ella Fitzgerald and Nina Simone, think of Demis Roussos,
Nana Mouskouri, think of Mariem Hassan in Western Sahara and Mauritania. Now
add to them anyone in their company you love and admire but I have missed and
bring them all together in your imagination.
For
Iranians around the world, Mohammad Reza Shajarian was, as WH Auden would say,
“their North, their South, their East and West, their working week and their
Sunday rest, their noon, their midnight, their talk, their song.” And when he
finally breathed his last sigh in a homeland he joyously loved, they turned to,
Stop all
the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the
dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the
pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out
the coffin, let the mourners come.
The voice
of a nation
Mohammad
Reza Shajarian, who died in Tehran on October 8 at the age of 80, became a
legend in his own lifetime. He joined eternity knowing full well he was the joy
and pride of his people.
When, in
May 2014, Shajarian’s longtime friend and collaborator, virtuoso
instrumentalist Mohammad Reza Lutfi, passed away, I detailed on these pages the
manner in which they had opened up the closed doors of Persian classical music
to the public at large. With the passing of Shajarian, that very global public
they had crafted sat in mourning for the loss of their nightingale.
“Khosrow-e
Avaz-e Iran Par Keshid!” The headlines wept the second the news of his passing
hit the airwaves and social media. Iranians in and out of their homeland paused
for a moment to catch their breath, realising they were a witness to history.
In his music, Shajarian had connected the Constitutional revolution of
1906-1911 to the Iranian Revolution of 1977-1979, and from there to every major
and minor twist of their contemporary history, and from there to eternity.
Almost
instantly, mourners gathered in front of Jam Hospital where Shajarian had
passed away. Someone in the crowd live-streamed it for the whole world to see.
Soon, Homayoun Shajarian, his oldest son and a gifted singer in his own right,
came out to plead with them to observe the public health mandates of social
distancing and masking because of the coronavirus pandemic and also to tell
them the body of his father would be flown to Mashhad, his birthplace in
northeastern Iran, to be buried on the hallowed ground of legendary Persian
poet Ferdowsi’s mausoleum. “Why not Tehran?” someone asked from the crowd.
On the
surface, this was a rude thing to say to a mourning son. Obviously, it was for
the family to decide where he would be buried. But that anonymous voice spoke
for every Iranian around the globe to whom this is a personal as well as a
public and historic loss. The man was not asking for Shajarian to not be buried
in his hometown. He was asking for him to be buried in his heart.
Acknowledging
this, the grief-stricken son said: “Shoma saheb aza’id” (You are the host of
this mourning), and he graciously gave the symbolic body of his father to the
people he loved.
Not since
the passing of Abbas Kiarostami in July 2016, and before him, the passing of
Ahmad Shamlou in July 2000, was such an outpouring of grief for a cultural icon
so publicly on display in Iran.
For a
passing moment, Shajarian in his death had re-crafted Iranians, left and right,
high and low, ruling and ruled, into a nation. People from President Hassan
Rouhani to former Queen Farah sent their heartfelt condolences.
But why?
What had Shajarian done, what was the meaning of his name?
The sound
and fury of our history
Mohammad
Reza Shajarian was born on September 23, 1940, in Mashhad, Iran, to a devout
Muslim family – a family that prided itself on having a number of master
reciters of the Quran in it.
He turned
to music at a very young age in a deeply devout environment where the human
voice was sacred, a divine gift of grace, a sign of the sublimity of our
origins. As his pious father did not want him to pursue a career in music, he
trained in secret and assumed the pseudonym “Seyavash” – a legendary Persian
prince who also had a troubled relationship with his father.
By the time
he was 12, Shajarian had mastered the Persian classical repertoire, the revered
and tyrannical Radif. By the late 1950s, he was singing at Radio Khorasan, and
by the early 1960s, his name, his voice, his astonishing command of Persian
music and his distinct and awe-inspiring vocal range had already become
integral to the lives of Iranians.
Today,
every Iranian can name a landmark song or record by Shajarian that for them
holds the memory of a time and place they long for. For me, it is the recording
in which he sang the poems of Omar Khayyam to the glorious music of Fereydun
Shahbazian and recitations of Ahmad Shamlou.
That
cassette, which I still have, was in my little suitcase when I left Iran for
the US in 1976 as a wide-eyed college graduate. It was the very definition of
home for me. I never missed Iran because I had smuggled the quintessence of my
homeland in that cassette through all the borders I have crossed.
I
subsequently met Shajarian in person on multiple public and private occasions,
including a dinner party at a family friend’s house in London when he sang to
the tar of a gifted young musician for us.
A rooted
tree flowering with confidence
Much is
being said today about Shajarian’s “politics”, most of it specially
choreographed by the disgraceful BBC Persian, which has become the mirror image
of the Seda and Sima, the official propaganda machinery of the Islamic
Republic.
In every
piece of news or talk show they have featured, their only and paramount concern
is to denounce the ruling Islamic Republic for having mistreated Shajarian, or
he having denounced their tyranny. These
are prosaic truisms that completely conceal the far more important loss of a
towering figure a whole nation is now morning.
The passing of Shajarian has nothing to do with the ruling state. Who knows or cares to remember who was the
governor of Shiraz when Hafez was alive, or ruled over Anatolia when Rumi was
in Konya, or over Delhi when Bidel was alive.
Iconic
figures like Shajarian have transcended history. This is a gross abuse of
Shajarian’s precious memory. Shajarian was not political in the ordinary sense
of the term. He and his music were the quintessence of love. There was not a
shred of hatred in his character. He was always with his people, and this was
his “politics”.
From the
Iranian revolution of 1977-1979 to the Iran-Iraq war of 1980-1988, through the
painful days of the Green Movement, and then now when they are under the
pernicious US economic sanctions. He stayed with them from the time he sang to
them: “Give me my gun,” to the moment when he corrected himself and sang: “Put
down your gun.”
The origin
of Shajarian’s “politics” was in the poetics of his music. He was a master
classicist and yet a daring and imaginative artist who took on the Radif and
mastered it to overcome it. He was confident enough of his own mastery to dare
the elements and cautiously but steadily pave the way for the next generation
to make it their own. His efforts have resulted in the iconoclastic music of
Mohsen Namjoo – a revolutionary singer influenced as much by blues and rock as
Persian classicists.
It does not
matter whether Shajarian did or did not approve of Namjoo – what matters is
that he created a musical tradition that remains solid in its roots but enables
the flowering of a treasure trove that has enriched the aesthetic imagination
of an entire people.
No classicist
of his generation would ever come anywhere near a poem by Nima Yushij, the
iconic master of modernist poetry. When Shajarian sang Nima’s “Darvak”, we
shivered with fear and ecstasy that he knew the inner musings of our souls so
well. To this day, I feel uncontrollable joy remembering Shajarian’s voice sing
“Qased-e ruzan abri darvak key mirasad baran?” (Oh messenger of cloudy days
when will the rain come?)
If you are
to listen to just one of his songs let it be him singing this glorious poem by
Ali Muallem about rain to the iconic music of Master Keyhan Kalhor. It begins
with simple modulations: “Rain oh clouds of spring, rain, rain on mountains and
plains, rain …” until in the middle of the song where he sings with the whole
pain of the history of his people in his voice: “Rain on the memories of the
lovers of this land, lovers with no graves …”
Rest in
peace and power, master: “Khosrow-e avaz-e Iran!”
----
Hamid Dabashi is the Hagop Kevorkian Professor
of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University.
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2020/10/20/mohammad-reza-shajarian-when-the-clocks-stopped-in-iran/
----
Ibrahim Al
Abed, A Man Of All Seasons, Will Be Sorely Missed
By Shajahan Madampat
October 20,
2020
In the history of the UAE's media, Al Abed had been
one of the most important figures for nearly half a century.
-----
In the
history of the UAE's media, Al Abed had been one of the most important figures
for nearly half a century.
Ibrahim Al
Abed was the most egalitarian person I have ever met. He treated everyone from
office boys to royals with the same grace, élan and elegance. His eyes would
sparkle at every opportunity to help another human being. You just bring to his
attention a problem someone is facing; it would soon become his own. He would
start working his phone, and not stop until a solution materialised. He was an
avid reader, an inimitable raconteur, and a true citizen of the world who
harbored no prejudices born of race, creed, ethnicity or nationality.
Al Abed has
been a daily presence in my life over the past six years. Not a single week
during this period went without us having a cup of coffee together and a
conversation at least thrice. Our offices were on the same floor, almost
adjacent to each other's. He was the youngest 78-year-old you could meet. He
would regale his interlocutors with stories after stories, in which the
characters other than him would be the icons of modern Arab history - Sheikh
Zayed, other UAE leaders, Yasar Arafat, Edward Said, Mahmoud Dervish, various
others heads of states, senior officials and writers.
In the
history of the UAE's media, Al Abed had been one of the most important figures
for nearly half a century. He had founded the country's national news agency,
the Emirates News Agency (WAM), and remained its head for a very long time.
Even after retirement, his close association with WAM continued in his capacity
as advisor to the Chairman of National Media Council. He played a leading role
in formulating the policies and legislations governing the country's media.
More often than not, he preferred to take bold decisions when he had to choose
between freedom of expression and erring on the side of caution. The UAE's leadership
always trusted his instincts and wise counsel on such matters.
In spite of
being one of the pre-eminent figures in the UAE, respected by all, Al Abed
always personified humility. A natural magnetic humility that would captivate
everyone he came across, irrespective of age, status and stature. It was a
delight for me to witness the camaraderie between him and Peter Hellyer,
another veteran of the UAE media. Al Abed and Hellyer met for the first time in
Beirut in 1969, one year before I was born. Having been together ever since as
close friends and shapers of the UAE's media industry, the two young old men
shared a rare personal chemistry with each other. I would often join them in
their jovial conversations, listening to them reminiscing the past or discussing
the present.
A man with
unusual political insight, Al Abed would often lament the current plight of the
Arab world, but was immensely well versed in its long history that his
lamentations would always end on a positive, optimistic note. He genuinely
believed the UAE's moderation and tolerance was an effective antidote to the
region's general proclivity for extreme views and violence. He always held that
religion and culture were dynamic entities capable of adapting to the times,
and abhorred static, antediluvian notions that froze people in a time warp. I
tried my best to persuade him to pen an autobiography, because I thought the
writing of his life also would have revealed important aspects of the evolution
of the UAE from a fishing and pearling outpost into a vibrant modern nation
state with people representing all shades of humanity. However, he would
light-heartedly dismiss my entreaties with his characteristic self-effacing
humility.
Abu Basim,
as we all fondly called him, was a man of all seasons. The past and the present
co-existed harmoniously in his affable personality. He taught many of us so
much about the history and legacy of the UAE, a country whose dazzling
transformations he had been a participant in and witness to. Until the very
end, he lived a dynamic life, reaching office earlier than most, interacting
with a huge number of people in person or on phone, and engaging with books and
ideas with a rare passion. When anyone wanted to borrow books from his rich
personal library, he would quip: "Anyone who lends books is stupid. But
those who return the books are even more stupid!"
He would
lend the books anyway! Beloved Abu Basim, we will miss you terribly. Rest in
peace.
-----
A writer and cultural commentator, Shajahan
Madampat works as media advisor to UAE National Media Council.
https://www.khaleejtimes.com/uae/ibrahim-al-abed-a-man-of-all-seasons-will-be-sorely-missed
-----
Pro-Iran Militias A Time Bomb Al-Kadhimi Must
Defuse
By Osama Al-Sharif
October 20,
2020
Iraqi Prime
Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi is facing a pressing challenge that threatens to
once again push the country into a sectarian furnace. He needs the political
will and the means to isolate and neutralize tens of renegade pro-Iran
militias.
Two events
that took place on Saturday underlined the limited capabilities of the federal
government and its military and security arms. The first was the burning of the
central Baghdad offices of the Kurdistan Democratic Party by loyalists of the
Popular Mobilization Units (PMU). The second was the gruesome execution of at
least eight citizens in Salahuddin province, allegedly by a pro-Iran militia.
Four other victims remain unaccounted for. The kidnappings and executions in
Salahuddin were said to be in retaliation for the killing a few days before of
a member of a pro-Iran militia in an attack blamed on Daesh.
The
massacre has focused attention on the presence of pro-Iran militias in
liberated Sunni provinces and their refusal to allow tens of thousands of
displaced people, mostly Sunnis, to return to their homes. This case underlines
the limitations of the federal government in Baghdad in terms of extending its
authority over a number of provinces that the PMU entered to clear them of
Daesh terrorists between 2014 and 2017.
Since they
were formed back in 2014 to help the Iraqi Army battle Daesh, some of these
militias have been incorporated into the state security bodies, while others
continue to act outside of government control. Numbering about 40, some have
been accused of carrying out atrocities against Sunnis in liberated provinces.
Most acknowledge fealty to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and
were led by Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani until his January assassination in a
US airstrike.
The
Salahuddin massacre prompted Al-Kadhimi to visit the province in a bid to calm
angry tribal leaders. “Terrorism and all criminal acts will be prosecuted under
the law,” he said. But it remains to be seen if his security forces will be
able to flush out the militiamen associated with Asa’ib Ahl Al-Haq, one of the
most militant groups on the scene today with direct ties to Iran.
Asa’ib Ahl
Al-Haq and Kata’ib Hezbollah have been responsible for much of Iraq’s
destabilization, especially after the killing of Soleimani. Both have been
accused of targeting the Green Zone in Baghdad with Katyusha rockets aimed at
the US Embassy there. The government has been so ineffective in protecting
diplomatic and government offices that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
threatened last month to close down the American Embassy unless the attacks are
halted.
These two
militant groups have stopped their attacks for now. But, driven by Iran, they
continue to pose a threat to the US presence at a time when Washington is
increasing its diplomatic and economic pressure on Tehran.
The attack
on the Kurdistan Democratic Party office in Baghdad is said to have come after
former Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari called on Al-Kadhimi to cleanse Iraq of
the PMUs. But observers believe that the real reason was the agreement reached
two weeks ago between the federal government and the Irbil authority to
co-manage the Sinjar district, thus ending the militias’ presence and allowing
thousands of mainly Yazidi refugees to return to their homes. The pro-Iran
militias have been in Sinjar since 2015, refusing to allow displaced residents
to return and using the district as a gateway to Syria.
But
dismantling the militias is proving to be an impossible task for the Baghdad
government. Last month, Iraq’s top cleric, Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani, called for
the disbanding of all militias, six years after urging his followers to form
them in response to the threat of Daesh. But, just like its namesake in
Lebanon, Kata’ib Hezbollah has become a state within a state, with its own agenda
that is in line with that of Tehran.
The
challenge for Al-Kadhimi now is the trust gap with his own commanders. Over the
years, and especially under the rule of former Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki,
pro-Iran activists were allowed to infiltrate the army and security bodies, in
addition to holding key government ministries. Al-Kadhimi may have the
political will to purge Iran loyalists from the government, but does he have
the means to do it?
Any future
clash between government forces and the militias will be bloody, messy and
unpredictable. Failing to drive the militias out of Sunni provinces will fan
the flames of sectarian violence. The irony is that a majority of Iraqis, even
in Shiite provinces, are fed up with Iranian interference. Massive corruption
and the abuse of state resources can be traced to pro-Iran politicians and
activists.
As
Al-Kadhimi ponders his options, the US also finds itself in an unenviable
position. On the one hand, President Donald Trump wants to end Washington’s
costly military adventure in Iraq, while on the other he does not want to
abandon the country to the Iranians. This sums up Iraq’s predicament today and,
after all is said and done, these militias are ticking time bombs that threaten
to destroy what is left of the Iraqi state.
----
Osama Al-Sharif is a journalist and political
commentator based in Amman.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1751716
------
Israeli Protesters’ Simple Message To Embattled
Netanyahu
By Yossi Mekelberg
October 20,
2020
An
effective political and social protest movement needs a slogan that
encapsulates its objective and the mood of the country. In addition, it has to
be catchy and must instinctively resonate with those who take to the streets.
Evidently, the slogan used by protesters calling for the resignation of Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets all these criteria. “Lech” (go) — a
single two-letter word in Hebrew — has become the slogan on all the protestors’
lips, banners, stickers and T-shirts across the country. There is now not even
a need to mention the PM’s name, for everyone knows who the word is being
addressed to.
What
started as a battle cry calling for a prime minister who is on trial for
corruption to resign, or at least suspend himself until the courts decide his
fate, is turning into a popular movement that is airing its widespread
grievances against a leader who has been in power for too long and is utterly
detached from the daily realities of ordinary citizens.
President
Reuven Rivlin — in a speech last week in a Knesset plenum session and in a rare
act for an Israeli president — expressed his deep concerns regarding the
current state of affairs in the country, capturing the general malaise of a
population that has been forced into a second lockdown. He observed that, as
the “(coronavirus disease) crisis deepened, so did the disagreements and the
splits between us. I never imagined with what power this disunity would hit
us.” If this was a more of a general observation, what followed was a stinging
critique of the violent clashes between police and demonstrators and the
tribalism that “is breaking out through the cracks, and accusatory fingers are
pointed from one part of society to the other, one tribe to the other.”
Israeli
presidents generally avoid involvement in political issues as their position is
mainly ceremonial but, in the face of the deliberate disruption and anarchy
spread by Netanyahu and his allies, Rivlin decided to speak out on behalf of
ordinary citizens, warning that the country — and by that he meant the
government — is losing its moral compass. It is not only the issue of Netanyahu
remaining in office while on trial, but also his ongoing, two-year-long refusal
to appoint a chief of police or approve a budget, all for his own vested
political interests, that has led Israelis to protest and Rivlin to speak out.
In this
unprecedented speech, Rivlin became the voice of the people. He stopped short
of calling for Netanyahu to “lech,” but the word was screaming from between the
lines of this address by a veteran Likud member who knows that this might be
the only way to spare the country from further misery. It is Netanyahu’s
complete disregard for the democratic institutions and processes, let alone the
well-being of the country and its people, that is deeply disturbing, not only
for the prime minister’s political rivals but also for many Likud veterans and
voters who are concerned for the soul of their party and the future of their
country.
Netanyahu
and his close circle have by now developed a siege mentality, viciously
attacking everyone who dares question their policies and the irresponsible
manner in which they are handling themselves in government. They are conducting
a campaign to delegitimize their political opponents, the justice system, the
media and nongovernmental organizations, while portraying themselves as victims
of a conspiracy to remove them from power in violation of the will of the
people.
Nothing
could be further from the truth, but this is a convenient distraction from the
fact that they are out of their depth in dealing with the current health crisis
and, even more pertinently, from their attempts to halt their leader’s trial
for bribery, fraud and breach of trust. It is disturbing behaviour,
particularly with their cynical exploitation of a catastrophic pandemic, which
is depriving so many of their lives, health, livelihoods and education, all for
the sake of ensuring that Netanyahu escapes justice.
However,
the Netanyahu camp is showing a rapidly increasing tendency to miscalculate
under pressure and underestimate the widespread anger. One obvious error of
judgement was to prohibit demonstrators from protesting more than 1 km away
from their homes. While the original aim was to stymie the many thousands of
protesters who were gathering every week outside the prime minister’s Jerusalem
residence, the unintended consequence was hundreds of smaller protests on
bridges, at major road junctions, and anywhere else people could congregate
within the legal distance from their homes, while also physically distancing
themselves from one another to prevent the spread of the virus.
The impact
of these relatively small protests has been even greater than the original
demonstrations. “Lech” is now being voiced by many more people, in many more
places across the country, and this is unsettling the small circle led by
Netanyahu, who in the past was the master manipulator of such situations, but
is now increasingly losing ground and control of those around him.
Some of his
henchmen are brutes who lack the manipulative skills of their boss. Last week,
Miki Zohar, who happens to be the coalition chairman, committed what can only
be described as an attempt to blackmail Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit,
claiming that he has plenty of dirt ready to publicly dish out on Mandelblit
should he continue to refuse to drop the charges against Netanyahu. And Miri
Regev, a Cabinet minister with somewhat of a short fuse, completely lost her
temper on a TV talk show when she screamed at presenter Eyal Berkovic and
threatened to block him from being appointed manager of the national football
team. Ironically, her threat and demand for an apology was in response to the
former football star’s remark that Likud is behaving like an organized crime
gang — a suggestion that was given much credibility by her behaviour.
Israel, as
a democracy and as a society, is at a critical crossroads in its short history.
It requires an able government, one with integrity, that is free of corruption,
and which puts the interest of the country above the narrow political
consideration — in other words, everything that the current Israeli government,
and especially the man who heads it, is lacking. Therefore, “Lech Netanyahu”
remains the only hope for Israel to stop a dangerous tide that is threatening
to engulf a very shaky democracy and a divided society.
----
Yossi Mekelberg is professor of international
relations at Regent’s University London, where he is head of the International
Relations and Social Sciences Program. He is also an associate fellow of the
MENA Program at Chatham House. He is a regular contributor to the international
written and electronic media.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1751671
-----
Egypt's Pro-State Media Reignites Clinton Email
Controversy as US Vote Nears
By Shahira Amin
Oct 20,
2020
With US
President Donald Trump trailing the Democratic presidential nominee in the
polls, Cairo is contemplating the prospects of a Joe Biden electoral victory .
Biden, a
former vice president under Barack Obama, has already made clear there would be
“no more blank checks” for Trump's “favorite dictator,” as Trump had called
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi at the G-7 summit in France back in
2017.
Unlike
Trump, who has largely turned a blind eye to human rights violations in the
region, except in Iran, Biden has
tweeted that human rights would be “at the core of our engagement” and that
“nations that violate the human rights of their citizens would be held
accountable.”
Biden has
also criticized Egypt's crackdown on activists and human rights defenders. In a
comment published via his official Twitter account in mid-July, he stated,
“Arresting, torturing, and exiling activists like Sarah Hegazy and Mohamed
Soltan or threatening their families is unacceptable.”
Hegazy, an
LGBTQ rights activist who was detained and tortured after raising a rainbow
flag at a Mashrou' Leila concert in Cairo in September 2017, committed suicide
in June, apparently as a result of her suffering post-traumatic stress disorder
due to her incarceration.
Soltan, a
dual Egyptian-American national and former political prisoner in Egypt, has
seen several of his relatives, including his father, detained in recent months.
The arrests and detentions came after he filed a legal complaint against Egypt's
former Prime Minister Hazem Beblawi in June, accusing him of overseeing his
alleged torture while in prison.
Soltan is
not the only human rights defender to suffer reprisals for his dissent. The
latest case is that of Khaled el-Balshy, editor-in-chief of the independent
Daarb news site — which is among hundreds of news sites blocked in Egypt —
whose brother Kamal was arrested Sept. 20 in retaliation for Balshy's critical
journalism, according to the Committee for the Protection of Journalists.
Human Rights
Watch researcher Amr Magdi told Al-Monitor by email that Sisi and other Arab
leaders believe that if Trump wins, they win.
“This is
not just evident in their warm welcoming words for Trump but also in financing
his [previous election] campaign according to some media reports,” he said in
reference to recent news reports of an investigation by US federal prosecutors
into whether a state-owned Egyptian bank had pumped $10 billion into Trump's
2016 election campaign. The inconclusive probe went on three years before
ending this summer.
“Threatened
by the 2011 Arab Spring pro-democracy movement, Arab autocrats have sought to
reverse the small, democratic gains of the uprisings in their countries,” Magdi
lamented.
Magdi,
however, does not expect any dramatic changes in US policy toward Egypt and the
region if Biden becomes president.
“We know
from the Obama era that US foreign policy vis-à-vis the Middle East was not so
different” from the policy of the current US administration, he said.
Hisham
Kassem, an analyst and former publisher of al-Masry al-Youm, also expressed
doubt that a change in US administration would spell any real change in US
Egypt policy.
“There
would likely be fewer official visits between Egypt and the US and Biden may
use tougher language to condemn rights abuses,” he told Al-Monitor. “But a
Biden administration will, like all previous US governments, only care about
safeguarding America's interests, namely the prioritization of US naval vessels
through the Suez Canal and access to Egyptian airspace for US military
aircraft; no American president will want to jeopardize US relations with
Egypt,” he added.
Egypt's
largely pro-government media has meanwhile made it crystal clear that the state
has chosen to side with Trump. In recent days, the Egyptian press has brought
Former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton's email controversy back in the
spotlight. Various news sites, including state-owned Akhbar el-Youm and
privately owned sites like Youm7 and others, published what they claim are “recently
declassified emails” that serve as evidence of the Obama administration's
alleged support for the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic group designated by
Egypt as a terrorist organization in late 2013.
They also
accuse the former US administration of “using the Qatar-based Al Jazeera news
network to spread chaos in the region.” The anti-Clinton campaign is apparently
intended to turn Egyptian public opinion against Biden as another former Obama
administration official.
The
privately owned Sada el-Balad claimed that a leaked Clinton email revealed that
she visited Qatar in 2010 and met with Al Jazeera's then-director Wadah Khanfar
and with the channel's board members. The authorities perceive the
Arabic-language Al Jazeera channel as being biased in favor of the Muslim
Brotherhood and its websites are blocked in Egypt.
Referencing
another “declassified Clinton email” dated Jan. 29, 2011, and which allegedly
was sent from an Al Jazeera Blackberry, the news site claimed the sender had
congratulated an Obama administration official on Obama's “principled stance on
Egypt.”
Obama had
expressed support for the Tahrir Square protesters demanding the ouster of the
Hosni Mubarak regime during the 2011 uprising. Sada El Balad interpreted the
email as “part of a conspiracy to destabilize Egypt and the region,” an idea
propagated by other news sites and TV talk show hosts like MBC’s Amr Diab.
The
English-language news site Egypt Today stated that Clinton’s emails serve as “a
reminder of a US policy that favored the Muslim Brotherhood at the expense of
the Egyptian people.” In another article lambasting Cliton, it claimed that
another leaked email had revealed “Clinton’s cooperation with Yemeni activist
Tawakol Karman,” a staunch Muslim Brotherhood supporter who has described the
overthrow of President Mohammed Morsi by military-backed protests as
“undemocratic.”
The
articles did not specify when the alleged emails were released but the timing
of the attacks on Clinton, just a few short weeks before the US election, may
possibly be an attempt by some media outlets to deceive readers into thinking
that the information provided in those purported emails is new. Mohamed Abul
Ghar, former head of Egypt's liberal Social Democratic Party, dismissed the
assaults on Clinton as “outrageous” and “an attempt to appease the government.”
Abul Ghar
told Al-Monitor, “Much of the information cited as being from declassified
emails is in fact bits and pieces from a batch of emails leaked in 2016 and
which have been taken out of context by the media to mislead the Egyptian
public. But Egyptians aren't the ones voting in the US presidential election,
so who cares if the Egyptian media prefers one candidate over the other?”
Contrary to
the erroneous Egyptian press reports, there are no newly leaked emails from
Clinton's private server. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has in fact faced
criticism from Trump over his failure to recover and release more of Clinton's
emails ahead of the November election.
The Clinton
email controversy dates back to the days when she served as secretary of state
in the Obama administration. Clinton had used a private email server for
official communications instead of the more secure State Department email
accounts, a choice denounced by some members of Congress as a violation of
federal law. A federal investigation that lasted several years and ended in
2019 found no deliberate mishandling of classified information, according to
The Guardian.
While
Clinton did acknowledge her mistake, she defended her action in a March 2015
press conference, saying she had gone “above and beyond disclosing all
work-related correspondence.” She reportedly handed the State Department more
than 55,000 pages of emails but deleted thousands of others on grounds they
were personal. Trump has lately been pushing for the release of those emails,
hoping to use them as fodder against Biden.
Meanwhile,
officials are contemplating the way forward for Egypt and the region in a
post-Trump era. Nabil Fahmy, a former Egyptian ambassador to the United States,
told Al-Monitor, “As a global power, the US will always have an interest in the
Middle East even as it pivots elsewhere. Greater self-dependence is warranted
in the Middle East; Arab countries will need to manage their relations with the
US efficiently but at the same time, ensure strong relations with multiple
major powers so as to be able to fulfill their interests. This is crucial
regardless of whether Trump or Biden is elected.”
https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2020/10/egypt-state-media-clinton-email-biden-trump-us-elections.html
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