Qatar to offer nationality to Indian artist 25, February 2010
Posted by thegulfblog.com in Qatar.Tags: MF Husain, MF Husain controversy, Qatar, Qatari citizenship
3 comments
MF Husain the Indian artist who has been forced to flee his country after drawing a series of pictures of a nude Hindu goddesses has been offered Qatari citizenship.
The BBC reports that there are at least 900 cases against him in courts throughout India and that over the years he has been “harassed by mobs in the country and his exhibitions have been vandalised”.
So far it is not known if Husain has not chosen to accept the accolade or not.
Controversial new missile defence logo 25, February 2010
Posted by thegulfblog.com in American ME Relations.Tags: Gaffney, Islam, Missile defence controversy, neoconservative, New missile defence logo, Omaba Islam, Right wing
2 comments
This is the US Department of Defence’s new logo for their missile defence programme. Yet, in the same way that changing a product’s name can incite curious passions, it has created a minor storm with right-wing lunatics in America who maintain that this is but the latest symbol of President Obama’s continuing submission to Islam.
The fact that it vaguely resembles Islam’s crescent moon has been taken along with other absurd ‘signs’ that President Obama, who had next to nothing to do with its design, is seeking to send stealthy messages to…err…Muslims that…err…he is a Muslim? Insn’t going to shoot down Muslim missiles? Is going to turn America into an Islamic Republic? Or some such plan that would look out of place in a trashy spy novel.
Idiot in chief for the lunatic fringe is Frank Gaffney. A very well-educated man, obtaining degrees from Georgetown School of Foreign Service and from Johns Hopkins, who nevertheless emphatically shows that education is not everything; that it is eminently possible to have a quarter of a million dollar education and still be barking, barking mad.
Gaffney is also a Birther, someone who believes that Obama is secretly quasi-following a Muslim Brotherhood agenda, that Al Jazeera and Al Arabiyya (!) should be taken off the air “one way or another” and that Saddam Hussein was involved in the 1993 World Trade Center Bombing, the 9/11 attacks and the Oklahoma Bombing too.
Next time you see some ass on Iranian TV spouting utter rubbish or some terrorist denouncing the West as infidels, let’s not forget that America too has its fair share of people with but the vaguest and most fleeting of associations with reality and who are perfectly happy to twist, make up and ignore facts as and when they see fit. Gaffney et al have the veneer of decorum, manners and rationality, yet his/their ideas are just as insidious and just as dangerous.
Hat tip: Marc Lynch
UPDATE:
Turns out I was more correct that I could have imagined; this new logo was actually designed under the Bush Administration…I always knew he was closet Muslim sympathizer/fan/whatever.
Hat tip: Abstract JK
Qatar and Saudi strengthen links 25, February 2010
Posted by thegulfblog.com in Qatar, Saudi Arabia.Tags: Qatar, Qatar Saudi agreements, Saudi Arabia
1 comment so far
Yes, I realize that this sounds like the typical Gulf newspaper headline. The only real reason that I post this is to inform you good people that Qatar and Saudi have signed various economic, political and media (?) type agreements is to highlight, as I have done before, that it is Crown Prince Tamim of Qatar and the presumed next leader of Saudi Prince Naif that have done the signing. Obviously setting things up nicely for the future, inshallah.
The Gulf blog 