US teacher suspended for teaching ‘best angle to assassinate Obama’ 19, May 2010
Posted by thegulfblog.com in American ME Relations.Tags: Assassinate Obama, Math teacher geometry assassinate Obama, Maths teacher assassinate Obama, Plan to assassinate Obama
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A maths teacher in Alabama has been suspended and was investigated by the Secret Service for teaching his pupils geometry using the example of how to assassinate President Obama. As stupid as the teacher clearly is for following through with this example, it seems harsh that he stands a good chance of losing his job. I imagine that this will polarise the US press. The left-wing will rant that it is a ‘disgrace’ that this kind of ‘vicious’ anti-Obama rhetoric is apparent in Alabama where as the right-wing will rant that it’s clearly a ‘silly joke’.
Bahrain bans Al Jazeera 19, May 2010
Posted by thegulfblog.com in Bahrain, Qatar.Tags: Al Jazeera banned, Al Jazeera office closed, Al-Jazeera, Bahrain ban Al Jazeera, Bahrain Qatar naval incident, Qatar
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The Bahraini Government has, according to Arabian Business, banned Al Jazeera from operating in the Kingdom. Their offices have been closed by Bahraini police for “breaching professional media norms and flouting press and publishing regulations.” Whilst it is unclear what the precipitant of this draconian action was, an educated guess could be Al Jazeera’s coverage of the Qatari-Bahraini naval spat last week where the Qatari coastguard opened fire on Bahraini boats encroaching on Qatar’s territory. During a similar incident between Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia last month, no regional media covered the story for all too apparent reasons.
This kind of spat is not unusual. Since Al Jazeera’s founding in the mid-1990s every Arab country has launched a complaint at one point or another, withdrawn their Ambassador or closed the local office over Al Jazeera’s temerity to actually tell people what is happening in their country. Currently, for example, Al Jazeera’s office in Tunisia is – I believe – still closed. Moreover, Al Jazeera’s coverage of Saudi Arabia led to Riyadh withdrawing their Ambassador for 4 years until an agreement was reached in 2007, widely thought to have included some kind of mandate on Al Jazeera to ‘tone down’ its coverage of KSA. Today, for example, I have been told that all editorial decisions regarding GCC politics must go up the chain of command to the senior editors and managers to avoid just this kind of incident.
Overall, relations between Bahrain and Qatar are good. Their long-running border dispute was settled by the ICJ in 2001 and Bahrain supporting the counter coup against the current Emir in the mid-1990s is considered ancient history. Indeed, there will soon(ish) be a train line linking Bahrain to Qatar, something that will have an interesting effect, I think, on the demography of Qatar and Bahrain, with Qatar being far and away the richer partner.
Update:
Al Jazeera have suggested that the reason for the ban might be a report on poverty in Bahrain that they recently aired.
Bloomberg suggest that it perhaps has more to do with Bahrain wanting increased rent from Qatar for use of the Hawar islands which the ICJ ruling gave to Bahrain.
Neocons enraged by new Arab Miss USA 19, May 2010
Posted by thegulfblog.com in American ME Relations.Tags: Beauty pageants, Daniel Pipes, Debbie Schlussel, Hezbollah, Miss America, Miss USA, Right wing hysteria
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Rima Fakih is the first Arab American Muslim winner of the Miss America title. Many congratulations to her. Alas, others do not share my sentiments. Indeed, some on the right wing in America see insidious plots afoot. Daniel Pipes – who else? – lists a number of recent winners of beauty pageants who are all – shock, horror! – Arabs or Muslims and asks if there is not some kind of affirmative action going on. He neglects the obvious; that Arab woman are frequently exceedingly beautiful.
Yet the best crazed, ill-informed and spurious rant goes to Debbie Schlussel who is aghast to discover that Fakih comes from Southern Lebanon and her family is – according to her ‘intelligence sources’ (!) – a veritable nest of Hezbollah supporters, soldiers and sympathisers. Of course, without quoting anyone by name, she reals off these ‘charges’ and comes out with a few classics along the way, such as how the barely clad Fakih is – somehow – promoting the subjugation of woman. I am sure that Germain Greer might well agree, but for wholly different reasons.
The Gulf blog 