Khashoggi, Kushner, Trump

[Dill]

(10-18-2018, 01:52 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: Look, I get the mockery based on history, but he ain't wrong. This is in the media, and not just the far-right conspiracy theorist types. The NYT had a story about this side of Khashoggi. It's important that this be known because too often we like to put someone up on a pedestal when they are victims in this regard, but Khashoggi was far from a progressive reformer for the Middle East.

It is important, though, that we also don't use those connections of his to gloss over what happened. I think Haaretz puts it very well in this article talking about Khashoggi.

The Muslim Brotherhood is a lot of things, though often very different in different countries.  In Egypt, where it began, it was for years rather like a Salvation Army, helping people in times of economic crisis, especially the poor.  If your house burned down, the Muslim Brotherhood would be there for your family with food and blankets.  They espoused passive resistance, first against Nassar and the against Mubarak.  They were "Islamist" in that they thought Egyptian society and government should be guided by the Qu'ran, but also in favor of parliamentary democracy. In Jordan, their political party is a force for women's rights. But Bahrain and several others have deemed them "terrorists" likely for the threat of social change they pose. If someone says Kashoggi was a member or "sympathizer" I really have no idea what that means. I don't get much content from that--certainly not enough to think TERRORIST CONNECTIONS.  

I have a lot of respect for Haaretz, but again, connecting Kashoggi to Palestinian "terrorists" doesn't, in my view, plainly link him to evil or checker his past.  What most tempers any praise or respect I might have for Kashoggi is his familiarity and comfort level with the Saudi Royal family--though clearly that was eroding even before MBS took over.

That said, I agree this is spot on:
So it may be necessary to point out the obvious: when a journalist is assassinated by the government he criticized, it doesn’t really matter what views he held. Opinions quite simply never justify murder.