Friday, May 23, 2014

Sultan Al-Qassemi: please say this is not you

I could not believe this article and its language by Sultan Al-Qassemi in the mouthpiece of sons of Zayid.  The language is not even his: "If a few good men, including George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, in the face of many odds founded the USA, decades later the onus was on Abraham Lincoln and others to protect it. Similarly, if a few good men including Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, in the face of the odds, founded the UAE, decades later, the onus is on Sheikh Khalifa, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed and Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid to protect it."  Those words will live in infamy really and will come back to haunt you whenever you speak about democracy in the region.  And then here you pay tribute to the GCC force of repression that placed the people of Bahrain in bondage?  "and of Lieutenant Tareq Al Shehhi whose killing earlier this year united all Bahraini factions in its condemnation".  So you are like GCC dynasties? For democracy only among the enemies of House of Saud?   And when you write this:  "Of course, such vile drivel on social media will not have a real effect on the UAE and is nothing but a sad reflection on the fact that a tiny minority of our close friends and family in the Gulf tolerate Twitter snakes in their midst and allow them to continue to spew venom about the UAE." or this: "It can’t expect that if an editor is allowed to spew venom in his tweets and his articles day in and day out, we, the ordinary citizens of the UAE, will simply shrug our shoulders and ignore his insults. "  So what do you suggest is to be done with the editor? Are you in favor of beheading?  Also, Sultan, when you write such piece, do you really think that you sound different than the editors in Tirshrin who defend Bashshar Al-Asad? The language is the same, almost to a word.