industryterm:public relations campaign

  • Saudi Arabia Declares War on America’s Muslim Congresswomen – Foreign Policy
    https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/12/11/saudi-arabia-declares-war-on-americas-muslim-congresswomen

    The rise of politicians like El-Sayed, Omar, and Tlaib also undermines a core argument advanced by dictators in the Middle East: that their people are not ready for democracy. “People would not have access to power in their countries but they would if they leave; this destroys the argument by Sisi or bin Salman,” El-Sayed said, referring to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. “What’s ironic is there is no way I would aspire to be in leadership in Egypt, the place of my fathers.”

    American allies in the region also fear that the Democratic Party’s new Arab leaders will advocate for political change in their countries. Having spent millions of dollars for public relations campaigns in Western capitals, the Persian Gulf countries feel threatened by any policymakers with an independent interest in and knowledge of the region. They have thus framed these officials’ principled objections to regional violations of human rights and democratic norms as matters of personal bias. One commentator, who is known to echo government talking points and is frequently retweeted by government officials, recently spread the rumor that Omar is a descendent of a “Houthi Yemeni” to undermine her attacks on the Saudi-led war on Yemen.

    The most common attack online by the Saudi-led bloc on the Muslim-American Democrats has been to label them as members of the Muslim Brotherhood, or more generally as ikhwanji, an extremist catch-all term. These attacks started long before this year’s elections. In 2014, the UAE even announced a terror list that included the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) for its alleged links to the Muslim Brotherhood.

    The attacks attempting to tie Omar and Tlaib to the Muslim Brotherhood started in earnest after CAIR publicly welcomed their election to Congress. One UAE-based academic, Najat al-Saeed, criticized Arabic media for celebrating the two Muslim women’s victories at the midterms, and pointed to CAIR’s support for them as evidence of their ties to the Brotherhood.

  • The Real Debate That Islamism Should Spark
    Rami Khouri

    – The Cairo Review of Global Affairs
    https://www.thecairoreview.com/tahrir-forum/the-real-debate-that-islamism-should-spark/?platform=hootsuite

    Every few years, it seems the world of Middle East and global policy analysis passes through a phase when a basic question rears its head in the media and in conversations across the world: Is Islamism a dangerous trend of the future in Muslim-majority societies, or a natural passing phase only? I am struck by how often in conversation with friends and colleagues around the world the discussion so often reverts to this issue—while in daily discussions with Arabs and Muslims across the Middle East, the issue is less frequently raised.

    I am not sure if that means that, a) the West is rightly obsessed with this genuine threat of long-term Islamist militancy, b) the West has bought the line put out by assorted Arab autocrats who are directly threatened by Islamist uprisings or opposition forces, c) Arabs and Muslims in the Middle East who live with these issues every day recognize that Islamism and its manifestations like the Muslim Brotherhood or ISIS are primarily surface manifestations and symptoms of deeper issues that are not really about religion—but about politics, human nature, and the abuse of power that degrades hundreds of millions of citizens who have nowhere else to turn other than their religion.

    I ask this question because it is important that every time this discussion revives, we make sure to debate the right issues, rather than being sidetracked by smoke screens and diversionary propaganda that is now widely disseminated through global public relations campaigns funded by a few wealthy Arab countries that are genuinely worried about the persistence of Islamist movements all around the region.

  • U.S. Mining Company Defends Deploying Hired Thugs Against Indigenous Farmers in Peru | Alternet
    http://www.alternet.org/activism/us-mining-company-defends-deploying-hired-thugs-against-indigenous-farmers

    The Denver-based Newmont Mining Corporation was hit with negative press last week following reports that its Peruvian subsidiary sent security forces to attack the prominent indigenous environmental defender Máxima Acuña de Chaupe at her remote farm in the northern Andean highlands. Now, the mining giant’s latest public relations campaign to defend its use of force against the Chaupe family, including the destruction of their crops, is provoking fresh outcry from human rights and environmental organizations.

    #Pérou #destruction #terres #répression #intimidation

  • IDF complains over Bar Refaeli’s involvement in Israeli hasbara campaign -

    Haaretz

    http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/idf-complains-over-bar-refaeli-s-involvement-in-israeli-hasbara-campaign.pr

    The Israeli Defense Forces criticized a public relations campaign launched by the Foreign Ministry to boost Israel’s image around the world because it starred Israeli model Bar Refaeli, Channel 2 news reported Sunday.

    The report stated that the IDF spokesman sent an official letter to the Foreign Ministry arguing that by using Refaeli, who didn’t complete her military service, the Foreign Ministry was sending a “message of forgiveness and turns a blind eye towards people that chose to enlist.”

    “In recent years, the IDF has been trying a verity of methods to improve the value of military service and to fight draft evasion, in order to preserve the moral dimension whereby the IDF is the people’s army,” Channel two quoted the letter.