Jamal Khashoggi

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Jamal Khashoggi
File:Jamal Khashoggi in March 2018 (cropped).jpg
Khashoggi in 2018
Born Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi
(1958-10-13)13 October 1958[1]
Medina, Saudi Arabia
Died Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist.[2]
Saudi Arabian Consulate
Istanbul, Turkey
Residence United States[3]
Nationality Saudi Arabian
Alma mater Indiana State University
Occupation Journalist, columnist, author
Partner(s) Hatice Cengiz (fiancee 2018)
Relatives Nabila Khashoggi (cousin)
Emad Khashoggi (cousin)
Dodi Fayed (cousin)
Adnan Khashoggi (uncle)
Samira Khashoggi (aunt)
Soheir Khashoggi (aunt)
Muhammad Khashoggi (grandfather)
Website jamalkhashoggi.com

Jamal Ahmad Khashoggi (English pronunciation: /kəˈʃʊɡdʒi, kəˈʃoʊɡi/; Arabic: جمال أحمد خاشقجي‎‎ Jamāl Aḥmad Ḫāšuqji, Hejazi pronunciation: [d͡ʒaˈmaːl xaːˈʃʊɡd͡ʒi]; Turkish: Cemal Ahmed Kaşıkçı; 13 October 1958 – 2 October 2018) was a Saudi Arabian journalist,[4] author, and a former general manager and editor-in-chief of Al-Arab News Channel.[5] He also served as editor for the Saudi Arabian newspaper Al Watan, turning it into a platform for Saudi Arabian progressives.[6]

Khashoggi fled Saudi Arabia in September 2017 and went into self-imposed exile. He said that the Saudi Arabian government had "banned him from Twitter,"[7] and he later wrote newspaper articles critical of the Saudi government. Khashoggi had been sharply critical of Saudi Arabia's crown prince, Mohammad bin Salman, and the country's king, Salman of Saudi Arabia.[4] He also opposed the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen.[8]

Khashoggi entered the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul on 2 October 2018, but did not leave the building. Amid news reports claiming that he had been killed and dismembered inside, an inspection of the consulate, by Saudi Arabian and Turkish officials, took place on 15 October. Initially the Saudi Arabian government denied the death, claiming Khashoggi had left the consulate alive, but on 20 October admitted that Khashoggi was killed inside the consulate, claiming he had been strangled to death after a fight had broken out.[9]

Early life and education

Jamal Khashoggi was born in Medina on 13 October 1958.[1][5][10] His grandfather, Muhammad Khashoggi, who was of Turkish origin (Kaşıkçı), married a Saudi Arabian woman and was personal physician to King Abdulaziz Al Saud, the founder of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.[11]

Jamal Khashoggi was the nephew of the high-profile Saudi Arabian arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, known for his part in the Iran–Contra scandal,[12][13] who was estimated to have had a net worth of US$4 billion in the early 1980s.[14][15] Adnan Khashoggi had claimed that their family grandfather was of Jewish descent.[16] Jamal Khashoggi was also a first cousin of Dodi Fayed, who was dating Diana, Princess of Wales, when the two were killed in a car crash in Paris.[17] He received his elementary and secondary education in Saudi Arabia and obtained a bachelor's degree in business administration from Indiana State University in the United States in 1982.[5][18][19]

Career

Jamal Khashoggi began his career as a regional manager for Tihama Bookstores from 1983 to 1984.[20] Later he worked as a correspondent for the Saudi Gazette and as an assistant manager for Okaz from 1985 to 1987.[20] He continued his career as a reporter for various daily and weekly Arab newspapers from 1987 to 1990, including Asharq Al-Awsat, Al Majalla and Al Muslimoon.[5][20] Khashoggi became managing editor and acting editor-in-chief of Al Madina in 1991 and his tenure in that position lasted until 1999.[20]

File:Mohammed bin Salman's Saudi Arabia A Deeper Look (40917729462).jpg
Khashoggi at a 2018 Project on Middle East Democracy forum called "Mohammed bin Salman's Saudi Arabia: A Deeper Look."

From 1991 to 1999, he was a foreign correspondent in such countries as Afghanistan, Algeria, Kuwait, Sudan, and in the Middle East.[5] It is also claimed that he served with both Saudi Arabian Intelligence Agency and possibly the United States in Afghanistan during this period.[21] He then was appointed a deputy editor-in-chief of Arab News, and served in the post from 1999 to 2003.[22]

Political views

He wrote in a Post column on 3 April 2018 that Saudi Arabia "should return to its pre-1979 climate, when the government restricted hard-line Wahhabi traditions. Women today should have the same rights as men. And all citizens should have the right to speak their minds without fear of imprisonment."[23] In a posthumous (17 October 2018) article, "What the Arab world needs most is free expression", Khashoggi described the hopes of Arab world press freedom during the Arab Spring and his hope that an Arab world free press independent from national governments would develop so that "ordinary people in the Arab world would be able to address the structural problems their societies face."[24]

In the Post, he criticized the Saudi Arabian-led blockade against Qatar, Saudi Arabia's dispute with Lebanon,[23] Saudi Arabia's diplomatic dispute with Canada, and the Kingdom's crackdown on dissent and media.[25] Khashoggi supported some of Crown Prince's reforms, like allowing women to drive,[26] but he condemned Saudi Arabia's arrest of Loujain al-Hathloul, who was ranked third in the list of "Top 100 Most Powerful Arab Women 2015", Eman al-Nafjan, Aziza al-Yousef, and several other women's rights advocates involved in the women to drive movement and the anti male-guardianship campaign.[23]

Speaking to the BBC's Newshour, Khashoggi criticized Israel's settlement building in the occupied Palestinian territories, saying: "There was no international pressure on the Israelis and therefore the Israelis got away with building settlements, demolishing homes."[27]

Khashoggi criticized the Saudi war on Yemen, writing "The longer this cruel war lasts in Yemen, the more permanent the damage will be. The people of Yemen will be busy fighting poverty, cholera and water scarcity and rebuilding their country. The crown prince [Mohammed bin Salman] must bring an end to the violence," and "Saudi Arabia's crown prince must restore dignity to his country – by ending Yemen's cruel war."[28]

CNN reported that Khashoggi was "journalist simply doing his job who evolved from an Islamist in his twenties to a more liberal position by the time he was in his forties."[29] He has admitted that: "Yes, I joined the Muslim Brotherhood organization when I was at university. And, I was not alone. Some of the current ministers and deputies did but later every one of us developed their own political tendencies and views."[30] Politically, Khashoggi was supportive of Muslim Brotherhood as an exercise in democracy in the Muslim world. In one of his own blogs he argued for Muslim Brotherhood, and wrote that: "there can be no political reform and democracy in any Arab country without accepting that political Islam is a part of it."[31][32] According to The Spectator, "Khashoggi and his fellow travellers believe in imposing Islamic rule by engaging in the democratic process."[33] According to other Khashoggi was critical of Salafism,[34] the ultra-conservative Sunni movement.[31] In order to how Saudi Arabia should confront Iran, Al-Jazeera reported that Khashoggi has stated that Saudi Arabia "must re-embrace its proper religious identity as a Wahhabi Islamic revivalist state and build alliances with organisations rooted in political Islam such as the Muslim Brotherhood", and that it would be a'"big mistake" if Saudi Arabia and Muslim Brotherhood cannot be friendly.[35] Khashoggi also said that Saudis "must find a way where we can accommodate secularism and Islam, something like what they have in Turkey."[29]

Relationship with Osama bin Laden

Khashoggi was acquainted with Osama bin Laden in the 1980s and 1990s in Afghanistan while Bin Laden was championing his jihad against the Soviets. Khashoggi interviewed bin Laden several times, usually meeting bin Laden in Tora Bora, and once more in Sudan in 1995.[36][37] During that period, he was employed by Saudi Arabian intelligence agencies to try to influence bin Laden into making a compromise with the Saudi royal family in their rivalry.[citation needed]

Al Arabiya reported that Khashoggi once tried to persuade bin Laden to quit violence.[38] Khashoggi said: "I was very much surprised [in 1997] to see Osama turning into radicalism the way he did."[29] Khashoggi was the only non-royal Saudi Arabian who knew of the royals' intimate dealing with al-Qaeda in the lead-up to the 11 September terrorist attacks. He dissociated himself from bin Laden following the attacks.[33]

Khashoggi wrote in response to the 11 September attacks: "The most pressing issue now is to ensure that our children can never be influenced by extremist ideas like those 15 Saudis who were misled into hijacking four planes that fine September day, piloting them, and us, straight into the jaws of hell."[36]

Saudi Arabia

Khashoggi briefly became the editor-in-chief of the Saudi Arabian daily Al Watan in 2003.[5][39][40][22] After less than two months, he was dismissed in May 2003 by the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Information because he had allowed a columnist to criticize the Islamic scholar Ibn Taymiyyah (1263–1328), who is considered the founding father of Wahhabism.[41] This incident led to Khashoggi's reputation in the West as a liberal progressive.[33]

After he was dismissed, Khashoggi went to London in voluntary exile. There he became an adviser to Prince Turki Al Faisal.[42] He then served as a media aide to Al Faisal while the latter was Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States.[43] In April 2007, Khashoggi began to work as editor-in-chief of Al Watan for a second time.[22]

A column by poet Ibrahim al-Almaee challenging the basic Salafi premises was published in Al Watan in May 2010 and led to Khashoggi's second departure, on 17 May 2010.[44] Al Watan announced that Khashoggi resigned as editor-in-chief "to focus on his personal projects". However, it is thought that he was forced out due to official displeasure with articles critical of the Kingdom's harsh Islamic rules.[44] After his second resignation, Khashoggi maintained ties with Saudi Arabian elites, including those in its intelligence apparatus. In 2015, he launched the satellite news channel Al-Arab, based in Bahrain outside Saudi Arabia, which does not allow independent news channels to operate within its borders. The news channel was backed by Saudi Arabian billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal and partnered with U.S. financial news channel Bloomberg Television. However, it was on air for less than 11 hours before it was shut down by Bahrain.[45][46] He was also a political commentator for Saudi Arabian and international channels, including MBC, BBC, Al Jazeera, and Dubai TV.[20] Between June 2012 and September 2016, his opinion columns were regularly published by Al Arabiya.[47]

Citing a report from Middle East Eye, the Independent said in December 2016 that Khashoggi had been banned by Saudi Arabian authorities from publishing or appearing on television "for criticising U.S. President-elect Donald Trump".[48]

The Washington Post

File:Loujain Alhathloul.jpg
Khashoggi criticized the arrest of women's rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul in May 2018.

Khashoggi relocated to the United States in June 2017[49] and began writing for The Washington Post in September 2017.[50]

The New York Times reported that Khashoggi was a victim of cyberbullying campaign before he was killed. Saudi Arabia used an online army of Twitter trolls to harass Khashoggi and other critics of the Saudi regime.[51]

According to The Spectator, "With almost two million Twitter followers, he was the most famous political pundit in the Arab world and a regular guest on the major TV news networks in Britain and the United States."[33] In 2018, Khashoggi established a new political party called Democracy for the Arab World Now, posing a political threat to Crown Prince Mohammed.[33]

Killing

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Main article: Killing of Jamal Khashoggi

Khashoggi entered the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul on 2 October 2018 in order to obtain documents related to his planned marriage. As no CCTV recorded him exiting the consulate,[52] he was declared a missing person[53] amid news reports claiming that he had been killed and dismembered inside the consulate.[54][55] An inspection of the consulate, by both Saudi Arabian and Turkish officials, took place on 15 October. Turkish officials found evidence of "tampering" during the inspection and evidence that supported the belief that Khashoggi had been killed.[56] Initially, the Saudi Arabian government denied the death and claimed that Khashoggi had left the consulate alive[57] but 18 days later admitted he had died inside during a fistfight. Eighteen Saudis were arrested, including the team of 15 who had been sent to "confront him".[9][58] There is concern that many Saudi critics have gone missing in suspicious ways.[59] The US president and several US senators remain divided as to which, if any economic or other sanctions should be applied to Saudi Arabia.[60]

Personal life

At the time of his death, Khashoggi was planning to marry Hatice Cengiz, a 36-year-old PhD candidate at a university in Istanbul. The two had met in May 2018, during a conference in the city. Khashoggi, a Saudi national, visited the Saudi consulate on 2 October to get paperwork that would allow him to marry Cengiz.[61] Khashoggi was married and divorced three times. His first marriage was to Rawia al-Tunisi by whom he had two sons and two daughters.[62]

See also

References

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External links

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  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ New York Magazine, "Stepping Out", By Jeanie Kasindorf, 18 December 1989, Page 44.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 23.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  29. ↑ 29.0 29.1 29.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  30. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  31. ↑ 31.0 31.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  32. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  33. ↑ 33.0 33.1 33.2 33.3 33.4 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  34. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  35. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  37. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  45. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  58. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  59. ↑ Dark disappearances: How Saudi critics keep going missing BBC
  60. ↑ Trump Is Giving Saudi Arabia The Benefit Of The Doubt In The Khashoggi Case, But Other Republicans Aren't Buzz Feed News. Emily Tamkin. 16 October 2018.
  61. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  62. ↑ Jamal Khashoggi obituary, Ian Black, 19 October 2018, The Guardian
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