Fox News, Republicans cherry-pick what parts of Islam they’ll tolerate
Egyptian American actor and comedian Ramy Youssef appeared on “Sesame Street” in mid-April to celebrate Arab American Heritage Month. In a warm and adorable episode, he taught Elmo the meaning of the greeting “as-salamu alaykum.” “Salam means peace and is a way of saying hello in Arabic,” he told the Muppet. Youssef also explained the meaning of the word “habibi”, an Arabic term of endearment meaning “my love”.
Cute for many, triggering for some. Fox News commentator Raymond Arroyo warned the public He explains the dangers of language lessons by comparing them to a drug that opens people up to Islam. “I wish ‘Sesame Street’ would focus on teaching kids letters and numbers and leave Arabic to someone else,” he said on “Ingraham Angle.” “From now on, Bert and Ernie will pray five times a day on ‘Sesame Street,’ facing east.”
But Fox News, like the Republican administration, is selective about what parts of Islam it tolerates.
On Monday, Paramount Skydance asked Trump’s Federal Communications Commission for permission to bypass foreign ownership rules for U.S. media companies, thus allowing Warner Bros. It paved the way for his takeover of Discovery. If approved, the Arab-Muslim royal family, a trio of powerful executives from Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Qatar, would co-own a US media monolith that also includes CNN and HBO.
Still, there are no complaints or alarm bells from Fox or conservative influencers or politicians in the MAGA world. This is completely off-brand silence, considering that Islam, Muslims, the Middle East and Arabs have long been a source of ire for right-wingers looking to rally their base. Vote for our man or risk living under sharia and stay away from Barack Hussein Obama!
So why the silence about Middle Easterners being brought to the US media? Selective anger. It is best not to draw attention to Saudi or Emirati revenue generation if it benefits the conservative cause, the president, or his friends.
Which brings us back to the question Paramount asked the FCC. Oracle co-founder, billionaire and conservative donor Larry Ellison is an old friend of the president. After the FCC unsurprisingly approved the merger of Ellison’s Skydance Media with Paramount last year, CBS agreed to the deal. Under Ellison, anti-woke media figure Bari Weiss was immediately named head of CBS News, which includes “60 Minutes,” and Trump critic Stephen Colbert’s last show was canceled. His last show is on May 21.
Ellison’s political leanings and close ties to Trump may explain why news of the FCC’s request didn’t trigger the usual Muslim fear from people like Arroyo. Middle Eastern royals, including Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman and other foreign investors, will help finance Paramount’s proposed $81 billion transaction.
The art of selective anger is certainly at work as the Trump Organization and the president’s son Eric expand their business reach into Qatar, which includes a $3 billion luxury real estate development that includes the Trump International Golf Club and a $500 million UAE-related investment in World Liberty Financial (crypto). But the flow of dirhams and rials does not end there. Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner and his firm Affinity Partners recently reported assets of more than $6.1 billion; Most of the funds are tied to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. Little, if any, energy has been expended on Fox News to call out the obvious conflict of interest, and they have remained largely silent as Trump’s griftocracy spreads into the regions it once sought to separate from America.
Trump tried to do this in 2015 ban all Muslims From entering the United States. “Islam hates us,” he claimed a few months later. And when he moved into the White House almost a year later, one of the first things he did as president was to implement a Muslim ban, suspending entry for 90 days to travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. Have you noticed the missing Gulf countries and Emirates?
Now the president isn’t just banning Iran, he’s bombing it like a $25 billion war. His volatile comments about the military action (“Praise be to God!”) on his Truth Social platform are prompting tons of violent, hateful anti-Muslim responses from his ready-made followers. But they seem to overlook his growing association with men in “manswear” (which is how Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis referred to the traditional attire of men in the Bay during the GOP debate).
What a strange world it is, where a president who bans Muslims pins his legacy on monied Muslim nations, and where America’s No. 1 cable news station spends its time beating a puppet so it learns to say “peace” and “love” in Arabic.
