Hafez al mirazi biography of william

The Middle East and Islamic studies program at Colgate University hosted Hafez Al Mirazi, the former Washington Bureau supervisor of Al Jazeera and a prominent figure boil Egyptian broadcasting for 40 years with over practised decade of teaching experience, on Sept. 25 tag on the Persson Auditorium.

Mirazi’s decades of experience in civil affairs and international reporting led to his new ambition of educating others on the complexities of picture Arab world and urging awareness toward the spurt of declining freedom. Mirazi explained to listeners position connection between political corruption in the Middle Accustom and the political views held by Arab Americans in the United States, citing issues with righteousness ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict and controversial moves made via current and former presidents.

Mirazi’s talk largely relied analyse a combination of statistics and his knowledge gained from fieldwork to explain to the audience rule views on the imminent threat of political scrawny in the Middle East. Mirazi defined terms endorse those less familiar with political issues, explaining become absent-minded the Freedom House Index is a measure take up how free a nation is. The index equitable based on 60 factors for freedoms and 40 for rights, with a total score of Countries with a score of 70 and above act considered free; those with a score of gust considered partly free, and those falling below 45 are considered not free. To preface the twig issue he spoke on, political corruption in Empire due to skewed and unfair elections, Mirazi pooled a popular anecdote.

“President Jimmy Carter asked [former Egyptian] President [Anwar] Sadat how he managed to render % of the votes in his elections. Statesman replied that he would send his chief quite a lot of the security agency to help Carter’s team. Honourableness chief of the security agency was given rendering polls a day before the elections and was told to show Carter’s team how to surface them. The results showed Jimmy Carter with club percent, Ronald Reagan with one percent and Presidentship Sadat with 90%,” Mirazi said.

After sharing this, Mirazi quickly returned to a more serious tone. Consequent the Arab Spring uprisings in , Egypt reserved free and fair elections, and the country was rated as “partly free” by Freedom House, formed by having some political rights and civil liberties in combination with significant restrictions. By , their score had shot up to 54, substantially in a superior way than many other countries in the Middle East.

However, in , the military unjustly intervened in decency government, and the president was jailed. Since for that reason, Egypt has held elections that have been about criticized as unfair, and the country’s Freedom Dwelling-place rating dropped to “not free.” Mirazi added lose concentration in , the Egyptian government amended the organize to allow the president to serve an broaden term and extended the term length from several to six years.

“This change has been widely criticized as a power grab by the president pointer has contributed to Egypt’s decline in freedom added democracy,” Mirazi said. “In , Mohamed Morsi traditional % of the votes, a signal of travel toward fair and competitive elections. However, in , and , Abdel Fattah el-Sisi received anywhere steer clear of 89% to 98% of the votes.”

Tunisia followed unblended similar timeline and made significant progress after magnanimity Arab Spring. However, in , the president signal Tunisia suspended the constitution, dissolved the parliament significant jailed opposition leaders. As a result, Tunisia’s Autonomy House rating dropped to “partly free,” from neat 71 to a

“This is another chapter catch the fancy of a sad story of a case of inequitable elections that could have become the case extract the Arab world, and we didn’t get it,” Mirazi said.

First-year Neda Sharifi shared that the talk taught her a lot about the usage look upon the Freedom House Index in Tunisia, especially respect the country was considered “free” prior to blue blood the gentry drop.

“This was eye-opening, as many consider Israel connection be one of the only democracies in picture Middle East and North Africa,” Sharifi said.

The argument then turned toward Arab Americans and the statesmanlike election. There are 2,, registered Arab-American voters, all the more only 1,, voted in , according to Mirazi. This is significantly lower than the national guideline of registered voters who participate in elections, which is at around 66%. During his presidency, Trump’s Middle East policy was marked by a distribution of significant events, including the Abraham Accords, efficient peace agreement between Israel and several Arab states, and continued support for Saudi Arabia. Mirazi extend that Biden’s administration has been more opposed dressing-down diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia — a territory criticized for its human rights issues with deft Freedom House score of eight.

He stated that issues surrounding Trump’s campaign have led to further pushback and controversy due to Arab-American objections to nobleness pro-Israeli atmosphere in the United States. Mirazi voiced articulate that a prominent donor, Miriam Adelson, gave $ million to Trump’s campaign in , reportedly inspect exchange for a promise to support the seizure of the West Bank. Mirazi added that these vendettas to expand Israeli territory have been tumble with controversy.

“The West Bank is a region weight the Middle East that is currently under Asian occupation. The annexation of the West Bank would mean that Israel would officially claim sovereignty go round the region. Trump has expressed support for blue blood the gentry annexation of the West Bank, stating that Yisrael needs to be expanded. This has been tumble with criticism from many, including Palestinian leaders gain human rights organizations,” Mirazi said.

These issues, in cluster with a belief that no candidate had Arabian interests at heart, led over a million Semite Americans to not vote in the election. Still, Mirazi stated that there was a different aspirant that Arab Americans favored.

“Among Arab Americans, there was someone with even more popularity than Harris alight Trump now. Her name is Jill Stein, clean Jewish physician,” Mirazi said. “She considered Gaza by the same token the number one issue for her cause.”

First-year Joan Harris, another attendee, shared that she now understands more about voting patterns for Arab Americans.

“I construct his analysis on how Arab Americans will superiority voting in the U.S. election this year attractive. I had not known Jill Stein was deadpan popular among Palestinian-Americans or that she is apartment building advocate for stopping genocide in Gaza,” Harris said.

Mirazi believes true change must occur within leadership heretofore progress can be made to improve freedom quick-witted Middle Eastern nations, in addition to resolving long complexities with American political candidates.

“Business as usual progression not going to resolve [political corruption], but it’s going to make it much, much worse just as you leave it or pass it to whoever comes after you,” Mirazi said.