ما شاء الله, Arabic Trump Election Memes

A collection of the finest Trump election memes currently circulating on Arabic social media:

"Ivanka Trump, daughter of the new president. Looks like a Sheikha to me - fine offspring indeed."

"Congrats on your Dad's victory"

"Donald Trump's daughter. You guys want her father to lose? No way. We're all with Trump, all the way. Have a little sense!"

"Guys, let's read the Fatiha for the whole planet"*

"Happy from his win, Donald Trump does the call to prayer. Oh man, Subhan Allah"

*admittedly bad translation.

الحشد / Iraq's PMF Shia Militia Win Film Festival In Cairo

Award won by PMF in Cairo (Credit:PMF website)

Film making - not among most people's guesses for obvious talents of a brutally sectarian group of militias. However, they claim to have won awards for their documentary film about the origins of الحشد/Popular Mobilization Forces.

Al-Jazeera reported on the story yesterday, following up on a claim from the PMF's website announcing that they won the "Creativity Appreciation Award" for their documentary film explaining the origins and motivating factors behind the formation of the PMF. The prize was awarded at the Cairo Art & Media Contest (مونديال القاهرة للفن والاعلام), which is sponsored by the Arab League. The PMF also claim to have won a vaguely-worded "First Prize" award.

Of note is that the PMF's documentary also claims to expose "countries support Daesh... like those which have facilitated border crossings for the group."

Not a Good Sign for the Battle of Mosul

Seen on Twitter lately is a blatantly sectarian slogan used by some of the very groups participating in the Popular Mobilization Forces (الحشد الشعبي), the militia that cooperates closely with the Iraqi Army:

"هؤلاء الاحفاد من اولئك الاجداد"

This slogan has lots of baggage, but basically the it infers that residents of Mosul can be considered descendants of those who killed Hussein and thus responsible for their actions. The literal translation is "Those descendants are from those ancestors." While blatantly sectarian rhetoric from the PMF is nothing new, such slogans do not bode well for the coming battle of Mosul. In the tweet above, the slogan is used by a sectarian Sunni on Twitter to mobilize sectarian sentiment against the PMF (and presumably Iraqi forces as well).