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Top 10 Fascinating Facts about Jamal Khashoggi

He was born on October 13, 1958, and lived until October 2, 2018. He was a Saudi journalist, dissident, author, and columnist for Middle East Eye and The Washington Post.

He was a general manager and editor-in-chief of Al-Arab News Channel who was assassinated at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018, by agents of the Saudi government, allegedly at the behest of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

He also served as editor for the Saudi Arabian newspaper Al Watan, turning it into a platform for Saudi progressives. Khashoggi fled Saudi Arabia in September 2017 and went into self-imposed exile.

He said that the Saudi government had banned him from Twitter. He later wrote newspaper articles critical of the Saudi government.

Khashoggi had been sharply critical of the Saudi rulers, King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. He also opposed the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen.

On October 2, 2018, Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul to obtain documents related to his planned marriage but was never seen leaving.

Amid news reports claiming that he had been killed and dismembered inside, an inspection of the consulate, by Saudi and Turkish officials, took place on October 15.

Initially, the Saudi government denied the death, but following shifting explanations for Khashoggi’s death, Saudi Arabia’s attorney general eventually stated that the murder was premeditated.

By 16 November 2018, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had concluded that Mohammed bin Salman ordered Khashoggi’s assassination. 

Controversy over the murder has created tensions between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, including calls for the U.S. to sever diplomatic ties with the kingdom.

1. Named Person of the Year

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On December 11, 2018, he was named Time magazine’s person of the year for his work in journalism, along with other journalists who faced political persecution for their work. Time referred to Khashoggi as a Guardian of the Truth.

Jamal Khashoggi began his career as a regional manager for Tihama Bookstores from 1983 to 1984. Later he worked as a correspondent for the Saudi Gazette and as an assistant manager for Okaz from 1985 to 1987. 

2. Career Advancement in Reporting

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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.

He also served with the Saudi Arabian Intelligence Agency, and possibly worked with the United States, during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

3. His Role in Foreign Countries

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Khashoggi became managing editor and acting editor-in-chief of Al Madina in 1991 and his tenure in that position lasted until 1999. 

During this period he was also a foreign correspondent in such countries as Afghanistan, Algeria, Kuwait, Sudan, and the Middle East. He then was appointed deputy editor-in-chief of Arab News and served in the post from 1999 to 2003.

4. Advocated for Women’s Rights

Khashoggi wrote in a Post column on April 3,  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.

He also said that Saudis must find a way where they can accommodate secularism and Islam, something like what they have in Turkey. 

In a posthumous October 17, 2018 article, he stated that the Arab world needed freedom of expression.

He further 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.

This was to enhance ordinary people in the Arab world would be the ability to address the structural problems their societies face.

Khashoggi criticized the arrest of women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul in May 2018.

5. He Advocated for Freedom of Expression

According to Khashoggi, Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s forced resignation in a live television broadcast from Saudi Arabia on November 4, 2017, could in part be due to the Trump effect. 

In addition, the then United States of America President Trump’s strong bond with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is commonly known as MBS. The two despise Iran and its proxy Hezbollah, a sentiment the Israelis share.

6. He Wrote about Crown Prince Mohammed

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Khashoggi wrote in August 2018 that “Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known by his initials, MBS, is signaling that any open opposition to Saudi domestic policies, even ones as egregious as the punitive arrests of reform-seeking Saudi women, is intolerable.

According to Khashoggi, while MBS is right to free Saudi Arabia from ultra-conservative religious forces.

He emphasized that MBS was wrong to advance a new radicalism that, while seemingly more liberal and appealing to the West. This he referred to as just as intolerant of dissent.

Khashoggi also wrote that MBS’s rash actions are deepening tensions and undermining the security of the Gulf states and the region as a whole.

7. Wrote About U.S President Barack Obama

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He wrote about the then-President of the United States, Barack Obama’s declaration of support for democracy. With the change in the Arab world in the wake of the Arab Spring.

Former President Barack Obama did not take a strong position and rejected the coup against President-elect Mohamed Morsi.

However, the coup, as we know, led to the military’s return to power in the largest Arab country – along with tyranny, repression, corruption, and mismanagement. Morsi’s government was removed from office in July 2013.

8. The Fascinating Fact about Sectarianism

Khashoggi was critical of Iran’s Shi’a sectarianism. He wrote in February 2016: “Iran looks at the region, particularly Syria, from a sectarian angle.

The militias Tehran is relying on, some of which come from as far as Afghanistan, are sectarian.

They raid Syrian villages with sectarian slogans, bringing to life conflicts from over a thousand years ago. With blood and sectarianism, Iran is redrawing the map of the region.

9. His work was Supported by CNN

CNN described Khashoggi as a “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,” and that by 2005, Khashoggi said he had also rejected the Islamist idea of creating an Islamic state and had turned against the religious establishment in Saudi Arabia.

According to CNN he also embraced the Enlightenment and American idea of the separation of church and state. According to Egypt Today, Khashoggi revealed that he actually joined the Muslim Brotherhood organization when he was in the university.

Some of the current ministers and deputies did but later every one of us developed our own political tendencies and views.

10. His Political Involvement

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Politically, Khashoggi was supportive of the Muslim Brotherhood as an exercise in democracy in the Muslim world. In one of his own blogs, he argued for the Muslim Brotherhood there can be no political reform and democracy in any Arab country without accepting that political Islam is a part of it.”

The Irish Times journalist Lara Marlowe wrote that “If Christian democracy was possible in Europe, why could Arabs not be ruled by Muslim democracy, Jamal asked. That may explain his friendship with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan which constituted the greatest hope of Muslim democracy until he too turned into a despot.

According to The Washington Post, while Khashoggi was once sympathetic to Islamist movements, he moved toward a more liberal, secular point of view, according to experts on the Middle East who have tracked his career.

However, Khashoggi was assassinated in Istanbul on October 2, 2018. He was buried according to Islamic traditions after his death in Istanbul.