Mohammed Jassem Al-Sager (born 18 June 1951; ar, محمد جاسم الصقر) is a journalist, businessman, and politician.

Background

Al-Sager received a bachelor's degree in economics from

Whittier College Whittier College (Whittier Academy (1887–1901)) is a private liberal arts college in Whittier, California. It is a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) and, as of fall 2022, had approximately 1,300 (undergraduate and graduate) students. It was ...

(California, US) in 1975. He then worked for five years at the

Industrial Bank of Kuwait The Industrial Bank of Kuwait was established in 1973 in the State of Kuwait by the Ministry of Finance, Central Bank of Kuwait and other large local industrial firms. Their primary objective is to nourish the local industry. Only 49.11% of the shar ...

, where he became Corporate Finance Manager. In 1980, he left the bank to become Chairman and Managing Director of Coast Investment & Development Co.

Journalism

In 1983 he began working as a journalist, serving as editor-in-chief of ''

Al-Qabas ''Al-Qabas'' ( ar, القبس) (English: ''the Firebrand'' or ''the Starbrand'') is an Arabic daily Kuwaiti newspaper and tabloid published by Dar Al Qabas Press Printing Publishing and Distribution Company in Kuwait City. History and profile ...

'' (

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

: "The Firebrand"), a daily newspaper. He continued in the role until his election to Parliament in 1999. In 1992 he was awarded the International Press Freedom Award of the

Committee to Protect Journalists The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is an American independent non-profit, non-governmental organization, based in New York City, New York, with correspondents around the world. CPJ promotes press freedom and defends the rights of journa ...

"for courageous reporting on political and human rights issues in the face of government threats of censorship and prosecution". Along with colleague Ibrahim Marzouk, he was sentenced to six months in prison in 1998 on charges of "insulting the essence of the Divine Being", following the publication of a joke on ''Al-Qabas'''s "Entertainment" page: "Why did God expel

Adam and Eve Adam and Eve, according to the creation myth of the Abrahamic religions, were the first man and woman. They are central to the belief that humanity is in essence a single family, with everyone descended from a single pair of original ancestors. ...

from paradise? Because they did not pay the rent." The newspaper was also closed for one week. The Committee to Protect Journalists protested the men's sentences, which were overturned by an appeals court in January 1999.

Political career

Al-Sager served in the

National Assembly of Kuwait The National Assembly ( ar, مجلس الأمة) is the unicameral legislature of Kuwait. The National Assembly meets in Kuwait City. Political parties are illegal in Kuwait, candidates run as independents. The National Assembly is made up of 50 ...

from 1999 to 2009. While political parties are technically illegal in Kuwait, Al-Sager affiliates with the liberal

National Democratic Alliance National Democratic Alliance (NDA) () is a Centre-right politics, centre-right to Right-wing politics, right-wing and Conservatism, conservative Indian big tent political alliance led by the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It was foun ...

party. From 2005 to 2009, he also served as Chairman of the Arab Parliament, in which role he worked with King

Abdullah Abdullah may refer to: * Abdullah (name), a list of people with the given name or surname * Abdullah, Kargı, Turkey, a village * ''Abdullah'' (film), a 1980 Bollywood film directed by Sanjay Khan * '' Abdullah: The Final Witness'', a 2015 Pakis ...

of Saudi Arabia and President

Hosni Mubarak Muhammad Hosni El Sayed Mubarak, (; 4 May 1928 – 25 February 2020) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the fourth president of Egypt from 1981 to 2011. Before he entered politics, Mubarak was a career officer in t ...

of Egypt to promote a reconciliation between battling Palestinian factions

Hamas Hamas (, ; , ; an acronym of , "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Bri ...

and

Fatah Fatah ( ar, فتح '), formerly the Palestinian National Liberation Movement, is a Palestinian nationalist social democratic political party and the largest faction of the confederated multi-party Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and ...

. Al-Sager is also a member of the General Secretariat of the New York-based

Council on Foreign Relations The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, mi ...

. In May 2009, Al-Sager joined several other Kuwaiti MPs in declining to run for re-election to the Kuwaiti National Assembly. Al-Sager stated that he believed the next parliament would "also fail to implement the awaited reforms", these being an

economic stimulus In economics, stimulus refers to attempts to use monetary policy or fiscal policy (or stabilization policy in general) to stimulate the economy. Stimulus can also refer to monetary policies such as lowering interest rates and quantitative easi ...

bill and a boost to the country's

infrastructure Infrastructure is the set of facilities and systems that serve a country, city, or other area, and encompasses the services and facilities necessary for its economy, households and firms to function. Infrastructure is composed of public and priv ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sager, Mohammed 1951 births Kuwaiti journalists Living people Members of the National Assembly (Kuwait) National Democratic Alliance (Kuwait) politicians