New York Art Community Responds To Apparent Beheading Of Jamal Khashoggi By Rejecting Saudi Funds

New York Art Community Responds To Apparent Beheading Of Jamal Khashoggi By Rejecting Saudi Funds

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum and Columbia University have responded to the apparent seizure and Turkish reports of hideous torture and beheading by the Saudi government of Washington Post journalist and American legal resident Jamal Khashoggi.

ArtNet News reports that Saudi funding for a new Arab art initiative is under the microscope. The diplomatic crisis coincides with the launch in New York of the first-ever Arab Art & Education Initiative, a year-long cultural exchange across the city’s five boroughs.

The Middle East Art Institute, a think tank based in Washington, DC, withdrew from the program almost immediately after news broke about Khashoggi walking into the Saudi embassy in Istanbul and not being seen again.

Eighty-five percent of the Arab Art and Education Initiative’s funding comes from sources outside of Saudi Arabia, according to artNet News.

US Supreme Court: Does Regulating 'Fake' Women's Health Centers Confine Religious Freedom?

US Supreme Court: Does Regulating 'Fake' Women's Health Centers Confine Religious Freedom?

Given all the regulations that Republican state governments have put on Planned Parenthood -- including the width of their hallways and the size of closets (restrictions that render existing facilities not qualifying to operate) -- it's mind-boggling to see them go before the Supreme Court and argue that fake pregnancy counseling centers are legit and cannot be subject to state laws because they are run by Christians. Any attempt to govern them by laws is an illegal attack on their religious freedoms. 

The test of these perceived freedoms is now before the US Supreme Court, in the first abortion-related case of the Trump administration. 

Any Woman Can is part of a nationwide network of over 3,000 “crisis pregnancy centers” (CPCs) established by evangelical Christians to dissuade women from having abortions.  Presenting themselves as women's health centers that support women when Planned Parenthood closes down, unable to meet state laws, these so-called clients typically have no licensed medical professionals on staff. 

The Any Woman Can website says it offers a comprehensive overview of health care options open to women. This is a blatant lie. Other members of this network are Pregnancy Care Clinics and Informed Choices, also arguing before the Supreme Court On Tuesday.