Make Hydra Great Again

Yesterday marked the opening of the Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology, with King Salman of Saudi Arabia, President al-Sisi of Egypt, and President Trump in attendance. As far as I can tell, the Center, which is located in Riyadh, is a boiler room for countering jihadism on social media. While combating extremist ideology is pretty much my raison d'etre these days, there’s something creepily Orwellian about governments, some of which are already highly repressive, countering any form of speech.

The three heads of state let themselves be photographed holding on to a glowing orb—I think it's a globe of the earth. The unfortunate visual, combined with the Center's sinister mission, have brought a certain organization of supervillains to the minds of many on them Interwebs:

 

 

Here are some of the more entertaining posts:

 

 

 

 

 

 

McMaster Disaster thinks that it's not a coincidence that a sinkhole opened up in front of Trump's Mar a Lago resort at the same time:

 

 

 

 

For further coverage of the Riyadh Summit, see my posts, Trump Gets One Right and The Muslim Tweet: Daughter of Trump.

Michael Isenberg writes about the Muslim world, medieval and modern. His forthcoming novel, The Thread of Reason, is a murder mystery that takes place in Baghdad in the year 1092 and depicts the battle for the Muslim soul between those who embrace science and tolerance on the one hand, and those who throw in their lot with mysticism and persecution on the other.