Nigerian Muslim poet Albasheer Adam Alhassan – at present a bank manager 🙂
The world has learned to take things US president Donald Trump says with a pinch of salt and in celebration of a day more synonymous with pints of beers and shamrocks, president Trump delivered another one of his odd gaffes.
In a St. Patrick’s Day reception with Enda Kenny, the Irish prime minister, Trump quoted words from what he appeared to believe was an Irish proverb.
“As we stand together with our Irish friends, I’m reminded of that proverb–and this is a good one, this is one I like. I’ve heard it for many, many years and I love it,” Trump said. “Always remember to forget the friends that proved untrue, but never forget to remember those that have stuck by you,” Trump said, uncharacteristically reading from a script.
But it turns out, the “Irish proverb” is in fact part of a poem titled “Remember to forget” written by Albashir Adam Alhassan, a Nigerian poet. The gaffe may have been missed by prime minister Kenny, but it wasn’t missed by Twitter users.
RTFA for some of the chortles over Trump’s latest dull normal incompetence. Frankly, that the poet in question turns out to be Muslim is stone awesome. Being quoted by an anti-Muslim bigot is even better.
Eideard 
Trump trolls have been trying their best to deny this may have come from a Muslim, an African teenager [when he wrote it]. They’re even showing up at poetry websites to deny it. Offering a book of Christian homilies published by a religious vanity house in 1994 which quotes the poem – and leaves it unattributed.
Problems with the fake news crowd is that like any vanity-publishing, dates of editions vary according to what week someone bought copy #3. Fact is publication date of a volume means nothing when it’s edited and re-edited in following editions. Vanity publications rarely catalogue editions when they’re selling 3 copies/year of something. The nice lady who quoted the poem – without attribution – never claimed to be the author though that is the impression sought by the fake news trolls.
Albasheer’s interviews – especially in the Brit press – seem to settle on him writing the wee poem when he was around 14. The nice Christian lady in Oz who compiled the collection mostly of items starting off “he saith” died in 2007; so, she won’t be much help in noting where she found the poem.
Leaving us only with – the ongoing clumsiness of Trump handlers and True Believers.