Monday, March 22, 2010

Tarek Does Auschwitz

Why did Simon Wiesenthal's Avi Benlolo click into major damage control mode when Tarek Fatah had a tantrum at the Pipes-Sultan event? Might this have something to do with it (my bolds; h/t Josephine)?
The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies (FSWC) is leading a high level delegation of community leaders on the historic "From Compassion to Action: Glassman Tools for Tolerance® Mission to Poland" journey of honour, remembrance and learning about the necessity of tolerance and acceptance.
Among the many government officials, educators, media, activists and private individuals joining the Mission are Toronto Chief of Police William Blair, York Region Chief of Police Armand LaBarge, Barrie Mayor David Aspden, Vaughan Mayor Linda Jackson, journalist and political activist Tarek Fatah, Canadian Museum of Human Rights Board of Trustee member Gail Asper, author Marina Nemat, Liberal MP Anita Neville and NDP MP Judy Wasylycia-Leis...
"As antisemitic attitudes creep back into everyday life in both Europe and North America, and Holocaust deniers continue to find accepting audiences on the internet, it is crucial to bear witness to the horrors of the Nazi era," explains Avi Benlolo, President & CEO of FSWC and leader of the trip. "We hope the leaders joining us on this journey will be moved by this experience and help us in our efforts to stand against hatred, wherever we find it," he adds...
Sure thing, Avi. And as long the Jews don't blame Islam or its founder for any of the hatred, or try to make a case for the State of Israel as a refuge from the haters, you'll be able to keep Tarek onside.

That's not too steep a price to have to pay for someone's "friendship," right?

Update: There's not too much left of the man after Hugh gets through with him (my bolds):
Tarek Fatah is not prompted by the same sinister motives as, for example, the colubrine Tariq Ramadan so clearly possesses. He is embarrassed by what he knows of Islamic doctrine, but he's made the decision not to give up on Islam but instead to misstate, to omit, to mis-quote, to deliberately misunderstand, and to refrain from correcting non-Muslims in their own miscomprehensions of Islam. He's not, however, an innocent. He knows better. We see this in the way in which he calumniates Wafa Sultan. We see it in his preposterous missing-the-point insistence that Aisha is at least fourteen and perhaps as old as nineteen or twenty-one. We see it in his never correcting the egregious errors of Steve Gilchrist, especially when Gilchrist claims that nowhere in the Qur'an does it call for the killing of Infidels. His truly hysterical reaction to Wafa Sultan is prompted, I think, by his realization that she is not alone, that there are others who, as ex-Muslims, are determined to tell the truth. And if they can do so, if they can get an audience especially perhaps in synagogues that have provided such a good living to Tarek Fatah, they will be able to open many eyes among those Fatah himself has confused. For so many have been eager to have him come and relieve everyone of their palpable anxiety about Islam, and Tarek Fatah is just the man to do it, even if his means are deplorable and his effect dangerously lulling.

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