This One Beats All

The Ceej "tweets" its relief that "our friend & fabricator of St. Louis monument Darius Mosun is back safe from ordeal in #UAE".

And what, pray tell, was the wheely fabricator doing there? The tweeted link to a Toronto Star article reveals all:

Two Canadian businessmen who were caught up in the deepening diplomatic spat between Ottawa and the U.A.E. are back home in Toronto.

Darius Mosun and his business partner were stuck at the Abu Dhabi airport for almost 20 hours after confusion over new visa requirements left them unable to enter the Arab country.

“It feels good to be home, I missed my children and my wife,” an exhausted Mosun told The Canadian Press as he waited for his bags at Toronto’s Pearson Airport Saturday evening.

The U.A.E.’s new visa rules were enforced in January, a few months after Canada denied extended landing rights to the Persian Gulf country’s two major airlines.

The U.A.E also evicted Canada from Camp Mirage, which had been an important staging ground for the military mission in Afghanistan.

Mosun and his colleague were initially able to enter the U.A.E. last week with a visa acquired in Canada, but were stopped when trying to re-enter the country after a side trip to Saudi Arabia.

U.A.E. officials told the pair their visas were only valid for a single entry, even though that rule wasn’t written on the document itself.

Mosun, who lost a meeting with an important client due to the visa mix-up, said he’d like to see Ottawa take steps to protect Canadian businesses caught in the diplomatic fray.

“I hope that our government is doing all it can to rebuild it’s good faith and its relationship with our friends in the U.A.E.”

The 42-year-old, who runs an architectural fabrication and design business, plans to reach out to officials in Ottawa next week to urge politicians to strengthen their relations with the Arab country...

So you mean the guy who fabricated the St. Louis monument commemorating Canada's turning aside European Jews fleeing Hitler's agenda is trying to persuade Canada's current government to go easy on the world's foremost purveyor of the Islamic supremacism that imperils Jewry and all Western civilization?

And the Ceej is proud of the dude?

You'll forgive me if, just this once, I find myself at a loss for words.

Update: From Maclean's, Jan. 12, '98:

This spring, when thousands of Muslim pilgrims visit the city of Medina in Saudi Arabia, they will be able to admire the ornamental cast iron fence recently erected around one of Islam's holiest sites. In Toronto, Soheil and Darius Mosun will share vicariously in the pleasure. The father-and-son team runs the custom fabrication business, Soheil Mosun Ltd., that constructed the $14-million fence, consisting of 58 sets of gates and 140 fixed panels that span two kilometres in total.

If Mosun is looking to drum up more biz in the Magic Kingdom (and it appears he is), I'd advise him not to mention his new Jew wheel back in Canada.