The Lesson of Zundel

Former Official Jew Bernie Farber spent a good chunk of his life battling bad guy Nazi Ernst Zundel, as Joe Warmington reminds us today in the Toronto Sun:

He spent a quarter of a century battling Ernst Zundel, but Bernie Farber could not bring himself to do the same when it came to commenting on the death of the infamous Holocaust denier. 

“Jewish tradition demands that we do not defame the dead,” said Farber, who worked with the Canadian Jewish Congress and fought Zundel’s campaign of Holocaust denial. 

Farber chose to keep it civil, on the high road and on the facts. 

“Ernst Zundel denied the genocide of six million Jewish men, women and children,” said Farber. “He brought terrible anguish to those few who survived the evil of the Shoah.” 

And despite being jailed, deported and having his house firebombed, Zundel was still very much doing that until his death Saturday age 78...

Yes, but he was not doing it in Canada. That's because, when it comes to genocidal Jew-hate and those who purvey it, Canadian authorities are willing to give the likes of Zundel, an unrepentant Nazi and unabashed Hitler-lover,  the old heave-ho. When it comes to genocidal Jew-haters of the Islamic variety, however, the same standards do not apply.

Hence the case of Salman Hossein, a Bangladeshi Canadian who spewed Zundel-esque hate speech galore, but who authorities allowed to slip out of the country so that they wouldn't have to deal with him: Hossein has been hiding in plain sight in Bangladesh for the past seven years.

Seven years ago, the same Mr. Farber had this to say about the Hossein situation:

“We have for a number of years pointed to the fact that Salman Hossain was a dangerous, hateful man,” said Bernie Farber, CEO of the Canadian Jewish Congress. “We are very relieved to see that international policing have placed a high priority on his capture.”

Words that, were the free-as-a-bird Hossein to read them today, would likely elicit much chortling and guffawing.

And isn't that, in essence, the lesson of Zundel--that Ernst wasn't smart enough to "revert" to Islam years ago? Had he done so, you can be certain that authorities would not have pursued him with anywhere near the same zeal, or at least, would have "gone after" him in the same half-hearted, laggardly manner that allowed Hossein to sneak out of the country before being hauled in front of a Canadian court to answer for his hate crimes.

Update: Here's another Muslim hate-purveyor who is free as a bird--and will remain so.