Thursday, August 06, 2009

Hassan Diab: just a scratch














Shorter Terry Glavin:

"But...but Egypt!"

In that site of contention between fossilized fellahin and the modernists, the fellahin are more than holding their own, setting the Salafist mobs upon an Egyptian humanist named Sayed Mahmoud El-Qemany.

I'm very glad I don't live in Egypt, where such things go on. I wish nothing but the best for El-Qemany and his family.

And I'm indebted to Glavin, because I had not come across this matter earlier. It wasn't reported in the local papers here in Ottawa. Nor in our national press. Judging from his link reproduced above, in fact, we're both indebted to Harry's Place.

The lesson we are apparently invited to draw, however, is that Hassan Diab's plight here at home is barely worth mentioning in comparison, although Harry simply forwards El-Qemany's plea to the world, without telling us to stop fussing about little things.

We can all remember our parents scolding us: "That's just a skinned knee! Little Freddy broke his arm!"

For some reason that didn't make the knee feel any better. But a little Ozonol and a bandage did.

It's an easy game to play, isn't it--when some of us are up in arms about a local injustice, find something dreadful going on in a hell-hole somewhere else in the world and tell us we don't care. Worse, use it as neo-McCarthyist "proof" that our local concern is bogus, and that our real agenda, in fact, lines up with that of the people running amok in the hell-hole. As one of Terry's foul commenters belches:


Ah, but what's the difference between them? El-Qemany is working for freedom of thought and research. Hassan Diab is accused of murdering Jews. We see now what his colleagues value.

Ah, false comparisons, so easy to draw, so capable of embellishment in the deft hands of the seasoned propagandist. It's all so...diverting.

[H/t reader beluga2]

No comments: