RUTHFULLY YOURS

The useful idiot learns he’s no longer needed

Andrew Bolt

The Herald Sun (au)

http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/the_useful_idiot_learns_hes_no_longer_needed/

Western journalists and bloggers hailed Wael Ghonim as not just a hero of the Egyptian revolution but a symbol of it – being just what they preferred to see. For instance:

For his role in galvanizing protests through a Facebook group, which earned him 12 days in police detention, Google executive Wael Ghonim became a hero of the Egyptian revolution.

And:

A 30-year-old Egyptian Google executive who disappeared after participating in opposition protests last week was named the symbolic spokesman for the April 6 youth opposition group Friday, CBS News reported.

And:

Wael Ghonim became the public face of the protests against the regime in Egypt. An early organiser, he galvanised the public a second time via a widely viewed interview conducted after he left police custody…. Carrying the hopes of the Egyptian protest movement: within the space of only 24 hours, 150,000 Internet users elected Wael Ghonim as their “spokesperson”… He seemed to be just what they wanted: a charismatic leader and a figure that people could identify with; a public face for a broader societal problem.

And:

Wael Ghonim, 30, the Google executive and cyber activist who in recent days has become the face of the Egyptian revolt,… tweeted “Welcome back Egypt.”… Ghonim said he plans to write a book, “Revolution 2.0,” and return to work for Google….Ghonim told CNN he believes his fellow Egyptians will form a truly democratic government.

Ghonim may be right or he may be wrong. We shall see. But already I could see repeated the kind of distortion in this reporting that I first noted in the Western reporting of Prince Sihanouk of Cambodia.

Sihanouk spoke excellent English and French, and was suave. He wore a suit. He made films. He spoke to Western journalists in their own language, literally and figuratively. Just as importantly, he gave sound bites that the audiences of those journalists could hear without the annoying intervention of translation, or the shock of the alien, even though he was in truth the puppet of China and paid apologist for their Khmer Rouge clients. His main rival for world approval at the time was Hun Sen, the son of peasants, who had one eye, no English, no polish and few manners. This was not a man who gave good TV interview, or even press interview, as I found.

Which of the two got most air time? And which of the two has now been Prime Minister of Cambodia for a quarter of a century?

With the Egyptian protests, I was struck by how many of the Egyptians interviewed on the street by Western journalists spoke fluent English, which was lucky for the reporters. If you are a Western journalist, imagine how hard it is to interview people in a chaotic protest who speak only Arabic. Even if you have a translator, you know that the will make indifferent television and worse radio.

See already the danger? In Ghonim’s case there were added attractions. He was an internet executive and a blogger – just the kind of person Western intellectuals and the journalism caste would most respond to and most wish to see succeed in Egypt. He seemed also to represent a secular, tolerant, pro-Western future, in which Egypt would be precisely the kind of Arab country we’d feel charmed to visit.

And now a corrective. A view of the Egyptian street, crowded with people who speak little or no English, are Muslim and don’t have flash jobs. The kind of people who’d never be asked anything by a Western reporter:

Millions of jubilant Egyptians flooded Cairo’s central square earlier on Friday, in an historic day of unbridled joy one week after a popular uprising forced Hosni Mubarak to step down and restored pride to a repressed nation.

Under the title “Victory March”, a sea of people pressed across bridges spanning the Nile and surged into Tahrir (Liberation) Square, the heart of an 18-day display of people power that shook the Arab world…

Sheikh Yousef al-Qaradawi called for a new government Sheikh Yousef al-Qaradawi, an influential Egyptian preacher, called for a new government and the immediate release of all political prisoners at the rally in central Cairo…

Google executive Wael Ghonim, who emerged as a leading voice in Egypt’s uprising, was barred from the stage in Tahrir Square by security guards, an AFP photographer said.

Ghonim tried to take the stage in Tahrir, but men who appeared to be guarding Qaradawi barred him from doing so.

Ghonim, who was angered by the episode, then left the square with his face hidden by an Egyptian flag.

So who is Qaradawi?

Here’s some statements of this Muslim cleric…

On punishing gays, lesbians and people having sex outside marriage:

Interviewer: How should a homosexual or a lesbian be punished? …

Yousuf Al-Qaradhawi: The same punishment as any sexual pervert – the same as the fornicator […]

The schools of thought disagree about the punishment. Some say they should be punished like fornicators, and then we distinguish between married and unmarried men, and between married and unmarried women. Some say both should be punished the same way. Some say we should throw them from a high place, like God did with the people of Sodom. Some say we should burn them, and so on. There is disagreement […] The important thing is to treat this act as a crime.

On Hitler putting Jews “in their place”:

Throughout history, Allah has imposed upon the [Jews] people who would punish them for their corruption. The last punishment was carried out by [Adolf] Hitler. By means of all the things he did to them – even though they exaggerated this issue – he managed to put them in their place. This was divine punishment for them. Allah willing, the next time will be at the hand of the believers.

On suicide bombers attacking Israeli civilians:

I consider this type of martyrdom operation as an evidence of God’s justice.

On destroying Jews:

Oh Allah, take your enemies, the enemies of Islam. Oh Allah, take the Jews, the treacherous aggressors. Oh Allah, take this profligate, cunning, arrogant band of people. Oh Allah, they have spread much tyranny and corruption in the land. Pour Your wrath upon them, oh our God. Lie in wait for them. Oh Allah, You annihilated the people of Thamoud at the hand of a tyrant, and You annihilated the people of ‘Aad with a fierce, icy gale, and You destroyed the Pharaoh and his soldiers — oh Allah, take this oppressive, tyrannical band of people. Oh Allah, take this oppressive, Jewish Zionist band of people. Oh Allah, do not spare a single one of them. Oh Allah, count their numbers, and kill them, down to the very last one.

On the Jewish holy book:

Never have I seen a single verse, paragraph, or sentence in the Torah which calls for peace. Everything in the Torah constitutes a call for war…. (The Torah teaches) the notion of annihilation. We saw it when the Europeans went to America – they tried to annihilate the Indians. When they went to Australia, they tried to annihilate the aboriginal people. Indeed, they annihilated them. This is a Biblical notion – annihilate them totally, do not leave a living soul among them.

On the evil of celebrating Christmas:

On the Muslim Brotherhood:

MB consider me their Mufti, but I don’t have a relation with the organization, because being an MB chairman is something difficult requiring a highly sophisticated wisdom, and I prefer to be devoted to the entire nation, and I feel comfortable with this decision. I like MB and consider them the nearest group to be righteous.

Of the two men, the Google excutive hailed as “the face of the Egyptian revolt” and the Jew-hating imam who endorses the Muslim Brotherhood, most closely represents Egypt do you think? And which of the two have you seen most in our media?