Have you noticed how often left-wingers, when they want to exonerate some piece of special nastiness, resort to the adjective “controversial”?
It is bad enough in cultural matters, when perversity masquerading as art is absolved of any moral responsibility because it is “controversial.” In political matters, when human life itself is at stake, the euphemism is downright obscene.
My friend David-Pryce Jones called my attention to a text-book example of this slimy behavior. It involves Frances Guy, her Majesty’s Ambassador to Lebanon since 2006. At his NRO blog, David reports on “The passing of decent men,” Ambassador Guy’s obituary of Sheikh Muhammad Fadlallah.
Who was Sheikh Fadlallah? According to to Ambassador Guy, he was one of the politicians she “admired most.” When she was named Ambassador to Lebanon, Frances Guy told readers on the Foreign Office web site, one of the things she most looked forward to was meeting Sheikh Fadlallah: “the world needs more men like him.”
“When you visited him you could be sure of a real debate, a respectful argument and you knew you would leave his presence feeling a better person. That for me is the real effect of a true man of religion; leaving an impact on everyone he meets, no matter what their faith.”
“Impact,” eh? This Shia Muslim Sheikh certainly may be said to have specialized in impact, as in the force released when two truck bombs are detonated in a Marine barracks in Lebanon. As David points out,
“This decent man, this man to be respected, was a mass-murderer. In 1983, Fadlallah was responsible for sending Hezbollah members in trucks loaded with explosives into the barracks in Beirut of American and French troops come to keep the peace there. Almost 300 of these soldiers were killed. Fadlallah has always praised suicide bombing and hostage-taking. As for his willingness to reach out across faiths, this decent man worthy of Mrs. Guy’s respect consistently preached the extermination of Jews, praised suicide bombing, and denied the Holocaust.”
If you click on the link to Frances Guy’s repulsive exercise in radical chic Islamolatry you will find that it takes you to a page cached by Google. That is because the Foreign office rightly saw fit to remove her valentine to a terrorist. In its place is this pathetic “explanation” from the Ambassador:
“My comments on the late Sayid Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah have now been removed because they were leading to confusion about British policy. I would like to be clear. I have no truck with terrorism wherever it is committed in whoever’s name. . . . The blog was my personal attempt to offer some reflections of a figure who while controversial was also highly influential in Lebanon’s history and who offered spiritual guidance to many Muslims in need.”
“Confusion,” eh? There was no confusion, Madam Ambassador. You were perfectly “clear” in your original comments. Sheikh Muhammad Fadlallah, the man who engineered the cold-blooded murder of 300 U.S. Marines, was among the politicians you “admired most.” What could be clearer? He was for you an outstanding specimen of a “decent man,” a rightly revered “spiritual guide.” And as for you having “no truck” with terrorism, I’m not sure you want to bring “trucks” into the discussion. Sheikh Fadlallah already did that, with disastrous results. This despicable person was not “controversial.” He was a criminal, an anti-Semitic terrorist who blighted the lives of hundreds if not thousands. You, Madam Ambassador, are her Majesty the Queen’s representative in Lebanon. Your remarks were therefore not merely a “personal” reflection — disgusting though that would have been — they carried the prestige of Britain. Removing your toxic comments was a start. Since you apparently lack the decency to resign, the Prime Minister should now remove you.
But then, the British Foreign Office has always been antisemitic.
“Uou knew you would leave his presence feeling a better person”: Surely Ms. Guy has lost touch with her humanity. Otherwise, she couldn’t have written that.
Two additional Weasel-Words: “disturbing” and “transgressive.”
Although Sheikh Fadlallah is disturbing to some, given the situation in the Middle East, he must be transgressive in order to achieve his goals.
HMA Frances Guy: The Scullary Maid of the Diplomatic Corps
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I don’t know what it is about the Americans and the Brits: they tend to send female diplomats to Islamic countries and this had been going on for a couple of decades now, I’ve noticed.
Pakistan, Yemen, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and so on. Ambassadors, First Secretaries, Consuls, Vice-Consuls etc. It’s like an orgy of Ayn Rands wannabes having at last found a place where they’re accepted “for who they are”.
The gringos have topped it off, of course, by having the sadly inept “Mrs.” Clinton as Secretary of State – a preposterous notion which has horribly metamorphosed into a grisly (I almost wrote “grizzly”) reality.
(I put “Mrs.” in shock quotes because if she were a true Mrs., she’d be home taking care of business: shopping, cooking, mopping the floor and so on. Had she done that from day one instead of trying to prove that having been born a woman wasn’t her fault, her hubby might be less of a philanderer).
I guess this (appointing female diplomats to Arab world) is done on the assumption that Arabs won’t kill women, or at least not as often as they would men.
(They might rape, humiliate and spit on them, of course, but they won’t kill ‘em). (I mistaken notion by the way).
Anyway, if you want to see the current “buzz” female diplomat (Dame Frances Guy) in action, take a looksee at the following:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VmdBmQ0BIY
It’s quite embarrassing, really. This is an ambassador? She looks like an East European refugee or a caricature of Charlie Chaplin, for Xrist’s sake.
By the way, when I first read about “her”, I swear I thought the person under discussion was a “man”….but it turned out I was wrong (or was I?).
Her Arabic, by the way, is lousy. That is, if her English is any indication.
She writes in her blog “Sayid” (for “Sir”) whereas, of course, it should be “Sayyid” with a doubled “y”.
She writes “Samir Kassir” in one place and “Samir Kasser” in another.
Both are wrong.
It should be “Samir Qassir”. (In Arabic, the letters K and Q are very distinct and separate sounds which must be noted in any English rendition to avoid often embarrasing linguistic situations).
There’s also something…I dunno…..unsavory…..about an AMBASSADOR writing a “blog”.
“How public, like a frog” (E. Dickinson).
This is not turning out like I intended, so I’ll have to end here. It may be because I’ve been reading too much Burroughs lately (and I don’t mean Edgar Rice) and it may be affecting my thought and writing patterns.
But I do leave with a bad taste in my mouth..rank and bitter, somehow. (Although I should admit this may have more to do with a “posting” I wrote for the “Atlantic Wire” today which was immediately pulled and suppresed. Swine!
This reminds me of the touching, cringe worthy, unable to fight back the tears eulogy of fired CNN reporter Octavia Nasr, for the dear departed murderer Mohammed Hussein Fadlahlah. You’d expect such sanctimonious slobbering from her, but that strumpet Frances Guy just make you want to throw up. All over Octavia Nasr.
I like the bit about his offering “spiritual guidance.’ A lot of that guidance was, “Go kill Jews.” I like to think that Dame Guy would be horrified at that but I am compelled to wonder.
“Graciousness of God”
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1. For those linguistically inclined, an analysis of the term/name “Fadlallah” may be of interest.
Personal names in Arabic come in various forms, shapes and sizes. One of the most common methods of name-making is to take the term “Allah” (God) and placing a complimentary attribute in front of it.
So it is with the dearly departed culprit “Fadlallah”
which means (in a word to word translation)
“Graciousness of God”, the word “Fadl” meaning “grace” or “graciousness”
Similarly, the very common name “Abdullah” means “Slave of God”, “Abd” being the term for “slave”.
(Usually, “Abdullah” is translated into English as “Servant of God”, in an effort to soothe Western ears. After all, a servant is, socially speaking, at least a notch or two above a slave.
But don’t be fooled….”abd” is “slave” pure and simple…..which goes a long way towards explaining a Moslem’s perception and relation to his god. (Totally unlike the Christian view of this type of thing, of course. After all, we were created in the “image of God”. We’re not his slaves – but Moslems definitely are).
(I’m not sure about the Jewish faith infused as it is with “Messianism”. I think Christians and Moslems “fear” the “end of the world” whereas the Jews look forward to it longingly….something like that).
2. I was sort of sad to hear of the demise….I mean the firing… of Octavia Nasr – Senior CNN Editor for Middle Eastern Affairs for daring to mourn the death of Sheikh Fadlallah. She was good at her job and CNN’s decision to let her go, seems to me, was excessive.
(After all, she IS a woman…..she’s constituently made to weep and mourn).
Kinda reminds me of the firing of Arabic-trained military “linguists” who were caught “in flagrante delicto” or admitted to related abominations. Tsk Tsk Tsk.
By the way, these people are not “linguists”. A linguist is something quite different. They were simply Arabic “speakers”.
Seems, doesn’t it, when the Western and Islamic worlds meet at almost any level, it all comes down to gore, death, destruction, humiliation,violence and so on.
Masha’allah (As God Wishes)