Quote Of The Day - Tom MacMaster

"I never expected this level of attention. While the narrative voıce may have been fictional, the facts on thıs blog are true and not mısleading as to the situation on the ground. I do not believe that I have harmed anyone -- I feel that I have created an important voice for issues that I feel strongly about. I only hope that people pay as much attention to the people of the Middle East and their struggles in thıs year of revolutions. The events there are beıng shaped by the people living them on a daily basis. I have only tried to illuminate them for a western audience." - Heterosexual American writer Tom MacMaster, confessing that he was the author of Gay Girl In Damascus, a blog which gained international attention last week when MacMaster pretended to have been kidnapped.

NYT: Is Syrian "Kidnapping" A Hoax?

The New York Times warns that not one person can report having actually met or spoken to the lesbian blogger allegedly kidnapped yesterday in Syria. In fact, some recent entries on her blog may have first been posted in 2007.

Although it remains possible that the blog’s author was indeed detained, and has been writing a factual, not fictional account of recent events in Syria, readers should be aware that the one person who has identified herself — to The Times, The BBC and Al Jazeera — as a personal friend of the blogger, Sandra Bagaria, has now clarified that she has never actually met the author of the Gay Girl in Damascus blog. Ms. Bagaria told The Lede that she had also never conversed with Ms. Arraf face to face via Skype, but had conducted an online relationship with her since January entirely through Internet text communications

.

SYRIA: Lesbian Blogger Amina Addalla Allegedly Kidnapped In Damascus

Details are sketchy, but here's what's being reported:

As the anti-government uprising in Syria has unfolded, Syrian-American blogger Amina Abdallah has attracted readers and been noticed by The Washington Post, CNN, Time,and The Guardian for her musings on the protest movement and what it's like to be gay in Syria. But her blog--A Gay Girl in Damascus--broached a very different topic today: Someone introducing herself as Abdallah's cousin wrote that Abdallah was seized by three armed men while on her way to meet with protest organizers. The cousin adds that while the family suspects Abdallah was seized by Syrian security forces, all that's known right now is that she's missing.

A Facebook page demanding Amina's release has been launched.

Index Of Potential Unrest

(Source)

BAHRAIN: Gay Partygoers On Trial

As Bahrain continues to be roiled by widespread civil unrest, the trial has begun for some of the 127 men arrested earlier this month at a purported "gay party." Gay Middle East reports:

Al Wasat News reported today that court proceedings commenced against 52 men who were arrested on the third of February. 49 of the 52 defendants attended the court proceeding, while two are fugitives, and one, who was released on bail, failed to appear before the fifth branch of lower criminal court of Bahrain. Al Wasat reports that 40 of the men are gay while the rest were involved in the running of the party. The men were not named but given numbers. Since there is no law against homosexuality in Bahrain the 40 defendants nevertheless were charged with incitement to immorality/debauchery and prostitution. Of the 40, 29 were also charged with engaging in immoral behaviour "in public" by dressing up like women and dancing in public. Some were also charged with cannabis consumption and being drunk "in public."

All of the defendants denied the accusations. GME notes that since the party was held in private, the charges of "offending public morality" should not apply.

Photo Of The Day - Cairo Protest

A crowd estimated in the hundreds of thousands flooded Cairo's Tahrir Square this morning in the eighth straight day of widespread unrest. As protests continue to spread to other nations in the region, this morning Jordan's King Abdullah fired his entire cabinet.

Photo Of The Day - The Nile From The ISS

(Source)

Syria Bans Veils At Universities

Syria has joined the growing movement to ban veiled women, telling its universities that they may not enroll women who wear the niqab, a full veil that shows only the eyes.

The order affects both public and private universities and aims to protect Syria's secular identity, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the issue. Hundreds of primary school teachers who were wearing the niqab at government-run schools were transferred last month to administrative jobs, he added. The ban, issued Sunday by the Education Ministry, does not affect the hijab, or headscarf, which is far more common in Syria than the niqab's billowing black robes. Syria is the latest in a string of nations from Europe to the Middle East to weigh in on the veil, perhaps the most visible symbol of conservative Islam. Veils have spread in other secular-leaning Arab countries, such as Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon, with Jordan's government trying to discourage them by playing up reports of robbers who wear veils as masks.

Last week France's lower legislative chamber voted nearly unanimously to ban the wearing of burqas and niqabs anywhere in public.

Veteran Reporter Helen Thomas In Hot Water Over Israel Comments

Reporter Helen Thomas, who as been a familiar face in the front row of the White House press corps for decades, is under fire for comments made in the wake of the Gaza flotilla raid. When asked where Jews should live, Thomas suggested they go back to Poland, Germany, and America. Thomas has already apologized, but has been dropped by her speaking agent and been uninvited from a planned speech to a high school graduation class.

Thomas, a columnist for Hearst Newspapers, issued an apology on her website on Friday for comments that were captured on video by an interviewer for the website RabbiLive.com. On the video dated May 27 (click on YouTube image), Thomas says Israelis should "get the hell out of Palestine," suggesting they go to Germany, Poland or the U.S. "I deeply regret my comments I made last week regarding the Israelis and the Palestinians," Thomas wrote on her site on Friday. "They do not reflect my heart-felt belief that peace will come to the Middle East only when all parties recognize the need for mutual respect and tolerance. May that day come soon." The national director of the Anti-Defamation League, Abraham H. Foxman, said Sunday that Thomas' apology didn't go far enough. "Her suggestion that Israelis should go back to Poland and Germany is bigoted and shows a profound ignorance of history," Foxman said in a statement. "We believe Thomas needs to make a more forceful and sincere apology for the pain her remarks have caused."

Right-wing and pro-Israel sites are calling for Thomas to lose her White House privileges. Here's the video.

Zionists Mock Gaza Flotilla

With the aid of American-Israeli Caroline Glick, who is the deputy editor of the Jerusalem Post, the DC-based Zionist think tank Center For Security Policy has created the below video mocking the Palestinian activists involved in Monday's flotilla raid in which nine people were killed. Today the Israeli government issued an apology after its press office sent media outlets an email linking the video.

American Among Killed In Flotilla Raid

Among the nine people killed during Israel's raid on the flotilla headed to Gaza was 19 year-old Furkan Dogan, a New York-born man with dual U.S.-Turkish citizenship. According to one report, Dogan was shot four times in the head. And not that it's necessarily relevant to this tragedy, I've gotten three emails today speculating that Dogan may have been gay. Does anybody know if this is true?

Barney Frank: I'm Ashamed Of Israel

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) says that as a Jew, he's ashamed of Israel's "victimization" of Palestinians. Frank is calling for an independent international inquiry into this weekend's raid on the ships heading for the Gaza Strip. Frank's words are not winning him friends among Jewish leaders in his district.

“They weren’t innocent at all, it’s pretty clear,” said Nancy K. Kaufman, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council in Boston. “There’s something called self-defense and (Israeli officials) have a right to use it. As usual, everyone’s jumping on Israel and blaming Israel.” Frank’s criticism comes as Israel faces a blistering worldwide backlash for its part in the early Monday morning raid, receiving only lukewarm U.S. support, in an incident that has underscored deep divides over Israeli-Palestinian issues. Israeli officials said members of the boarding party opened fire to defend themselves from a violent, armed assault, while activists said they were the ones under attack. Frank said, “Once you have a combat situation and innocent people die, I mean, you know, look at our problems in Afghanistan, and we have an obligation to try and avoid it.” In defense of Israel, Frank added there are people “howling for Israel to pay a price that don’t seem disturbed that North Koreans killed 46 South Koreans by torpedoing a South Korean boat. I think we have a right to ask for some consistency.”

Today Israel began deporting the nearly 700 activists detained during the raid.

Cash For Gold, Abu Dhabi Style

While desperate American mail their gold jewelery to corporate scamsters in return for cash, a hotel in Abu Dhabi has installed an ATM machine that dispenses tiny gold bars when you feed it money. Because there's so little conspicuous consumption in the region.

(Tipped by JMG reader JM)