Burn-the-Jews Egyptian still a favourite for Unesco top job by participant

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Burn-the-Jews Egyptian still a favourite for Unesco top job

POSTED BY: PARTICIPANT
UPDATED: Wednesday, September 23, 2009 01:02
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Tuesday, September 22, 2009 5:59 AM

The French philosopher, Bernard-Henri Levy, and Elie Wiesel, the Nobel laureate, wrote a letter to Le Monde claiming he was unsuited to hold "one of the most important positions of cultural responsibility on the planet".

"Farouk Hosni is the opposite of a man of peace, dialogue and culture, he is a dangerous man who inflames hearts and spirits," they said.

The row has become a test case for how far the West can take its "engagement" with moderate Muslim and Arab leaders in the light of President Barack Obama's speech addressed to them in Cairo.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/27/arab-egypt-unesco-job

Arab favourite for Unesco's top job apologises for 'book burning' remarks

Egypt's culture minister, Farouk Hosni, has denied he is racist, amid outrage over his comments that Israeli books in Alexandria's library should be destroyed

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Tuesday, September 22, 2009 5:08 PM

KWICKO

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)

You missed this part of the article:

Quote:
Before Hosni's apology went to press, Israeli media reported that the country's prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, had withdrawn his opposition to Hosni's appointment after meeting the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak.

Curious that Israel's prime minister seems to have no problem with this appointment.

I'm also curious as to how many books by Palestinian authors are to be found in the libraries of Israel.

Mike

Old friend charity
Cruel twisted smile
And the smile signals emptiness
For me
Starless and Bible black

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Tuesday, September 22, 2009 6:48 PM

GINOBIFFARONI

dead issue

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2009/09/20099233370889723.htm
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News Europe
Bulgarian picked to head Unesco
Hosni, Egypt's candidate, had stirred controversy with allegedly anti-Semitic comments [Reuters]

Irina Bokova, a former foreign minister for Bulgaria, has been selected to lead the United Nations Agency for Education, Culture and Science, beating the leading candidate for the post.

If her appointment is endorsed in October by Unesco's 193-member assembly, she will take over from Japan's Koichiro Matsuura to become the first woman to lead the UN body.

Bokova won the fifth and final round of voting on Tuesday against Egypt's Farouk Hosni by 31 votes to 27, diplomats said.

Bokova joined Bulgaria's foreign ministry UN and disarmament department in 1976, becoming the country's foreign minister for a brief period in 1996-1997.

She has witnessed Bulgaria's transformation from a nation within the Eastern bloc to a European Union member, and will be the first person from the region to head Unesco.

Anti-Semitism allegations

Nine candidates were in the running for the senior job at Unesco when the body's council began voting last Thursday, but seven dropped out one-by-one.

Delegates had been split over the two remaining candidates, with Hosni, Egypt's minister of culture, facing accusations that he is an anti-Semite.

PROFILES

Farouk Hosni
Irina Bokova

Hosni caused concern among some observers after he was quoted last year as saying he would burn Hebrew-language books.

Hosni has insisted his comments were part of an angry exchange in parliament with politicians from the Muslim Brotherhood and were taken out of context.

But his critics said that the book-burning comments made him unfit for the role.

Hosni's detractors included Elie Wiesel, an Auschwitz death camp survivor and Nobel laureate, who said the global cmmunity would be shamed if he was appointed.

Hosni has been associated with media censorship in his home country.

He also sparked anger among Muslim groups there when he said the hijab was a "step backward" for Egyptian women.

Supporters of Hosni said his election would have sent a positive signal from the West to the Muslim world, pointing to Hosni's efforts to rebuild a crumbling old synagogue in Cairo, Egypt's capital.

" I don't believe in hypothetical situations - it's kinda like lying to your brain "

" They don't hate America, they hate Americans " Homer Simpson

Lets party like its 1939

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Wednesday, September 23, 2009 1:02 AM

JAYNEZTOWN

Somalia's hard-line al Shabaab insurgents have warned schools not to use textbooks provided by UN agencies and other donors they accuse of being un-Islamic.

The rebel group, which Washington says is al Qaeda's proxy in Somalia, hit the African Union's main base in Mogadishu with twin suicide car bombs on Thursday, killing 17 peacekeepers in a country of growing concern to Western security analysts.

The attack raised serious questions about the credibility of the nation's fragile UN-backed government, which controls just some of Somalia's central region and parts of the capital.

And in a sign of the insurgents' growing influence in the chaotic city, the rebels issued orders to schools on Saturday.

"Some UN agencies like UNESCO are supplying Somali schools with text books to try to teach our children un-Islamic subjects," al Shabaab spokesman Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage told Koranic students gathered at Mogadishu's Nasrudin mosque.

"I call upon all Somali parents not to send their youngsters to schools with curriculum supported by the UN agencies."

Fighting has killed more than 18,000 civilians since the start of 2007 and driven another 1.5 million from their homes.

Together with another rebel group, Hizbul Islam, al Shabaab has been battling government troops and the AU peacekeepers to impose its own strict version of Islamic law throughout Somalia.

Al Shabaab's stern religious views are rejected by many Somalis, who are traditionally moderate Muslims.

But some residents do credit the gunmen with restoring relative stability and a measure of law and order to areas under their contro.

In July, the group barred three UN agencies from operating on its territory, saying the UN Development Programme, UN Department of Safety and Security and UN Political Office for Somalia were working against the creation of an Islamic state.

http://infidelsunite.typepad.com/counter_jihad/2009/09/somali-muslim-t
errorists-burning-books.html

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