Between Joe Wilson's outbreak in Congress, Kanye West's tantrum at the MTV music awards, and Serena Williams's meltdown at the US Open, the media has had plenty of mea culpas to focus on this week. All these other events, however, may have obscured the most important apology uttered recently. That dubious distinction belongs to Egypt's minister of culture, Farouk Hosny, who wants to be the next Director General of Unesco, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
As Michael Slackman of the New York Times reported, the 71-year-old Hosny is more liberal than many of his Egyptian counterparts, and has criticized women's use of the hijab, or Islamic headscarf.
But in 2008, Hosny publicly said that he would burn all the books in Alexandria's library that had anything to do with Israel. He also called Israeli culture "racist." During his tenure as minister of culture, Hosny banned Israeli books and films, most notably The Band's Visit, a film about an Egyptian musical ensemble lost in a small, sand-blown Israeli town who eventually develop a bond with some of the resident Israelis.
According to reports, Hosny apologized in May but opposition to his appointment remains intense, with prominent Jewish voices like Elie Wiesel and Bernard-Henri Levy registering their disapproval. Other solid candidates for the position from Japan, Russia, and Africa have also emerged.
As part of his apology, Hosny promised to help commission the translation of Israeli writers into Arabic, but that's a wait-and-see if there ever was one.
In his recent column in the New York Times, Roger Cohen argues that we should forgive Hosny, let bygones be bygones, and embrace this potentially transformative figure in the Middle East. I happen to agree, but not wholeheartedly. Should we forgive Hosny? How meaningful is his apology? Should we really dismiss his threats to burn books? I might expect this from the minister of hyperbole, but it's a little unfitting for a minister of culture of an influential country that has a peace treaty with Israel.
Should the international community forgive Hosny? Or should it take a page out of Congress' playbook and have the UN scold him a la Joe Wilson?
Follow Joseph Freeman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/joefree215
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bernardhenri-levy/an-appeal-to-world-leader_b_286126.html
Since all your readers here on HP have been following this story contemporaneously and are well ahead of the "news" you think you are reporting, your take is not fresh. Maybe it is fresh to readers of other sources, like the NYT, where still, if you reported this today, you would not be fresh. You have not reported anything that has happened since May, for example.
That you can report on a story and not know that the original source is your own publisher and not check the original source or answer any of your own questions about the story, which answers are available from your own publisher, that is the worse thing I have ever read on the HP.
If you were going to report on this as eyes and ears, you should have reported that some of the old world media outlets are just tagging on to this story, late and inaccurately, but no...
This article did not deserve to be posted on the HP, but in some small town weekly review of months old news.
On that, I said that you exaggerated an existing improper translation. What you said Mr. Hosni said was sourced from Mr. Levy, which you obviously didn't know even though the source was published on the HP. I did not say you spread Mr. Levy's translation, I said that you exaggerated even that.
Why should anybody debate you or take you seriously when you think repeating gossip is reporting?
It's obvious there was no original reporting on this piece besides the group of articles I read in blatantly biased New York Times. It's a BLOG and a story I've been following, though that may not have been obvious since I don't take shots at articles I either dislike or hold in contempt.
And I never indicated that he apologized today. The headline may have been misleading, indicating this just happened, but I didn't write the headline. Still, it's entirely relevant chief. I was merely giving a round-up on the stuff already out there. As with many things, just because it has graced the pages of the HP and you and your friends have hotly debated it in comment sections does not mean the issue has been handled and dealt with. It's not an end to the discussion but a discussion starter. Life goes on in Egypt, who woulda thought? To deal with your concern with the breaking news aspect of this. The UN is starting to debate this thing itself THIS WEEK. Is that not news?
Roger Cohen (as I stated above) wrote his column less than a week ago. Guess he's a moron too. Are you going to read him the riot act?
I meant what I said, you failed to write to your audience. This story started with an open letter in English and French signed by Bernard-Henri Levi and Elie Wiesel and Claude Lanzmann and published simultaneously in Le Monde and Huffington Post where outrageous and original accusations were made against Mr. Hosni.
You failed to research your story that you did not know it started here in the HP, nor the further articles Mr. Levi has posted here, becoming more and more outrageous, as first Israel sided against Mr. Levi, and then it became obvious Mr. Hosni was not hurt by the accusations, and would probably be elected. All stories throughout the world on this topic are sourced from or in reaction to Mr. Levi's articles in English and French in HP and Le Monde.
Mr. Levi said that what you call an apology is not an apology, right here on the HP.
First of all, as the eyes and ears reporter, how could he not know that this is not a news flash, but that this has been hotly debated right here on the HP for months. This breathless, plebeian report ignores the main skill of a writer: address your audience.
Ever since Mr. Bernard-Henry Levy of France started this agenda against Mr. Hosni, right here on the HP, HP readers have been engaged in this story. Where has Mr. Freeman been?
Second, it has been shown here on the HP that the scandalous translation of Mr. Hosni's words by Mr. Levy was an improper translation of an Egyptian idiom.
Third, and most tellingly, Mr. Freeman's version of Mr. Levy's translation of Mr. Hosni's words is not at all accurate. Even Mr. Levy did not go as far as saying that Mr. Hosni had proposed to "burn all the books in Alexandria's library that had anything to do with Israel". Since we all read Mr. Levy's actual translation here on the HP, Mr. Freeman's exaggeration of that translation shows ignorant bias.
Forth, according the Mr. Levy here on the HP, what Mr. Freeman called Mr. Hosni's apology was not an apology. Does Mr. Freeman disagree with Mr. Levy?
This article does not deserve to be posted on the HP.