And that really says something.

So I’m out for a jog earlier today, and I enter the cool down stretch. Whip out my BlackBerry to see what I’ve missed, and there’s an email from Blazing Cat Fur, AKA Kathy’s husband.

Do you want to go to the Palestine House event with me? Kathy doesn’t want to.

Uh huh. So weird point #1 is my friend’s husband asking me to be her proxy at an event.

Weird point #2, I’m going to go to an antisemitic pro-jihad fundraiser? WTF?

Oh man. So we go to this thing, for which Arnie forks out waaaay too much jizya at the door to get in. We are under-dressed, not having realized it’s a dinner event and not just speakers in an auditorium. Clearly, I left my hijab at home.

Anyway, it took forever to get underway. Dinner wasn’t served until after 8, and the speeches didn’t start until almost 9.

Weird point #3 was the totally pedestrian food. I figured since we were there, we would be treated to taboule, hummus, kibbe… something resembling anything remotely Middle Eastern. It was not to be. Hospital-style beef & chicken with steamed veggies. Iceberg salad. Blah. If we’re going to be all multi-culti, I at least want that kickass garlic sauce they put on shish taouk, dammit.

The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh AKrama Sabri, was a small unassuming man. He spoke Arabic, and from the little I understand I deduced that his English translator was leaving a lot of the juicy stuff out. All the Allah/Mohammad/Ummah/Kuffar stuff was left out, and a lot of peace/political intervention/cooperation stuff was highlighted. Hmmm. I guess that was Weird Point # 4. I am sending the recording off for a full translation. It may take a couple of weeks, but I’ll let you know what I find out.

Weird Point #5 & 5a (a tie) was the head of Palestine House telling us to vote Liberal, and Carolyn Parrish being in the audience. Arnie advises me she’s also on the donor roll for Mohammed El Masry’s new community paper, the Charger. I guess hating America isn’t enough for Parrish - she has to align herself with its enemies, too.

Then Mr. Fire and Brimstone, Bishop Atallah Hanna (Bishop of Sebastia of the Church of Jerusalem) hit the stage. A very imposing figure in his Orthodox black garb, he was also an extremely awe-inspiring speaker. If that man turned to me and told me I was going to Hell, I would simply nod meekly and accept my fate. Wow. I was informed by our table mate that his Arabic was “beautiful” and “flawless”.

This Orthodox Christian went on and on (and on) for a very long time - over an hour, I think. I understood him well enough, plus had the assistance of our table mate, to not need to know the full translation. He spoke of Israel being racist/apartheid/the usual. That those who criticize Israel are not antsemites, but are called such by people who are themselves racist antisemites. Wow, way to turn the tables, buddy. Joe Lieberman is a racist. Israelis are racist. Holland is racist. Jason Kenney is racist… you get the idea, right?

Weird point #6 was the enforcer goons at the table next to ours. I believe they were the Palestinian equivalent of Luca Brasi. Scarred faces, scarred knuckles, not a brain cell in the bunch. These guys were the, ahem, security force for the evening. Um, you have two eminent religious leaders visiting, and you’re putting these assholes in charge of their lives? Oh my.

As we got back in the car, I summed it all up by telling Arnie “Next time I pick the restaurant!”

More tomorrow, with pictures and any salvageable video. For now I’m tired. And I want a ham sandwich.

Bonus Weird Point: The banquet opened with the Canadian National Anthem and the Palestinian National Anthem (can you have a national anthem if you don’t have a nation?). A few people half-heartedly mumbled Oh Canada. Yet NO ONE even hummed Biladi. Hmmm. Which, by the way, sounds very, very German/Nazi/Soviet in it’s triumphalism.

Arnie has more at Blazing Cat Fur.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 5th, 2009 at 11:52 pm and is filed under Blogging, Canadiana, Infidels, Islam, Israel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.