Whacking Tharwat

The Star Tribune, which fancies itself the newspaper of the Twin Cities, recently published a column by one Ahmed Tharwat in which Tharwat instructed readers to “Stop fearing the Muslim Brotherhood.” Why? Because Tharwat is tired of responding to questions about it, and because they are his brothers. Alluding to the classic Blue Öyster Cult song that is generally understood to be an invitation to suicide, I wrote briefly about Tharwat’s column in “Fear the reaper.”

Tharwat’s column is an ignorant mashup of hatred and bigotry lacking in syntax and fact. Other than that, it was terrific. I would say that it is impossible to learn anything from Tharwat’s column. Strictly speaking, however, this is not true. We can learn what bigotry and hatred are practiced by Tharwat and indulged by the Star Tribune.

My friend Steve Hunegs is executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas. Late last week the Star Tribune published Steve’s column “There’s reason to fear the Muslim Brotherhood” responding to Tharwat. Steve takes note of the hatred that suffuses Tharwat’s column and a few uncomfortable facts about the MB. By contrast, Tharwat’s column was notably fact-free when not simply false. For readers interested in actually learning something about the Muslim Brotherhood I suggest Andrew McCarthy’s NRO column “Fear the Muslim Brotherhood.” It makes a good companion to Steve’s column.

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