1. Whereas, the distance between Dr. Zeidan and harlequin-assed baboon is barely worth measuring. Actually, that's unfair. A Middle East populated by baboons would be considerably less trouble.

http://www.gweilodiaries.com

2. Calling All Elders
The Arabs have a penchant for humiliating themselves by apeing the worst ideas of the Europeans. This time, however, Backwards and Pretentious have partnered in a project the equal in Judeocidal intent to anything ever fielded by the Vatican, Hitler or Martin Luther.

The Egyptian and Italian governments, with the assistance of the UNESCO, have built a museum in Egypt that publicly defiles the holiest text in the Jewish religion. Here's the latest demonstration of Islamic-European self destructiveness:

http://broadscapeventures.com/weblog/dfme/archives/001256.html

3. It's not just crackpots and terrorists
Anyone who thinks that anti-Semitism is limited to the terminally ignorant will find the following an eye-opener. It comes from the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), which publishes English translations of Arabic-language publications. This comes from the Egyptian weekly magazine al-Usbu, and in an interview with the director of a new manuscript museum at the Alexandria Museum, Dr. Yousef Ziedan, who is explaining why an exhibit of sacred texts of the monotheistic religions places the vicious anti-Semitic forgery "The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion" next to the Torah.

This is a museum director--not a 17-year-old from a refugee camp with an AK-47 or a suicide bomb belt, but a man with a Ph.D. When educated people in Arab countries spout this kind of nonsense, is it any wonder that peace between Israel and the Arab world is so hard to bring about?

http://ecumenicalinsanity.blogspot.com/
2003_11_30_ecumenicalinsanity_archive.html

4. Dr. Yousef Ziedan, director of the manuscript museum at the Biblioteca Alexandrina, which is supported by something like $100 million from UNESCO and various governments, is promoting a malicious political agenda by placed the notorious anti-Semitic forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion in a small display case next to a Torah scroll, and describing the text in at least one published interview as if it were a genuine document that "has become one of the sacred [tenets] of the Jews." Such statements have become routine in the (government-supported) Egyptian media, but it is shocking to see that the infection has penetrated to an internationally-oriented institution that pretends to want to "became the matrix for a new spirit of critical inquiry". I'd describe Dr. Ziedan's views as chillingly nutty, and the Egyptian social context that validates them as appalling.
The new Alexandria library has established ties not only with governments, politicians and NGOs from around the world, but also with major public intellectuals like Umberto Eco and Brewster Kahle. They're drawn by the vision, the publicity and I suppose also partly by the money, which can be used to promote good works such as Kahle's Internet Archive. I don't mean to suggest that such people are complicit in Ziedan's gesture, nor even that they've been aware of it. But it will be interesting to see how widely the see-no-evil approach of the European Union will be duplicated in this case.]
Posted by Mark Liberman at December 2, 2003 11:11 PM

http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000183.html

5. As if this bigoted claptrap wasn't enough, this same Dr. Ziedan maintains a hate-filled website with material even worse. This is not only a glance at the cultural problems of the Muslims Middle East, but also a shining example of just how low the United Nations has sunk. This is hardly an isolated incident. The UN for decades has been a haven for rogue states, an enabler of hatred like anti-Semitism and genocide. Yet for some inexplicable reason, this is the organization which many want to subordinate our country to because of their supposed higher moral authority. Yeah right. They can keep that "moral authority" and stick it. This despicable display gives creedence to the saying that copies are never as good as the original. If this is the kind of "knowledge" they wish to disseminate, perhaps the Muslims should do us all a favor and torch this Alexandria Library just like they did the ancient one.

http://john-betts.blogspot.com

6. Whenever I find myself slipping and thinking the Arab world will abandon its pathological anti-Jewish hatred in my lifetime , a story like this sends me back to earth.
This isn't some poverty-stricken religious fundamentalist lashing out his understandable rage at the Zionist oppressors, folks. It's a freaking museum director, in a country which had its "occupied" land returned by Israel in the late 1970s in exchange for a peace treaty. That a man like this could advance to such an important position tells you all you need to know about what kind of deal the Israelis got.

www.damianpenny.com

7. Dr. Ziedan maintains a website "for heritage and manuscripts" where he posts, among other things, articles that he writes. In his article "WWW and the Informatics Plexus [sic]," Dr. Ziedan writes of the difference between reality and reporting on reality:
"...There is no doubt that every 'news item' originates in a [particular] event, but the distance between the event and the news item is great... I will give an example: When Hitler's atrocities are mentioned, [people] immediately point out the cremation of the Jews in the gas chambers. This happens because of the knowledge that is passed on regarding the Holocaust.
"This is knowledge that has reached the world via a diverse stream of information from journalists' reports, historical research, compensation, [the] unceasing buzz in the media, and films such as Schindler's List which made the entire world cry and which was banned in our country [Egypt] so that we won't cry too over the fate of the poor Jews!"
'Only 1 Million Jews Were Killed by the Nazis... There Wasn't Enough Cyanide'
"What is important is that the information arrived, but what about reality? In reality, 50,000,000 fell victim to the Nazis, among them 1,000,000 Jews and the rest Gypsies, Poles, and other nations. In reality, an analysis of samples from the purported gas chambers has proven that these were sterilization chambers, without a sufficient quantity of cyanide to kill.
"In reality, had Hitler wanted to annihilate the Jews of Europe, he would have. He had an opportunity. The distance between events and widespread knowledge about them is great."

http://www.memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD61903

9. Dr. Ziedan is an appointed government official in good standing with the strongmen who rule Egypt. His views represent the common view of Egyptian society and the Arab world, which is hobbled with hatred to the point that truth is meaningless. This is the kind of ignorance and prejudice we are up against in dealing with the Arab Muslim world and what makes it an inferior civilization.

http://www.conpro.blogspot.com

10. "I didn't expect all of this fuss," Ziedan told the AP by phone from Alexandria. "It caused a big stir, while there is no issue. There was no need for such huge intervention."
When asked about who was behind the "intervention," he replied, "Jewish pressure."

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=
JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1070694833075&p=1008596981749

11. The Wiesenthal Center's Director for International Liaison, Dr. Shimon Samuels, also requested Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, to condition continued Italian funding of the Alexandria Library upon the definitive withdrawal of the Protocols from display, the dismissal of its current Director and a public condemnation by the Library of the pernicious nature of 'The Protocols' which violates European Union provisions on incitement to hate and defiles an ancient monument of World Heritage.

http://www.wiesenthal.com/index.cfm