I can’t decide what part of the joyous homecoming of these Canadian citizens I like better. There’s this from the proud emigrants themselves:
Their mother, Maha Elsamnah, had earlier told CBC television she would be proud to have her children become suicide bombers and said she sent her four sons to al-Qaeda training camps because it was better than raising them in Canada.
“Would you like me to raise my child in Canada and by the time he’s 12 or 13 to be on drugs or having some homosexual relation or this and that?” she said.
You have to admit, the phrase “homosexual relation or this and that” is priceless – subtle, measured, and displaying a keen grasp of socio-gender relations. But there there’s this, brought to you by the reporters with no help at all from the quotable mother (emphasis mine):
His mother, her face partially hidden by a white veil, walked slowly behind her son, tears welling up in her eyes.
This is a picture of the doting mother, whose face is indeed “partially hidden”:
It’s a minor thing, I know, but this subtle white-washing of radical Islam is too pervasive. Why “partially hidden”? Why not “almost completely hidden”? Why not “covered”? They flow just as well, and they’re really more accurate. The reporters went with “partially hidden” to avoid even the risk of insulting the sensitivities of Muslims. Because what’s important is not offending a culture that says that women and homosexuals aren’t people.
