Brace yourselves. What you’re about to read, at least for some of you, might come across as anti-American, pro-terrorist and just plain offensive:

“The so-called Arab Spring has raised hopes of greater freedom, stability and rule of law in the Arab world, thus helping the Arabs re-invent the way they view themselves and the world around them. But will such hopes ultimately bloom into positive change in Arab-U.S. relations, or are those relations condemned to remain rocky regardless of whether the Arab Spring ultimately blooms or withers?”

This provocative question comes to us from Abderrahim Foukara, the head of U.S. operations for the Arab news network Al Jazeera. He’ll attempt to answer it July 28, when he appears at The Strand Theatre in Rockland to deliver the keynote speech at the annual fundraising gala for the General Henry Knox Museum in nearby Thomaston.

I’m going — and not just because the event is sponsored by MaineToday Media and I managed to finagle a couple of tickets.

No, I’m going because I have this gut feeling I might learn something.

Provided, that is, I’m able to hear him over the din of protesters who hear the name “Al Jazeera” and … how do I put this tactfully … frantically start digging holes in the sand. For their heads.

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It all started logically enough.

Each year, the museum holds a fundraiser to support its mission of honoring Knox, a hero of the American Revolution best known for getting 59 cannons and other pieces of artillery from upstate New York to Boston in 56 days in the winter of 1775-76.

Without firing a round from their perch atop Dorchester Heights, the guns chased a fleet of British warships from Boston Harbor and thus ended King George III’s 11-month siege of Boston.

Put more simply, Knox was a freedom fighter — and a pretty darned good one at that — before he came to Maine to live out his life as a businessman.

Hence it made sense, at least to the museum’s board, to look at the popular uprisings in recent months in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Syria, Libya, Algeria and various other Arab nations and consider the obvious connection between what happened here more than 200 years ago and what’s happening over there right now.

And who better to shed a little light on that than Foukara, who earned his Ph.D. in African studies from the University of Glasgow before working for 12 years with the British Broadcasting Corp. and then joining Al Jazeera in 2002?

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Now if you actually digest your news before reacting to it, you probably already know that Al Jazeera has come a long way since the days when the Bush administration told everyone who would listen that the network was nothing more than a public-relations front for al-Qaida and as anti-American an operation as you’ll ever see.

You know that these days, coverage of the “Arab Spring” by Al Jazeera’s five-year-old English channel has become must-see TV for those who want to know, in depth and with a much-needed dash of cultural context, exactly what’s behind all those chaotic crowd shots and bloody government reprisals.

You might even have noticed in March when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, speaking to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, lauded Al Jazeera for its “real news” coverage of the Arab uprisings while the “talking heads” on American cable channels — that’s you, Fox, and you too, MSNBC — did little to inform Americans as to what the heck was going on over there.

Which brings us back to those hole diggers.

As news of Foukara’s appearance spreads throughout Maine and beyond this week, Maine’s tea party movement finds itself in full boil over the Knox museum’s decision to commemorate one revolution by learning more about another.

“I am sickened at this madness!” wrote one Kerry Zimmerman on the Maine Tea Party/Maine Refounders website.

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“Maybe its time to take these traitors out and put on a demonstration as to what was done to traitors back during the Revolutionary War time period. … Just a thought!” suggested someone who goes by Jonathan D. Yellowbear.

But of all the screamers, my favorite was Mackenzie Andersen of East Boothbay, who told WCSH-TV’s Don Carrigan she couldn’t understand why the museum folks invited Foukara to speak.

“It seems like they want to destroy us — I mean, jihad does,” observed Andersen.

“Do you believe that Al Jazeera is a front for terrorism?” asked a poker-faced Carrigan.

“Yes, I do,” replied Andersen. “It recruits for jihad and … the first stage in America would be just creating this respectability.”

So that’s it. Foukara isn’t coming to Rockland to share his knowledge (for no fee, by the way). He’s on the lookout for potential jihadists — and what better place to do that than the craggy coast of Maine!

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Time will tell just how much of a brouhaha this becomes.

Act for America, a national group whose mission is to “educate and mobilize Americans regarding the multiple threats of radical Islam,” put out a “Northeast Action Alert” on Wednesday urging its followers to “sound off” about this “travesty.”

And Maine tea party leader “Pete the Carpenter” Harring of Standish, who last made headlines when he was invited to join the transition team of Gov. Paul LePage, is talking about picketing the speech and, if he can find it, a reception that follows. (To keep the peace, organizers have moved the reception from the Camden National Bank office in Rockland to an undisclosed private location.)

Foukara, meanwhile, couldn’t be reached for comment this week because he’s away from his Washington, D.C., office on business. But if you’re still wondering where this guy’s coming from, consider what he had to say about the Arab protesters back in March in an interview with Time magazine.

“They are demonstrating for something a lot of Americans understand well, something Americans have understood for over 200 years,” Foukara said. “That is democracy.”

The words of a Muslim extremist? Wait, there’s more.

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“And my hope is that the light that came out of Cairo over those three weeks would change not just the Arab world and its view of America but also change American views of the Arab world,” Foukara said. “Then we’re getting somewhere.”

Want to hear more?

Call the General Henry Knox Museum at 354-8062 for a ticket to Foukara’s speech.

It beats getting sand in your ears.

Columnist Bill Nemitz can be contacted at 791-6323 or at bnemitz@mainetoday.com

 


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