I'cant say I am not disappointed. For weeks I, and other like me have been following the blog of one Amina Arraf, supposedly a half American half Syrian gay girl living in Damascus and actively participating in the Syrian uprising. we all thought "she" was courages to come out as a gay, a girl, and a protester and be so vocal in her criticism of the Syrian regime and the Butcher of Syria, the Tyrant Bashar al Assad. We followed "Amina" with a great deal of interest, never doubted her credibility. "She" wrote with a passionate fluency, and caught our hearts, not just with her criticism of the Syrian regime, but also with her stories of love, life and coming out as a lesbian in the Arab world, normally considered to be too conservative and intolerant of homosexuality. The details in "her" writing where too good, too clear, and too precise that we did not doubt her authenticity, even those of us who should have known better. (I suppose some of us, me included, wanted to believe in her for our own reasons.
A week ago, a person purporting to be her cousin, Rania, posted a message telling us of the horrible way in which Amina had been adducted by the Syrian regime. We all believed it. And we created a storm on the internet to bring attention to her plight and demand her release. The cause spreed like wiled fire.
a few days later, we started to learn that she may not have existed at all. "she" used pictures from someone else on face book and claimed them for herself. That was the beginning of the unraveling of the the true story of Amina, or should I say Tom MacMaster, who is neither a girl, nor a lesbian, nor Syrian, nor in Damascus for that matter.
I am glad that this disgraceful act did not continue further than it has, and I , for one, am glad that MacMaste had finally come out to revel the truth.
Now a lot can be said about this whole incident and many of us feel like fools for believing it. more so the reporters who actually "interviewed" her by email and quoted "her" on various occasions. This, if anything signifies the dwindling quality of journalists in the 21st century. Clearly, there exists a problem with the way news is being reported, or not reported, and how thoroughly the media, or rather how in-thoroughly, they conduct their background checks.
Yes, I am upset that I, and others, have been made fools of. But honestly, I am glad things turned out this way. For one thing, at least this girl that we all though had been abducted by the Syrian regime, was going to be tortured and maybe killed, will not meet this fate. Real or not, Syrian prisons are worse than hell, especially right now with people being tortured to death. I am glad that this fictitious character is not in one of those prisons. But there are thousands of other, real Syrians that do exists, whom are roting away in those torture prisons and who's fate is unknown and not looking good in any way.
also if anything, Tom, under the guise of Amina, has helped raise more awareness about the plight of the Syrian people, and for that and his superb writing skills and for finally coming out with the truth, he deserves to be thanked. More so for teaching us and the journalists and important lesson, which I don'd think he intended to be as such.
So Amina does not exists after all, however, let us not detract from the reality of the situation, there real innocent civilians being abducted every day in Syria, many of them, if not all of them are really being tortured and brutally murdered by the regime and it's tyrant, the Butcher of Syria, Bashar al Assad and his minions.
Free the Syrian People.
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