When I have seen the somewhat odious headline Alan Sugar - A Jew Who Screamed Racist, I didn't expect to stumble on a story. Not very exciting, but still somewhat interesting...
The author of that article, one Glen Jenvey, is fairly sizzling with indignation:
British Police show that there is one law for the rich and another for the poor, while Alan Sugar who makes money from cheap imports from slave labor mocks Asian Workers on twitter and police claim there is no criminal offence in his Racist vile sick humor at Asian children.
Since at the moment of reading this I didn't know more about Alan Sugar than I knew about Glen Jenvey, the quote sent my fingers on a search. First of all, the offending tweet:
What can I say? The joke is a bit forced and, as far as good taste is concerned, is kind of borderline. However, calling it racist will be quite reaching.
As for the author of the joke,
Alan Michael Sugar, Baron Sugar: undeniably rich and possibly, like any terminally rich man, he has a few skeletons in his closet. However, the fact that he is Jewish is not one of these skeletons, and the reason for repeating that fact no less than five times in a relatively short article escaped me. Statements like "
The police will not arrest Alan Sugar as he is white and Jewish and will pay officers money..." tend to attract attention, wouldn't you agree? So I have decided to look at the author.
And here I was quite surprised. First, to learn that
Glen Jenvey is a British journalist: the English of that article is so atrocious* that it would fit the standard one expects from a North Korean site. Then, there is an illustrious record of Mr Jenvey's heroic deeds, such as infiltration of radical Islamic groups, Tamil Tigers etc, with subsequent exposure of their hateful and genocidal plans.
Then some strange notes appear, introducing dissonance in this song of anti-extremist valor.
On 7 January 2009 the UK tabloid newspaper The Sun ran an exclusive front-page story saying that participants in a discussion on Ummah.com, a British Muslim internet forum, had made a "hate hit list" of British Jews to be targeted by extremists over the 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict.
But then:
The UK magazine Private Eye, later said that Jenvey, posting to the forum under the pseudonym "Abuislam", had in fact created the only evidence that pointed to anything other than a peaceful letter-writing campaign. The story has since been removed from The Sun's website following complaints to the UK's Press Complaints Commission.
The Guardian had some interesting
tidbits to add to the story:
A self-styled terrorism expert who was behind a fabricated Sun front-page story about Lord Sugar and other Jewish figures being on an Islamic extremist hitlist has been arrested on suspicion of inciting religious hatred against Jews.
And here Lord Sugar comes into the picture for the first time:
Sir Alan Sugar, who was named as a terror target in Jenvey's story, instituted legal action against The Sun for publishing the article on 23 February 2009.
So, as you can see, the hero infiltrator has some history with the Jews in general and Sir Alan Sugar in particular.
The story doesn't exactly end here, since:
Jenvey subsequently said he converted to Islam, and released a full apology for the story on 19 August 2009. His apology cited the "chance to install fear back in Jews who were killing Muslims" as his motive.
There is a further denial of that quote, but one thing is sure: Jenvey is a sleazy character with quite a grudge against them Jooz. So be it.
(*) Even if I say so.
Hat tip:
Andrew Ian Dodge.
