Jacky Chamoun on the Lebanon topless pictures controversy
By Ray Hanania
Are we not surprised that there are some very tightly wound people who live in the Arab World?
This week, word got out that there were some pictures of Jacky Chamoun, Lebanon’s contender in the Sochi 2014 Olympic’s Downhill Skiing competition, topless that are circulating on the Internet. Turns out that Chamoun did pose for an Austrian Calendar layout three years ago topless. You can see her full breasts in the photos and video that have been published by a Lebanese website.
Right away, Lebanon’s Minister for Youth and Sports, Faisal Karami, came down hard on Chamoun demanding that the country initiate an investigation and declaring what she did brought shame to Lebanon.
“Shame to Lebanon?”
How about the fact that Lebanon has seen a dozen leaders literally blown up in massive bombings right in the center of downtown Beirut over the years, including the killing of the popular former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri in front of the St. George Hotel. Several members of Hezbollah, the radical Shi’ite Lebanese militia that has been declared a terrorist organization, are suspects in that bombing and were probably involved in many of the others. Yet the Hariri murder took pace on Feb. 14, 2005, exactly nine years ago this week. And still justice has not been served.
Maybe Karami should be screaming about how slow the wheels of justice move in Lebanon when it comes to addressing real serious issues like mass murder, bombings and the massive destruction of huge areas of the city’s business district. Instead, he is screaming because one of only two Lebanese athletes was able to qualify to participate in this year’s Winter Olympics.
That’s the crime. In fact, there are only four total Arabs competing in the Winter Olympics. Two from Lebanon and two from Morocco. What, no one in the Arab World knows how to ski? That’s a joke since the rich and fabulously wealthy spend fortunes skiing and gambling and hanging out at nude beaches in France and throughout Europe. They spend billions on waste and luxury and extravagance. Maybe someone should complain about or investigate those practices.
But that’s not the way the Arab World works. There are too many fanatics and extremists in the Arab World. They love to tell other people how to live, but rarely practice what they preach.
Social media exploded with vicious attacks against Chamoun who admitted she did pose topless in the photo shoot. She said she regretted any embarrassment it might bring to some of her countrymen and women, who she noted are “conservative.”
Chamoun sounds exactly like the kind of person Lebanon’s leadership needs. Someone not willing to be bullied by the “moral” police.
She doesn’t wear a Hijab and she is not a religious fundamentalist like many of those in the Middle East. She is Westernized and there is nothing wrong with that. But according to the religious fanatics, being “Western” is “haram” (a sin in Arabic). No, the religious fanatics are the “haram.” If people don’t like the fact that Chamoun posed topless, they should should turn off their computers, exit social media and stop looking at the pictures. Most of all they should fix their own problems and stop whining about the problems of others.
But they can’t. It’s one of the problems of the religious fanatics, who by the way are not limited to Muslims like Karami or even Christians or Jews. There are religious fanatics from all religions who want to impose their conservative “modesty” on everyone else.
You know, Arabs love to point to the Catholic Church and point to the many dozens of stories and scandals involving Priests who have molested young boys and children. The fact is that at least the Catholic Church operates in the light of day. If any Muslim claims that some of their clerics are not engaged int he same kind of despicable behavior, they are lying. The difference is in the West, scandal is acknowledged and publicly prosecuted. In the Middle East, no one would dare expose the hypocrisies that plague the religious leadership there but that remains hidden behind an “omerta” of silence.
I would rather have 100 more Jacky Chamoun’s representing the Arab World than the bombers, murderers, terrorists, fanatics, extremist morons and religious hypocrites who have laid claim to be our representatives.
I also wish we had more Arabs competing in the Winter Olympics, which has been condemned by many religious Arabs as “haram” also. I wish more would compete in the Summer Olympics two years from now. We need to tell the religious fanatics to shut up and stop telling others how to live. Let them live in their own shells with their bodies and minds wrapped up in burlap, and let the rest of us live the way we want.
Just as Social Media erupted in criticism of Jacky Chamoun, the public outcry is reversing. Many are now supporting Jacky Chamoun and urging women to “Strip for Jacky” and “Strip for Freedom.” Click here to read the articles.
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Hanania also writes about Middle East issues for the Arab News, and The Arab Daily News criticizing government policies in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Hanania was named "Best Ethnic American Columnist" by the New America Media in November 2007, and is the 2009 recipient of the SPJ National Sigma Delta Chi Award for column writing.
Email Ray Hanania at rghanania@gmail.com.
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Well, that’s one version : ) … Yes, Hanania is a Hebrew Name and I am sure my ancestors were Hebrews who concerted to Christianity (as did many Hebrews and Romans in the centuries after Jesus was born. But the issue of being Arab or not being Arab is ridiculous, though. Like all cultures, there is no such thing as an American, for example. A lot of descendants of Europeans, etc. But if you believe you are American, then you are American. Arab culture and the language is rich, and I am proud to be part of it. But I respect your opinion. Actually, my argument undercuts claims by Israelis that they are the Chosen People. Hebrews who converted to Christianity are the Chosen People and Israel belongs to us.