Simon Deng on "Hannity and Colmes" - Well Done!

Kudos to my friend Simon Deng for standing up to Sean Hannity on Fox News by speaking the truth.

Simon was invited on the show this evening to discuss the "Bear Named Mohamed" story out of Sudan. The segment aired toward the end of the show and was just a few minutes long.

The piece began with images from the staged "protests" in Khartoum today, with Hannity's voice intoning: "Thousands of Sudanese citizens, armed with clubs and knives rallied in downtown Khartoum today; they are demanding Jillian Gibbons [the teacher whose students voted to name their class teddy-bear Mohamed] be executed for what they say was an insult on their religion. Gibbons was convicted and sentenced Thursday to 15 days in prison."

Hannity then introduced the guests, former slave and Sudan Freedom Walk founder Simon, and Nasser Weddady of the American Islamic Congress. After the introductions Hannity asked Weddady if he thought it was appropriate to call for the teacher's death. Weddady called it "outrageous, fabricated and bogus outrage that is intended by the Sudanese government to cover up its discredited policies."

Hannity interrupted him to push back, "You say it's the government, but there are people out there that are, that are [sic] protesting themselves and they're calling for the death of this woman."

Weddady replied coolly, "Yes, Sean. Actually, I lived under a dictatorship just like Sudan's. This is fabricated outrage. These people cannot do anything without the consent of the government. If the government didn't want this to happen, all of this would go away. All of this is in the hands of Omar Hassan Al-Bashir [Sudan's dictator-president]."

Flummoxed, Hannity turned to Simon, a politically conservative Christian from Southern Sudan (who was himself enslaved by Arab Muslims as child). "Simon, let me go to you... They're talking about lashings, they're talking originally about even a longer jail sentence in this particular case. We've had the incidents, for example, you know, going back to The Satanic Verses, and Salman Rushdie. You could take it back to the cartoon in Denmark. Why is their reaction such fierce reaction? I don't like it when my religion is assaulted. I don't like it when elephant dung is thrown on a picture of the Virgin Mary. But why are we getting this extreme reaction from some quarters?"

Simon countered, "Actually, I agree with Nasser... that the government of Sudan is behind everything." Hannity was clearly trying to goad Simon into making an anti-Islamic statement, but he didn't know what he was getting into. Though Simon has been given every reason to hate, he has an open heart and an open mind. He has friends who are Muslims, and works with them frequently in his activism for his country.

Simon further invited Weddady and viewers to attend a rally at the Sudanese embassy this Tuesday calling for Jillian Gibbons' immediate release.

He also closed by mentioning the real crimes of Sudan, in Darfur, which have been starkly absent from recent media discussions about the teddy-bear named Mohamed. Simon squeezed in, between being interrupted by the hosts, "When we talk about the crime here, the government of Sudan which [is] killing a little Mohamed in Darfur [every day] is the criminal. The one who is killing and raping women, Muslim women in Darfur, is the criminal."

The story of the bear should be a footnote to daily stories about the atrocities in Sudan, from Darfur to the Nuba Mountains to Khartoum to Simon's native Southern Sudan. But, alas, the media is only interested in the story when it has a fuzzy, smiling, teddy-bear angle. And even then, they don't cover the real story. What a shame.

Simon, as always, thanks for all you do.