Topic: WorldNetDaily
Joseph Farah devotes his Dec. 6 WorldNetDaily column to remembering Nelson Mandela by trashing him, under the headline "Don't Mourn for Mandela":
Maybe you say: “But Farah, he was fighting against the evil of Apartheid!”
Yes, that is true. Apartheid was inarguably an evil and unjustifiable system. But so is the system Mandela’s revolution brought about – one in which anti-white racism is so strong today that a prominent genocide watchdog group has labeled the current situation a “precursor” to the deliberate, systematic elimination of the race.
In other words, the world has been sold a bill of goods about Mandela. He wasn’t the saintly character portrayed by Morgan Freeman. He wasn’t someone fighting for racial equality. He was the leader of a violent, Communist revolution that has nearly succeeded in all of its grisly horror.
If apartheid was so evil, why does WND employ a columnist, Ilana Mercer, who laments the end of that evil system?
And as we've previously noted, the group that labeled the current situation in South Afrida "a 'precursor' to the deliberate, systematic elimination of the race" has since reduced its alert level.
Farah also writes:
You will read today many stories describing Mandela as a “political prisoner.”
In fact, he served 27 years in prison for 23 specific acts of sabotage and attempting to overthrow the government.
It was only a year ago that some of the international press began to report the truth about Mandela for the first time. Last December, the London Telegraph reported that, indeed, the records showed Mandela was not only a member of the South African Communist Party, he held a “senior rank.”
By the way, Mandela was offered his freedom while incarcerated many times. All he had to do was renounce terrorism. He wouldn’t do it.
Farah leaves out a lot of context. Given that much of the Western world, incluiding the United States, condoned if not outright supported pro-apartheid governments in South Africa, Mandela had to find support from somewhere.
Farah's claim that Mandela stayed in prison only because he refused to renounce terrorism ignores what Mandela actually said on the subject:
What freedom am I being offered while the organisation of the people remains banned? What freedom am I being offered when I may be arrested on a pass offence? What freedom am I being offered to live my life as a family with my dear wife who remains in banishment in Brandfort? What freedom am I being offered when I must ask for permission to live in an urban area? What freedom am I being offered when I need a stamp in my pass to seek work? What freedom am I being offered when my very South African citizenship is not respected?
Only free men can negotiate. Prisoners cannot enter into contracts.
In other words, his freedom would be meaningless in a country that still practiced apartheid.
Finally, we suspect that Farah's disdain for Mandela "attempting to overthrow the government" doesn't similarly apply to anyone attempting to overthrow the Obama administration, like WND columnists Larry Klayman and Erik Rush.
(P.S. Yes, the above image is really the cover of the current issue of WND Weekly.)
