Greyson and Loubani's detention in Egypt shows the Canadian left are hypocritical colonialists at heart

After two weeks of a fruit juice diet they dubbed as a "hunger strike," John Greyson and Tarek Loubani have decided to resume eating solid food while remaining detained in a Cairo prison. It must have finally dawned on the pair of narcissistic activists that the Egyptian authorities don't really care if they were to starve themselves to death.

If anything, were Greyson and Loubani to die in prison, it could serve the Egyptians' purposes by providing an example to other activist dilettantes intending to come to their country to interfere in a volatile domestic political crisis.  But of course it would never have come to that. Greyson and Loubani are the type to make self-promoting, but not suicidal gestures.

To understand the antipathy Egyptians have towards Greyson, Loubani and foreigners like them, it helps to know a little about Egypt in the months leading up to their arrest. The Muslim Brotherhood is a totalitarian, misogynistic, homophobic, jihadist group that, during its brief time controlling Egypt under the government of Mohammed Morsi, attempted to snatch dictatorial powers for themselves.

The "anti-democratic" coup by the army denounced by western supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood and their useful idiot accomplices was in fact a response to enormous demonstrations of millions of Egyptians calling for Morsi's removal. These protests were far larger than even those that instigated the end of Hosni Mubarak's presidency, with almost half of Egypt's voting population calling for new elections. 

Thought Mosri`s removal had widespread support from Egyptians, after a taste of power,  the Muslim Brotherhood is committed to seizing it back, by any means, including violence, though public opinion in Egypt remains strongly opposed to them.

During this time, the Gaza strip, controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood sub-group, Hamas, has been a staging point for terror attacks against Egypt in the Sinai.  Egypt has come to consider Gaza an enemy and has almost completely cut off links between them and that Palestinian territory.

It was amid all this that John Greyson and Tarek Loubani decided to enter the fray by ignoring a Canadian travel advisory about travelling to Egypt in order to ignore another Canadian travel advisory about travelling to Gaza.

Greyson and Loubani are hardcore anti-Israel zealots whose activism has lent tacit support to Hamas. The duo, individually, have cost the Canadian taxpayers large sums through their staged histrionics that required diplomatic service intervention.

But this time, instead of dealing with Israel, a liberal democracy which respects rule of law and due process, they provoked the authorities in a country where such protections are barely in place.

Unable to make their way to Gaza, Greyson and Loubani were stuck in Cairo for a few days. These two were by no means innocents abroad. Greyson is a leader of the fanatical, anti-capitalist nitwits Queers Against Israeli Apartheid and Loubani has worked with the International Solidarity Movement, a group that has voluntarily acted as human shields for terrorists and approves of "armed resistance."  On the day of their arrest, they had joined a Muslim Brotherhood `Day of Rage`demonstration, following which they were arrested and detained.

There are conflicting reports from the pair and their supporters, many of which strain credulity, but so far no cogent explanation of what would have possessed two Canadians waiting to engage in alleged "humanitarian work" to get involved with an Islamist protest that had been declared illegal by Egypt's government.

Remarkably, in advocating for their comrades Greyson and Loubani,  the Canadian radical left that professes "anti-colonialist" and "anti-imperialist" politics have engaged in condescending behavior that mirrors that of any contemporary so-called imperialist and colonialist.

Stephen Harper has declared that “in the absence of charges, Dr. Loubani and Mr. Greyson should be released immediately" which, coming from the Canadian Prime Minister, is a forceful statement. But hypocrites on the radical left who routinely decry Canada's "imperialist" interference abroad want what would be considered  their white-supremacist, hegemonic will in the `critical race theory` of which they are so fond, to trump Egypt's legal process.

Greyson's and Loubani's supporters in Canada, including perennial activists like Judy Rebick and the fatuous polemicist Naomi Klein, are demanding Egypt release their friends regardless of the circumstances.

On the far-left media outlet Democracy Now, Klein said, "in Stephen Harper’s statements, he’s left himself this very unsettling loophole, where he keeps saying, "In the absence of charges, these men should be freed." ...we haven’t heard our government say, "These men are innocent. They were doing their jobs. They must be released right now." And that’s what we’re waiting for. "

Foreigners are not at all popular in Egypt right now, thanks in part to Barack Obama's foreign policy blunders in dealing with the government, but also for their perceived interference in the internal affairs of a very proud nation. Another factor is that even a cursory survey of Egyptian news sources readily reveals that the Muslim Brotherhood, which Greyson and Loubani are accused of assisting, are widely considered by Egypt`s media and public to be a terrorist group. Compound that with the fact that the pair were en route to offer help to Gaza, controlled by another group the Egyptians consider terrorists and upon whom they are reportedly about to launch a large scale military strike.

Imagine how Canada's pompous declarations must sound to Egyptians. It would be as if two Jihadi terrorists planning an attack in Canada were arrested here and the government of Sudan demanded we ignore our own legal process and release them immediately.

Only a fool would expect Egypt to act any differently to such demands than we would under those circumstances.

Klein goes further, declaring that Canada should essentially declare a trade war and embargo on Egypt unless they accede to her demands to release Loubani and Greyson.

Greyson and Loubani are a pair of radicals who got in way over their heads, but did so of their own volition and against their own government's advice.

Two western fanatics decided to go to the Middle East to interfere in the internal affairs of other people in another country where they were not wanted . When Naomi Klein's friends do it, she calls them "humanitarians."  But if it were anyone else, one can safely assume the radical left would be denouncing them as "imperialists" and "colonialists" who got what they deserved.