THOMASTON, Maine (NEWS CENTER) -- The General Henry Knox Museum in Thomaston --one of Maine's leading historical museums-- has apparently stirred up a modern-day storm of protest.
The museum has invited a representative of Aljazeera, the Arab news network, to be its guest speaker at the museum's annual fund-raising gala on July 23. Museum Executive Director Ellen Dyer says they felt it was a "great opportunity" to promote an open discussion about what is happening in the Middle East, the "Arab Spring" movement for freedom and the prospects for the movement succeeding.
But the decision to invite Dr. Abderahim Foukara, the Washington bureau chief for Aljazeera, has infuriated a number of people, who suggest Aljazeera is a tool of terrorists in the Arab world. Mackenzie Andersen of East Boothbay has posted a number of messages on the "As Maine Goes" website, all harshly critical of the museum for inviting Foukara to speak. In an interview with NEWS CENTER, Andersen said the Arab news organization is "a front for recruiting for Jihad", and does not understand why their representative would be honored by a museum created to honor a hero of the American Revolution. Dyer, the museum director, says Foukara and Aljazeera are not being honored, and that he is simply their guest speaker.
Dyer says the summer gala is an important fund-raising event for the museum and those previous galas have featured guest speakers who are prominent historians or American journalists. Dyer calls the opposition to the speech a "small but vocal group" of people, and says she has also heard from a lot of people who favor the choice of speaker.
NEWS CENTER