By Debbie Schlussel

*** UPDATE: Reader Ralph Adamo points out that Papa Palace Pizza is halal. ***

Several “conservative” websites are shedding tears over an Arab pizza owner’s torched Baltimore shop (a story they ripped off from the mainstream Baltimore media without credit). Not me. And here’s why.

















Several websites from what my friend Adam Taxin aptly calls “Conservative, Inc.” are upset over the torching of an Arab-owned (likely Muslim-owned) pizza shop in Baltimore (including Independent Journal Review and BizPacReview). Moreoever, they’ve repeated the claims of Papa Palace Pizza shop owner, Essam El Ghannam (BizPac calls him Chamman”–yay fact-checking!), that the Baltimore rioters doused him with gasoline and were going to set him on fire. While his pizza shop was indeed burned down, there’s no proof of the rest of his story. But Arabs never lie, right? So, we should take him at his word, just like the mainstream media does, huh?

Here’s why I don’t feel sorry for him: I wonder what Mr. El Ghannam’s views on HAMAS and Hezbollah are. Ghannam is often a Palestinian surname. Sometimes it is Egyptian or Lebanese. It means “shepherd” in Arabic (his first name, “Essam,” means “safeguard” or “security”). He could be Christian, but more likely, he’s Muslim. And, the thing is, I doubt El Ghannam will denounce either of those Islamic terrorist groups mentioned above-both of them terrorist groups that torch innocent civilians’ businesses regularly, especially if they suspect those business owners of being Christian or pro-Israel or, allah-forbid, Evil Zionist. And not only do they torch businesses AND douse people alive with gasoline (a la ISIS Jordanian pilot videos), but they bomb innocent people’s homes. They throw gay people off of ten-story buildings. They drag people through the streets via motorcycle to rip apart and bleed to death.

Does Essam El Ghanam condemn HAMAS and Hezbollah publicly? Don’t bet on it. (Even if he is Christian, which I doubt, most Christian Arabs won’t condemn these groups.) In fact, he probably privately supports them, morally and who knows how else. So sue me if I don’t feel sorry for a member of a group which regularly torches innocent people’s property and takes their lives daily–no, by the moment and the second, when it happens to him. I don’t support this kind of violence, but I don’t shed a tear for an alleged “victim” of it who might also be a moral supporter of it. Unless he’s asked to and specifically does condemn specific Islamic terrorist groups by name, other than Al-Qaeda and ISIS.

Do you know if Mr. El Ghannam belongs to a hateful mosque? Or if he’s giving to hate groups in zakat? Or an anti-Israel, anti-Semitic Arab Church, of which there are plenty in the Detroit area, including St. Mary’s in Livonia, the Arab priest of which regularly marches in pro-HAMAS and pro-Hezbollah rallies. I’m sure there is at least one of the same in the Baltimore area. Do you know where his pizza profits have been going? I don’t. And I’d like to know. But nobody bothered to ask him because we’re not allowed to ask these very legit questions anymore. That would be “hateful” and we’re always lectured now, “Don’t Judge!” Don’t judge Bruce Jenner’s plans to cut off his penis and wear a mesh illusion dress, don’t judge Islamic terrorists, and don’t judge a pizza shop owner because his place was burned down, so nothing he thinks or does is relevant.

Pizza shops are easy places to use to divert funds elsewhere because it’s hard to keep track of how many pizzas were actually made, how much dough and toppings went bad and had to be thrown out for a “loss,” and so on. This is the same reason Islamic terrorists nearby used halal chicken farms to launder terrorist funds.

Do you know if Mr. El Ghannam cheered when Palestinians murdered Jews? When Muslims, like Hezbollah and Al-Qaeda, murdered Americans? No? You don’t know? Then, why feel sorry for him unless you do know for certain he’s worthy of your commiseration?

Yes, it is possible that Essam El Ghannam is Christian and not Muslim. But I don’t know that and neither do you.

Here’s what I do know: I know that another, nearby Baltimore pizza shop was twice involved in helping Islamic terrorists evade authorities. Is Essam El-Ghannam friendly with the owners of Safa Pizza? As I told you on this website, Safa Pizza owners twice helped Muslim illegal aliens planning terrorism on American soil, giving them “employment” there and even hiding them from nationwide manhunts.

When 11 Egyptian Muslim “students” skipped out on their student visa condition of attending school at Montana State University (in fact, they never showed up and, instead spread around the country), two of the “students” were found at Safa Pizza, where they were illegally given jobs. The FBI led the investigation because it was believed this was no longer an immigration investigation, but a terrorism one. Before that, the FBI arrested two Muslim illegal aliens plotting to blow up the Baltimore Fort McHenry and Harbor Tunnels. Guess where they found them employed? You guessed it. The same Muslim pizza shop.

Now, I don’t know if Essam El-Ghannam supports Islamic terrorism. I don’t know if he launders money to Islamic terrorists or fudges numbers (a listing with the State of Maryland shows his company’s status was twice “forfeited” and “not in good standing,” so rather than pay the fees and returns, he kept creating new entities for the pizza shop). But I do know that most Muslims and many Christian Arabs won’t publicly denounce Hezbollah and HAMAS, most won’t endorse Israel’s right to exist, and in fact, most of them quietly–and many not so quietly–cheer when Jews and Americans are murdered by Islamic terrorists. And it’s safe to assume he is the rule, not the microscopic fringe exception. And not an innocent “victim.” The statistics, the cues, and the clues are telling.

Show me Essam El-Ghannam is different.

Until then, no tears from me that rioters torched his pizza place. A pox on his and all of their houses (or public housing projects and mosques and anti-Israel churches).