So, what do you think of Bin Laden? So Majdi An-Nashshar, the Egyptian chemist who was freed Tuesday after three weeks in custody for questioning about deadly bombings in London, gave his first Arab TV interview yesterday on Al-Amirkiyya (also known as Al-Arabiyya) TV. He was on the program Bil-`Arabi hosted by Gizelle Khuri, who I find the most annoying person on TV the world over. She in fact annoys me more than Larry King, and is a Lebanonese patriot to boot. An-Nashshar was hoping to exonerate himself with the interview. She asked him all the silly questions that you expect from her. She even asked him whether he is willing to stand for trial in UK. He was most confused. How can he stand for trial in UK, when he is not accused of anything in UK, at least thus far? She asked whether as an Egyptian Muslim chemist he wants to be like the Egyptian Nobel Laureate in chemistry, Ahmad Zuwayl. She asked him that question the way you ask a 4-year old about what he/she wants to be when he/she grows up. He wanted to make it clear that while he is a believing and religious Muslim, he believes that Islam is a religion of moderation, etc. And then he really harmed his own cause in the last segment. She asked him what he thought of Usamah bin Laden. He laughed, and asked her why she was asking him that question. And then he gave an unusual answer: he said that he did not know Bin Laden, and that he cannot judge him as a person, and that he does not know about Bin Laden's intentions. He said that he is opposed to the random violence that we saw in UK and US, but that he does not know of Bin Laden's role. At that point, I felt that the chances of him removing the stigma off his name, certainly in the Western world where he expressed his desire to attend academic conferences and workshops, are now quite remote. I do not know Bush, Saddam or Bin Laden: but I can easily judge them and judge their intentions based on their "work" and violent deeds. An-Nashshar really sounded like an admirer of Bin Laden, even if he did not intend to sound as one.