Mideast knowledge
MacMaster became interested in Palestinian issues during college, his brother, Sam MacMaster, said in a telephone interview.
Sam MacMaster said his brother was offered a full scholarship from Emory University, which he chose for the school’s expertise on the Austro-Goths. Once there, however, MacMaster quickly switched his specialization to Arabic studies. Later, he traveled to Syria and Jordan to perfect his language skills.
Tom MacMaster became the co-director of a peace activist group called Atlanta Palestine Solidarity and traveled to the region. MacMaster said a close friend of his was killed in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. He also said he went to Baghdad during the Persian Gulf War as part of a “student peace mission” trying to deter military action against Iraq.
Sam MacMaster, a professor at the University of Tennessee, recalled a childhood of social activism, including coming to Washington with his brother to hand out origami doves on the steps of the Pentagon to commemorate the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan.
“He enjoys pushing issues at some level,” Sam MacMaster said. “ . . . There’s a Quaker saying, ‘speaking truth to power.’ He takes that very literally.”
Tom MacMaster’s interest in Syria also seems to have been deepened by his 2007 marriage to Britta Froelicher, a woman he met in Georgia through an online dating site. MacMaster said in the interview from Turkey that he and Froelicher traveled to Syria in 2008. In the same interview, Froelicher said she is working on a PhD at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, focusing on Syrian economic development.
While in Syria in 2008, Froelicher and MacMaster posted a photo on Picasa, a photo Web site, showing a billboard of a smiling Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, with the slogan “Syria believes in you.” The newly married couple captioned the photograph, “My favorite little piece of propaganda of all time.”
This year, on May 11, that image — showing the same motorcyclist and pedestrians passing by the billboard — appeared on Amina’s blog. The post was titled, “Irony.”
Widespread concern
The controversy over “A Gay Girl in Damascus” has created anguish among her fans. As suspicions of a hoax grew, many expressed outrage that attention had turned away from the increasingly violent government crackdown in Syria.
The controversy has also angered many in the lesbian and gay community, which rallied around Amina. And it has raised concerns among bloggers who complain that MacMaster exploited their trust and may have jeopardized their ability to use pseudonyms.
The names of MacMaster and Froelicher first appeared in connection with the Damascus blog early Sunday morning on a site called Electronic Intifada. That post went up at 4:24 a.m. Washington time. At 3:08 p.m. MacMaster posted his admission, signing off as Tom MacMaster, “the sole author of all posts on this blog.”
Staff researcher Jennifer Jenkins contributed to this report.
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