"Best of Sicily" Fraud

February 14, 2005

On the surface, Best of Sicily (BoS) looks like a harmless travel and tourism site. But dig a little deeper and you'll find references to Sicily as "African" and Sicilians as "descended from Arabs". Move on to the site's History section and the editors' multi-cultural and multi-racial agenda becomes overtly clear. They've turned Sicily into a diverse island whose inhabitants are an even mix of all of its different settlers and conquerors over the centuries, ignoring cultural factors that may have acted as barriers to intermarriage with certain groups, and projecting their own modern obsession with "cultural harmony" onto ancient and medieval populations.

Upon being confronted with contemporary scientific data on Sicilian Origins that shatters their unsupported fantasies, the site's editors, instead of welcoming the new information, responded with a long-winded exercise in denial called Genetics & Anthropology in Sicily. Not surprisingly, it applies all of the old tricks Nordicists and Afrocentrists use to prove what isn't true, like referencing outdated material on sickle cell and other blood groups (they call a 1978 study "the best kind of research currently available"), giving precedence to speculations based on historical records, and rationalizing it all with vague half-truths and tirades against people with dissenting opinions. Whatever it takes to avoid the facts I've collected, of which they've been well aware for some time now.

You see, they have found my site useful for some things, like obtaining photos of Sicilian models to pretty up their Genetics page. But they don't dare divulge the source, and they absolutely will not post any of the relevant genetic data—though they're quick to dismiss it indirectly, going so far as to warn their readers against "[t]he existence of other, seemingly conflicting, studies, seeking to identify other gene markers possibly irrelevant to migration history, or incompletely documented, or cited out of context". Can you smell the desperation?

The reason they do all this is obvious: They know the available evidence categorically disproves their propaganda, and they can't risk their visitors being exposed to the truth, or even to any interpretation that threatens to undo the elaborate myth they've created. To put it plainly, they're liars and cowards, no different from the Neo-Nazi and Black Power revisionists targeted by my website (who, incidentally, often quote from BoS to further their agendas). But they get away with it by wrapping their politics in a deceptively neutral package. The average visitor to the site inevitably falls for it, but there's no reason you should.

So if you happen to come across a website that endorses BoS, I would urge you to send the webmaster a link to this blog entry, with a carbon copy to the BoS editors. Or you could just e-mail the link directly to the editors with an expression of disapproval (but don't expect a reply). Also, if you see their site referenced in a forum as support for some outrageous claim, you might want to direct the offender(s) to this page as well. The BoS crew has done such a thorough job of maintaining its deception that this is the only way to get the truth out.

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Here are some keywords to make sure that when this blog item gets indexed, it'll appear with Best of Sicily in search results: Palermo, Catania, Messina, Siracusa, Agrigento, Cefalù, Monreale, Taormina film festival, Mount Etna, cities, towns, culture, society, trip, vacation, car rentals, hotels, restaurants, cuisine, food, wine, arts, books, heritage, genealogy, ethnology, Saracens, Moors, Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Normans, online magazine, Italy, Italians.

4 comments

teething symptoms said...

I read it and I thought it was a fraud. now that I read this I hear that it was a huge fraud, it is disappointing but I appreciate the information you gave me!

Günter said...

BofS is not only a fraud but a big joke!!!
New studies have reconfirmed the strong homogeneous genetic composition between Sicily and Southern Italy.

Vittorio Amato said...

Best (worst) of Sicily is a pathetic website who called sicilians as a mix between europeans, africans and asians despite real modern genetics denies them.
It's just a joke but dangeroos because we know perfectly what kind of stereotypes there are against sicilians and generally italians in the US.
I'm not italian american but full italian born and raised in Sicily and i'm too angry when i read some of those bullshits in the web.

Unknown said...

Yes, I've fought these LIAR FRAUD COWARD TROLLS all over You Tube, in particular the video "Are Italians White" by a "King Pure White" and they linked that BoS site He never reveals himself, and has dozens of his troll buddies disguised under every ethnicity under the sun. It took a while to figure out who and what they are because they're too cowardly to reveal themselves but you're right, they're sometimes American Southerners hicks, or Neo's or Black revisionist. I tried getting info about those running that site, but the cowards hide under false names, ID's just as they do on You Tube and it's virtually impossible.

Do you have any new info that reveals their ID's, including those on YT?