I
remember recently mentioning in a book or a blog, forget which, that the media
in Scotland stopped reporting or attributing crimes specifically committed by
Muslim immigrants because they believed in Muslim immigration as a policy and
did not want to jeopardize that policy.
It is known as “having an agenda” and
should not be practiced by media, government, law enforcement, or other agencies
or departments in which the truth is an absolute necessity. Many people here and
in Europe convert to this religion, without really knowing anything about
it—thanks to all of those hateful people with agendas. Of course, the converts
have been convinced by the nice-sounding verses read to them from the Quran,
verses which have already been abrogated centuries ago (a fact always withheld
from the novice) and replaced with verses much more violent against Christians
and Jews in particular and non-Muslims in general.
When you withhold the truth
from people who should know, you are covering up the truth and are in
partnership with the evil itself. When one hides the fact that Muslims slaughter
Christians and Jews because they believe it is the will of Allah, how can one
keep that information from the American people who are now interacting with
Muslims here who want their religion to be paramount, and then the only religion
here? It is not only disgraceful; one can make a good argument that it is
criminal!
Some people have used hadiths they know to be invalid to justify FGM
that harmed or killed young girls. Are they not just as guilty of child-abuse
and homicide?
It
is time for the American media to report it when one religion persecutes and
murders people of another religion, especially to the extent it is being
practiced by Muslims world-wide.
And
now please read the following article from the Middle East Forum, written by
Raymond Ibrahim and sent to me by Dr. History from the Middle East Radio Forum
(960 AM KKNT noon – 1 PM Arizona time Sundays).
|
How
the Media Whitewashes Muslim Persecution of
Christians
by
Raymond Ibrahim
Gatestone Institute April 13, 2012
When
it comes to Muslim persecution of Christians, the mainstream media (MSM) has a
long paper trail of obfuscating; while they eventually do state the bare-bone
facts—if they ever report on the story in the first place, which is rare—they do
so after creating and sustaining an aura of moral relativism that minimizes the
Muslim role.
False
Moral Equivalency
As
previously discussed, one of
the most obvious ways is to evoke "sectarian strife" between Muslims and
Christians, a phrase that conjures images of two equally matched—equally abused,
and abusive—adversaries fighting. This hardly suffices to describe reality:
Muslim majorities persecuting largely passive Christian
minorities.
Most
recently, for instance, in the context of the well-documented suffering of
Christians in Egypt, an NPR report declared
"In Egypt, growing tensions between Muslims and Christians have led to sporadic
violence [initiated by whom?]. Many Egyptians blame the interreligious strife on
hooligans [who?] taking advantage of absent or weak security forces. Others
believe it's because of a deep-seated mistrust between Muslims and the minority
Christian community [ how did the "mistrust" originate?]." Though the report
does highlight cases where Christians are victimized, the tone throughout
suggests that examples of Muslims victimized by Christians could just as easily
have been found (not true). Even the title of the report is "In Egypt,
Christian-Muslim Tension is on the Rise"; the accompanying photo is of a group
of angry Christians, one militantly holding a cross aloft—not Muslims destroying
crosses, which is what prompts the former to such displays of religious
solidarity.
Two
more strategies that fall under the MSM's umbrella of obfuscating and minimizing
Islam's role—strategies that the reader should become acquainted with—appeared
in recent reports dealing with the jihadi group Boko Haram and its ongoing
genocide of Nigeria's Christians.
First,
some context: Boko Haram, whose full name in Arabic is "Sunnis for Da'wa
[Islamization] and Jihad," is a terrorist organization dedicated to the
overthrow of the secular government and establishment of Sharia law (sound
familiar?). It has been slaughtering Christians for years, with an uptick since
last December's Christmas day
church bombing, which left 40 Christians dead, followed by its New
Year ultimatum that all Christians must evacuate northern regions or die—an
ultimatum Boko Haram has been living up to, as hardly a day goes by without a
terrorist attack on Christians or churches, most recently, last Sunday's Easter day church attack that killed nearly
50.
Blurring
the Line between Persecutor and Victim
Now
consider some MSM strategies. The first one is to frame the conflict between
Muslims and Christians in a way that blurs the line between persecutor and
victim, for example, this recent BBC report on one of Boko Haram's many
church attacks that left three Christians dead, including a toddler. After
stating the bare-bone facts, the report goes on to describe how "the bombing
sparked a riot by Christian youths, with reports that at least two Muslims were
killed in the violence. The two men were dragged off their bikes after being
stopped at a roadblock set up by the rioters, police said. A row of Muslim-owned
shops was also burned…" The report goes on and on, with a special section about
"very angry" Christians, till one all but confuses victims with persecutors,
forgetting what the Christians are "very angry" about in the first place:
unprovoked and nonstop terror attacks on their churches, and the murder of their
women and children.
This
is reminiscent of the Egyptian New Year's Eve church bombing that left over 20
Christians dead: the MSM reported it, but under headlines like "Christians clash
with police in Egypt after attack on churchgoers kills 21"(Washington Post) and
"Clashes grow as Egyptians remain angry after attack"(New York Times)—again,
as if frustrated Christians lashing out against wholesale slaughter is as
newsworthy as the slaughter itself; as if their angry reaction "evens"
everything up.
Dissembling
the Perpetrators' Motivation
The
second MSM strategy involves dissembling over the jihadis' motivation. An AFP report describing a
different Boko Haram church attack—which also killed three Christians during
Sunday service—does a fair job reporting the facts. But then it concludes with
the following sentence: "Violence blamed on Boko Haram, whose goals remain
largely unclear, has since 2009 claimed more than 1,000 lives, including
more than 300 this year, according to figures tallied by AFP and rights
groups."
Although
Boko Haram has been howling its straightforward goals for a decade—enforcing
Sharia law and, in conjunction, subjugating if not eliminating Nigeria's
Christians—here is the MSM claiming ignorance about these goals (earlier the
New York Times described Boko Haram's goals as "senseless"—even as the group
continues justifying them on doctrinal grounds). One would have thought that a
decade after the jihadi attacks of 9/11—in light of all the subsequent images of
Muslims in militant attire shouting distinctly Islamic slogans such as "Allahu
Akbar!" and calling for Sharia law and the subjugation of "infidels"—reporters
would by now know what their motivation and goals
are.
------
Of
course, the media's obfuscation serves a purpose: it leaves the way open for the
politically correct, MSM-approved motivations for Muslim violence: "political
oppression," "poverty," "frustration," and so forth. From here, one can see why
politicians like former U.S. president Bill Clinton cite "poverty"
as "what's fueling all this stuff" (a reference to Boko Haram's slaughter of
Christians), or the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African
Affairs insistence that "religion is not driving extremist
violence" in Nigeria, which he said in response to last Sunday's
Easter day church bombing.
In
short, while the MSM may report the most frugal facts concerning Christian
persecution, they utilize their entire arsenal of semantic games, key phrases,
and convenient omissions that uphold the traditional narrative—that Muslim
violence is anything but a byproduct of the Islamic indoctrination of
intolerance.
Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at
the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an Associate Fellow at the Middle East
Forum
Related
Topics:
Anti-Christianism, Media | Raymond Ibrahim This
text may be reposted or forwarded so long as it is presented as an integral
whole with complete information provided about its author, date, place of
publication, and original URL.
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