THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XIV, Issue # 88, April 20, 2012
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
HOW THE MEDIA WHITEWASHES MUSLIM PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS
By Raymond Ibrahim
MUSLIM PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIAN MINORITIES IN PREDOMINANTLY MUSLIM COUNTRIES: HOW & WHY THE MAINLINE MEDIA DISTORTS ITS
ACCOUNTS OF VIOLENT CONFLICT BETWEEN MUSLIMS & CHRISTIANS -- CREATING & SUSTAINING AN AURA OF MORAL RELATIVISM THAT MINIMIZES THE
MUSLIM ROLE IN PRECIPITATING THE MUSLIM-CHRISTIAN VIOLENCE -- FRAMING THE CONFLICT BETWEEN MUSLIMS & CHRISTIANS IN A WAY THAT BLURS
THE LINE BETWEEN PERSECUTOR & VICTIM -- DISSEMBLING OVER THE PERSECUTOR'S MOTIVATION -- LEAVING THE WAY OPEN FOR THE POLITICALLY CORRECT,
MSM-APPROVED MOTIVATIONS FOR MUSLEM VIOLENCE: "POLITICAL OPPRESSION," "POVERTY," "FRUSTRATION," & SO FORTH -- COVERING UP THE
FACT THAT MUSLIM VIOLENCE IS A MAJOR BYPRODUCT OF THE MUSLIM INDOCTRINATION OF INTOLERANCE
FULL STORY:
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, a National Public Radio 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 & 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, the recent British Broadcast Corporation 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 PERPETRATOR'S 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.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
The News & Entertainment Media: Political & Ideological Bias
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
International Politics & World Disorder:
War, Peace, & Geopolitics in the Real World:
Foreign Affairs & U.S. National Security
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
Counterterrorism & U.S. National Security
U.S. National Security Strategy
Raymond Ibrahim, a historian of Islam, Islamism and the Middle East, is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom
Center, an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum, a guest lecturer at the National Defense Intelligence College, and
the editor of The Al-Qa'ida Reader, a collection of tranlations of key texts and documents of the Islamist movement.
Ibrahim's translations of the religious texts and political propaganda comprising this collection help readers comprehend
the origins, development, history, and serious danger of the Islamist war doctrines of Usama bin Laden and Ayman
al-Zawahiri, the Founders of Al-Qa'ida.
The foregoing article by Ibrahim was originally published by the Gatestone Institute, April 13, 2012, and can be found on the Internet website maintained by
the Middle East Forum, a foreign policy think tank which seeks to define and promote American interests in the Middle East, defining U.S. interests to include
fighting radical Islam, working for Palestinian Arab acceptance of the State of Israel, improving the management of U.S. efforts to promote constitutional
democracy in the Middle East, reducing America's energy dependence on the Middle East, more robustly asserting U.S. interests vis-ΰ-vis Saudi Arabia, and
countering the Iranian threat.
(URL: http://www.meforum.org/3217/media-muslim-persecution-christians)
Republished with Permission of the Middle East Forum
Reprinted from the Middle East Forum News
mefnews@meforum.org (MEF NEWS)
April 20, 2012
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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