THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XI, Issue # 74, March 6, 2009
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
THE VOICE OF AMERICA, SILENCED ON RADICAL ISLAM
By Dr. Daniel Pipes
THE CONCERTED PUSH WITHIN THE U.S. GOVERNMENT TO BAN FRANK TALK ABOUT THE NATURE OF AMERICA'S ISLAMIST
ENEMY; INSISTENCE ON NO CONNECTION BEING DRAWN FROM ISLAM TO EXTREMIST POLITICS & TERRORISM
FULL STORY:
For the past year, there's been a concerted push within the U.S. government to ban frank talk about the nature of the
Islamist enemy. It began with the Department of Homeland Security, then moved to the National Counter Terrorism
Center and the Departments of State and Defense. Already, in May, 2008, I heard an excellent analysis of the enemy
by Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Thomas Mahnken, in which he bizarrely never once mentioned Islam or
jihad.
I've been wondering how this change in vocabulary actually occurs: is it a spontaneous mood shift, a group decision,
or a directive from on high?
The answer just arrived, in the shape of a leaked memo dated March 2 from Jennifer Janin, Head of the Urdu Service at
the Voice of America. The directive can be found in its entirety at "Urdu Language Style & Guidelines #3." Addressed
to the Urdu radio, television and web teams, as well as to the Director and Program Manager of VOA's South Asia
Division, her diktat insists on no connection being drawn from Islam to politics. In gist:
Islamic terrorists: DO NOT USE. Instead use simply: terrorist.
Islamic Fundamentalism / Muslim Fundamentalists: AVOID.
Islamist: NOT NECESSARY.
Muslim Extremists: NOT NECESSARY. Extremist serves well.
Urdu is a dialect of Hindustani written in Arabic script, found mainly in Pakistan and India, and spoken almost
exclusively by Muslims; it is mother tongue to about 70 million people. One can understand why euphemisms appeal,
in so far as VOA competes for market share with other news outlets and wishes not to insult or alienate Muslims. But
VOA is not a commercial station with a bottom line and shareholders.
Founded in 1942 as part of the Office of War Information, the Voice of America is funded by the American taxpayer
and speaks on behalf of the U.S. government. It must not pander to increase its ratings at the expense of its integrity.
Urdu-speakers need to know the real American discourse on Islam, not Janin's bowdlerized version.
In her defense, Janin might argue that she is merely picking up on Barack Obama's emphasis on "respect" for Muslims,
but there is no public indication that "respect" means pretending that Islam is not a central public issue facing
Americans. Indeed, on occasion, Obama has been very clear that it is. A pungent example came one year ago in
Philadelphia, on March 18, 2008 when, in the course of a major speech, Obama repudiated as "profoundly distorted"
the "view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel,
instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam."
"Perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam"? It does not get much stronger than that. One wonders how might
Janin's new regimen translate this – probably as the "perverse and hateful ideologies of radical extremism," which is
both inaccurate and unworthy of a credible news service.
Comments:
(1) Janin, sadly, is hardly alone at VOA in coddling radical Islam. For another case, look no further than Spozhmai
Maiwandi, copied by name on Janin's memo. Nicknamed "Kandahar Rose," Maiwandi is the Director of VOA's South
Asia Division and acquired some notoriety for filing pro-Taliban reports and conducting an interview sympathetic to
Mullah Omar, the Taliban chief, ten days after 9/11.
(2) This latest directive from VOA fits a pattern of U.S. government-funded programming to the Middle East posing
problems. Two earlier cases that come to mind: a 1991 scandal concerning the pro-Saddam tilt of VOA's reports from
Baghdad and the 2007 resignation of Larry Register from Al-Hurra television for promoting anti-American and
anti-Israeli views. Could someone instruct the Voice of America staff, once and for all, that its mission is not to flatter
its audience nor to pursue ratings for their own sake, but honestly to convey American mainstream views to the
outside world?
(3) And, while we're at it, could someone remind VOA employees that there's a lively debate in the United States about
radical Islam; for a change, how about VOA covering this rather than smothering it under the Islamist line? In 2006,
Meredith Buel of VOA robotically took a Council on American-Islamic Relations press release and rewrote it as a VOA
news item; for the gory details, see my weblog entry, "Voice of America – CAIR's Shill." And the DHS document that
started the whole euphemizing campaign, "Terminology to Define the Terrorists: Recommendations from American
Muslims," relied on an unidentified "broad range of Muslim American community leaders and scholars" that has the
hallmarks of CAIR & Co. Hey, VOA, repeat after me: "We work for the American people, we are not a subsidiary of
CAIR."
© Daniel Pipes 2009
Originally Published in Front Page Magazine, March 6, 2009
Republished with the Permission of Daniel Pipes
Reprinted from the Daniel Pipes Mailing List, March 6, 2009
Article URL: http://www.danielpipes.org/article/6215/
the-voice-of-america-silenced-on-radical-islam
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
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
American Foreign Policy -- Political & Psychological Warfare
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
Dr. Daniel Pipes, a Ph.D. in Islamic History (Harvard University, 1978), is the Founder and Director of the Middle East Forum,
the Founder of Campus Watch, a signatory of the Project for the New American Century, a former board member of the U.S.
Institute of Peace, a former adjunct scholar at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a Golden Circle supporter of the
U.S. Committee for a Free Lebanon, a former member of the U.S. Department of Defense Special Task Force on Terrorism and
Technology, and a former lecturer at the U.S. Naval War College, Harvard University, the University of Chicago, and the
University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Pipes was the Director of the Foreign Policy Research Institute from 1986 to 1993.
Author or co-author of eighteen books, Dr. Pipes is a regular columnist for Front Page Magazine, the New York
Sun, and the Jerusalem Post. His analyses of world trends and of forces and developments in the Middle East
have appeared in numerous North American newspapers, including the Washington Post, the New York Times,
and the Wall Street Journal. He frequently appears on American network television, as well as at universities and
think tanks, to discuss the Middle East, Islam, and the Islamist threat to the U.S.A. and the West. He also has appeared on
BBC and Al Jazeera, and has lectured in approximately twenty-five countries.
Dr. Pipes is a Polish-American Jew whose parents fled Poland in 1939, immigrated to the U.S.A., and assimilated well into
American society and culture. His father is Richard Pipes, an American historian specializing in Russian and Soviet history
and serving as Professor of History at Harvard University from 1950 until his retirement in 1996. During the Cold War, the
worldview of Richard Pipes was strongly anti-Soviet and anti-Communist.
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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