With its three-part series in late August, “Muslim in America: Ten Years after 9/11,” the Denver Post was doing exactly what the news media in a free society ought to do: explore behind the headlines and establish context for public issues, even as it stays on top of breaking events.
But how well the paper did that is something else again. Consider such basic and factual matters as these:
1-Are many Muslims devoted to a doctrine called jihad, which commands violence against infidels, and another doctrine called sharia, which forbids obedience to the U.S. constitution or any other civil government?
2-Do many Muslims interpret the Koran to require brutal abuse of women, gays, Jews, and Christians?
3-Have a number of Muslim charities and mosques in this country been unmasked as fronts for radicalism?
4-Did a Muslim man from Aurora, Colorado, named Najibullah Zazi, plead guilty in 2010 to a terror bombing plot against the New York subway system?
The answer to all four questions is Yes. But you would never know it from reading this purportedly balanced and comprehensive series.
Relevant as these matters might seem to be for a serious exploration of his subject, reporter Eric Gorski confronts none of them. Instead, throughout his lengthy front-page articles, Gorski repeatedly implies that even asking such questions betrays ignorance, intolerance, bigotry, and xenophobia. As a result, the series reads more like puffery than journalism.
It would be interesting to know what “assistance” the Denver Post received on this project from CAIR, the Hamas-linked Muslim Brotherhood propaganda group that was designated an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism trial in federal court.
Regardless, no matter if the series was CAIR-orchestrated or merely a self-deluded exercise in political correctness, it ill serves the public interest. Coloradans concerned about homeland security, the rule of law, social cohesion, and the trustworthiness of their neighbors deserve “the rest of the story” on the Muslims among us.
The pernicious danger of censorship – ala political correctness – is nowhere better illustrated than in the absence of frank discussion of Islam. Hours following the events of Sept. 11, 2001, President (43) Bush generously referred to Islam as a religion of peace. That was 10 years ago, yet one could likely count on one’s fingers the number of purportedly peaceful adherents who have come forward to join the forceful, courageous Dr. Wafa Sultan to articulate its profound faults.
What’s The Denver Post afraid of, another cartoon riot?