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How the Media Whitewashes Muslim Persecution of Christians
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.
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vendredi 20 avril 2012
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