Islam Remains Innocent
A conservative media watchdog organization says for the most part, the mainstream media networks have downplayed the Muslim connections with terrorism in the Fort Hood massacre.
The Media Research Center (MRC) says that when authorities first announced the Fort Hood shooter was Major Nidal Malik Hasan, CBS and NBC purposefully avoided mentioning his name for fear of offending Muslims.
The Center points out that ABC’s Charles Gibson suggested Hasan was a “Muslim convert,” which was not a correct statement, but adds at least Gibson was not trying to play “hide and seek” with the facts.
The MRC also points out that during an interview with Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), CBS anchor Bob Schieffer attempted to downplay the Islamic terrorist aspect of the massacre. ”It’s looking more and more like he was just sort of a religious nut,” stated Schieffer. “And you know, Islam doesn’t have a majority; the Christian religion has its full helping of nuts, too.”
Newsweek’s Evan Thomas made a swipe at conservatives during an appearance on Inside Washington, according to the MRC. ”I cringe that [Hasan is] a Muslim. I mean, because it just inflames all the fears,” said Thomas. “I think he’s probably just a nut case. But with that label attached to him, it will get the right wing going and it just — I mean, these things are tragic, but that makes it much worse.”
Rich Noyes, director of research at the MRC, feels that the media is overlooking another piece of evidence linking the shooting to Muslim terrorist activity. ”You see a lot of timidity in the media trying to connect terrorism with the broader war on terror in spite of the evidence that keeps coming out,” he argues. “I think a lot of the PC media are skipping over these things.”
Maj. Nidal M. Hasan, the “Moderate Muslim” Army psychiatrist who, in the name of Allah, slaughtered 13 people at Fort Hood, was supposed to discuss a medical topic during a presentation to senior Army doctors in June 2007. Instead, he lectured on Islam, suicide bombers and threats the military could encounter from Muslims conflicted about fighting wars in Muslim countries. Pages from Major Hasan’s PowerPoint presentation are reproduced below:
