# Media too pro-muslim? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 27, 2016, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/media-too-pro-muslim/747303 "2016-02-27T16:07:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2016, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/media-too-pro-muslim/747303/21 "2016-02-27T19:36:25Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > Or for another example, one need only compare the massive freak-out about the possibility that a pizza place in Indiana might not cater gay wedding if asked (although it was never asked) to the seemingly small interest in the fact that gays are punished with death or imprisonment in almost all Muslim countries. Those fact, and other like them, might give some people a slight impression that the mainstream media occasionally tips it coverage more in favor of Muslims. Or that the American media tips its coverage in favor of things happening in America. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2016, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/media-too-pro-muslim/747303/22 "2016-02-27T19:45:31Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#): > > Or that the American media tips its coverage in favor of things happening in America. Not so. Last night, my local news carried stories about the poor state of DC’s subway system. They systematically ignored the stories about corrupt selection process of a new FIFA president. It’s yet another example of the pro-soccer corruption bias of the American media. ---
**Author:** ![Civilrighte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/fbc32d/32.png) [@Civilrighte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civilrighte)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2016, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/media-too-pro-muslim/747303/23 "2016-02-28T04:27:31Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > Emphasis added. > > No? Just simple bigotry then? > > Why would a gay atheist like yourself have anything positive to say about _conservative_ Hindus? They’re generally about as retrograde on gay rights as conservative Muslims and conservative Christians. How is hating on a religion any different to hating on a political affiliation? As long as one is integrated (which would require one to be vaguely secular and drop Islam) then there shouldn’t be a problem. I believe the goal is to stop the spread of Islam, like the spread of the far-right. Conservative Hinduism in it’s pure form would be against all sexual relations probably (straight or gay), since homophobia arrived during British colonialism. The right-wing in India follow a mixed ideology invented during the British Raj, pure-hinduism mixed with homophobia from British Christianity. But either way, I expect liberals to promote secularism or athiests, not a minority religion (and I mean **a** minority religion). I’m complaining that Islam receives too much good press, not that Hinduism recieves too little! ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2016, 7:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/media-too-pro-muslim/747303/24 "2016-02-28T07:06:09Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > That is almost a good analogy. No one blames Christianity in general for Republican rhetoric, although they do blame the sects and fringe churches for helping feed the evil. > [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > And historically, it’s Black churches that were burned. Burned … by other Christians, it’s worth pointing out. Civilrighte - what is your evidence that Islam receives too much good press? Don’t give us your impressions - how are you defining good press? how much is too much? Do you have numbers or citations to back any of this up? ---
**Author:** ![Rune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e68b1a/32.png) [@Rune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rune)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2016, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/media-too-pro-muslim/747303/25 "2016-02-28T07:37:45Z")
Here’s an interesting article from Kuwait: [Saudi Writer Asks How Muslims Would Act If Christian Terrorists Blew Themselves Up In Their Midst](http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/9037.htm) ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2016, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/media-too-pro-muslim/747303/26 "2016-02-28T15:01:33Z")
> [@Rune](#): > > Here’s an interesting article from Kuwait: [Saudi Writer Asks How Muslims Would Act If Christian Terrorists Blew Themselves Up In Their Midst](http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/9037.htm) Yowsuh! ---
**Author:** ![Civilrighte](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/fbc32d/32.png) [@Civilrighte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civilrighte)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2016, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/media-too-pro-muslim/747303/27 "2016-02-28T15:07:38Z")
> [@Merneith](#): > > Burned … by other Christians, it’s worth pointing out. > Civilrighte - what is your evidence that Islam receives too much good press? Don’t give us your impressions - how are you defining good press? how much is too much? Do you have numbers or citations to back any of this up? Read some of the left-wing press. Liberalism is about being secular - not about promoting a certain religion or pandering to voters; show me which other religions get as much positive discrimination as Muslims do? How many ethnicities and cultures are being sidelined for pro-muslim racism? ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2016, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/media-too-pro-muslim/747303/28 "2016-02-28T15:11:05Z")
> [@Civilrighte](#): > > Read some of the left-wing press. Liberalism is about being secular - not about promoting a certain religion or pandering to voters; show me which other religions get as much positive discrimination as Muslims do? How many ethnicities and cultures are being sidelined for pro-muslim racism? Why don’t you show us these “liberal media” stories that are pro-Muslim? I really think this is a figment of your imagination, and unless you can show us a few examples of this alleged pro-Muslim bias, I’m pretty sure most people are going to conclude that you’re just anti-Muslim and you aren’t happy that not everyone shares your bias. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2016, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/media-too-pro-muslim/747303/29 "2016-02-28T15:20:59Z")
> [@Civilrighte](#): > > IIslam is generally conservative and far-right. It’s strict, anti-feminism, homophobic, cruel, etc… And takes us back to the middle ages. > > Why on earth should it be unacceptable to be islamaphobic? > > I keep coming across posts and articles complaining about “Islamaphobia” as if it’s their right to have freedom of speech/religion but not anyone else’s! “Islamophobia” does not mean offering reasoned criticism of Islamic practices. It means unreasoned bigotry against Muslims. For example, trying to ban Muslims from the US, advocating that Muslims must register and be under police watch, or desecrating a Mosque. All you have offered here, as in your other, identical thread, is some vague notions that people don’t like what you’re saying about Islam. Tell us what you’re saying, and we’ll clue you in. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2016, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/media-too-pro-muslim/747303/30 "2016-02-28T16:22:07Z")
> [@Civilrighte](#): > > Read some of the left-wing press. It’s your claim-_Quote_ some of this left-wing press you’re talking about. ---
**Author:** ![Stringbean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Stringbean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stringbean)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2016, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/media-too-pro-muslim/747303/31 "2016-02-28T18:30:31Z")
> [@Rune](#): > > Here’s an interesting article from Kuwait: [Saudi Writer Asks How Muslims Would Act If Christian Terrorists Blew Themselves Up In Their Midst](http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/9037.htm) To be fair, they don’t have to imagine. They see the violent destruction of our unmanned sky-man-o-wars and liken that to Christians blowing up innocent people. (Of course, we’re aiming for the bad guys and usually killing them but the collateral damage often includes innocent civilians.) ---
**Author:** ![lucid-nonsense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/2acd7d/32.png) [@lucid-nonsense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lucid-nonsense)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2016, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/media-too-pro-muslim/747303/32 "2016-02-28T19:21:32Z")
> [@Stringbean](#): > > To be fair, they don’t have to imagine. They see the violent destruction of our unmanned sky-man-o-wars and **liken** that to Christians blowing up innocent people. Liken? They do not have to liken anything. That _is_ Christians blowing up innocent people. Sure, it’s not on purpose, but that’s some pretty cold comfort, wouldn’t you agree? ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2016, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/media-too-pro-muslim/747303/33 "2016-02-28T20:09:00Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > There’s a widespread and reasonable perception that some media outlets seem to like Muslims a bit better and let it influence their perceptions. For instance, in 2011 Anders Breivik went on a shooting and bombing spree in Norway that killed 77 people. The New York Times [wrote](http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E01E5DE143FF937A15754C0A9679D8B63&pagewanted=all): > > **As Horrors Emerge, Norway Charges Christian Extremist** > > The Norwegian man charged Saturday with a pair of attacks in Oslo that killed at least 92 people left behind a detailed manifesto outlining his preparations and calling for a Christian war to defend Europe against the threat of Muslim domination, according to Norwegian and American officials familiar with the investigation. > > This characterization of Breivik as a Christian fundamentalist demanding a Christian war was totally false. Totally false? Really? So when he littered his 1500 pages of manifesto with declarations of his Christianity and included references to his Christian beliefs in the various notes he left at the scenes of his crimes, those were actually inserted by unnamed other persons just to confuse everyone? I would certainly agree that he did not actually create his odd beliefs based on any Christian denomination that he would have encountered in Norway, but a claim that his identification as a Christian is “totally false,” is, itself totally false. > [@ITR\_champion](#): > > In 2013, Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev bombed the Boston Marathon, then committed further crimes while attempting to escape. The same New York Times wrote an [article](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/20/us/details-of-tsarnaev-brothers-boston-suspects-emerge.html?pagewanted=all) about the Tsarnaev brothers which managed to not mention even the possibility that they were Islamic terrorists. It turned out they were, of course. And _Rolling Stone_ [published](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/07/17/dzhokhar-tsarnaev-boston-marathon-bombing-rolling-stone/2523891/) a glamour cover with Dzhokhar. Published as a profile of the brothers less than 24 hours after they were tentatively identified as the culprits, relying mostly on interviews with those who knew them, the article was published before their actual connection to Islamic extremism had been broadcast to the public. _Rolling Stone_ is hardly typical of mainstream media, (and if you think that was a “glamour cover,” I can see why you are not in the magazine industry). > [@ITR\_champion](#): > > Or for another example, one need only compare the massive freak-out about the possibility that a pizza place in Indiana might not cater gay wedding if asked (although it was never asked) to the seemingly small interest in the fact that gays are punished with death or imprisonment in almost all Muslim countries. Gee. A place of business calls a news conference to make a point that they will refuse to serve a non-criminal fellow citizen at a time when such a topic is being discussed widely in the U.S. gets covered by the news media while longstanding laws in other countries are not. You are comparing apples and icicles. If there is a “pro-Muslim” bias in the media, you have done nothing to demonstrate it. To the extent that there might be a pro-Muslim attitude among current news media, it probably has more to do with their attempts to refrain from re-instituting the idiotic Red-baiting in which the media engaged the the U.S. for 90 years. ---
**Author:** ![T.M](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ad7895/32.png) [@T.M](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/T.M)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2016, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/media-too-pro-muslim/747303/34 "2016-02-28T20:31:20Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Yowsuh! I can hear the screams of Muslim men. How dare she a woman say such things. She has and she has spoken truly May the God of Abraham watch over her and protect her so that she can continue to speak our against the tyranny of Islamism. ---
**Author:** ![T.M](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ad7895/32.png) [@T.M](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/T.M)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2016, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/media-too-pro-muslim/747303/35 "2016-02-28T20:38:24Z")
> [@Civilrighte](#): > > I’m gay and athiest, but I come from a Hindu background. > > Islam is generally conservative and far-right. It’s strict, anti-feminism, homophobic, cruel, etc… And takes us back to the middle ages. > > Why on earth should it be unacceptable to be islamaphobic? > > I keep coming across posts and articles complaining about “Islamaphobia” as if it’s their right to have freedom of speech/religion but not anyone else’s! > > They have AlJazeera and the Middle East, why on earth do they need liberal support? > > Furthermore, I’m tired of people who scream Islamaphobia at anything vaguely anti-"person of muslim background ". > > Muslims in Europe tend to come from countries like Pakistan or Africa, and they refuse to integrate like East Asians or Hindus. They have large, uneducated families. They form a proportionately high percentage of the prison population, mainly live on poverty/welfare, heavily involved in crime and disorders/riots. They are similar to the worst side o Blacks or Latinos, and that’s nothing to do with Islam and it’s not Islamaphobia. > > I even get accused of being Islamaphobic when I say things like “second generation tend to find North Indians unattractive, and therefore Pakistanis would be considered undesirable”… I am straight and a Christian and that is where the difference stops because everything else you have written in this post I agree with ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2016, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/media-too-pro-muslim/747303/36 "2016-02-28T21:55:05Z")
Instead of using the label “pro-Muslim”, one might ask if there is a tendency in major news media to bend over backwards and engage in bizarre contortions to downplay the threat from radicalized Muslims.\* Earlier this month a Muslim from Guinea went into a restaurant in my area and began hacking at patrons with a machete. He wound up seriously injuring several people, fled and was ultimately shot by police after lunging at them. Salient information: the attacker had been in the restaurant shortly before, asking an employee where the owner was from and was told the owner is from Israel (the owner is a self-described “Israeli Arab Christian”, and his restaurant has both an Arabic greeting and an Israeli flag in the window). The attacker returned a half hour later and started hacking at people. He was also on an FBI terror watch list for making radical Islamic threats. We get this from the Washington Post: \*"So far, little about the attack seems to fit any recognizable mold… “He yelled ‘Allahu Akbar’ and then he attacked them with the machete,” Baransi told pro-Israel news website The Tower, apparently relaying messages from his employees, who actually witnessed the attack.\*\* “He had a look on his face that was [indescribable],” (a victim) told NBC4. “And it was just a lot of hate and anger, and I have no idea where the rage is coming from.”… “Although the shooting ended the nightmare, it also ensured that questions would linger about Barry’s intentions. Did the quiet immigrant suffer a mental breakdown? Or was the attack an orchestrated act of international jihad, as claimed online by a host of anti-Islamic groups?”\* Gosh, maybe it _was_ just a “mental breakdown”, sort of like the Fort Hood shooter who killed 13 people was engaging in “workplace violence”. Or could it have been an homicidal Islamic radical who decided to kill a bunch of people for the crime of going to an Israeli-owned restaurant? Seeking vengeance on non-Muslims in individual acts of terror? No, no, shhhhhh! Can’t suggest that. I’d also like to see news media not running to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) for self-serving/inaccurate commentary, or at least treating CAIR’s claims with skepticism. CAIR recently told reporters after a Philadelphia man (who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State) ambushed and shot a cop that they didn’t think he was an observant Muslim and that their check of local mosques showed he didn’t attend any. Shortly afterwards it came out that he had ties with _two_ mosques and frequently attended one of them. \*as opposed to reasonable caution about reporting unconfirmed details. \*I have not seen an account of the guy yelling “Allahu Akbar” (either at customers/staff or police) come from anyone other than the restaurant owner. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2016, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/media-too-pro-muslim/747303/37 "2016-02-28T23:23:33Z")
Can you link to the WaPo story you quoted? News reporting doesn’t usually ask questions like that. Opinion pages, sure. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2016, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/media-too-pro-muslim/747303/38 "2016-02-28T23:33:10Z")
> [@Civilrighte](#): > > I keep coming across posts and articles complaining about “Islamaphobia” as if it’s their right to have freedom of speech/religion but not anyone else’s! First of all that sentence is so poorly constructed that it’s incomprehensible. “Their” is the possessive case of the pronoun “they” but it lacks a logical antecedent to which it refers, so it’s hard to understand what the hell you’re trying to say. Who is “they”? Muslims? Islamophobes? “Articles and posts”? But articles and posts don’t have rights, people do. Perhaps you mean the _ **writers** _ of articles and posts. Let’s make that guess, then we can proceed to answer the question: > [@Civilrighte](#): > > Why on earth should it be unacceptable to be islamaphobic? Because bigotry is an ugly plague, a cancer on society that persecutes the innocent based on the beliefs of the ignorant. Yes, writers do enjoy freedom of speech and freedom of religion. So it seems to me that writers who indiscriminately condemn Islam as a whole are trying to trample on the freedom of religion guaranteed by the First Amendment or its equivalent in other first-world democracies. They can’t be prosecuted for it, but they can be called out for it. Which is what we are doing here in response to your irrationally prejudiced and uninformed posts. Freedom to engage in bigoted speech is not freedom from the consequences. > [@Civilrighte](#): > > Muslims in Europe tend to come from countries like Pakistan or Africa, and they refuse to integrate like East Asians or Hindus. They have large, uneducated families. They form a proportionately high percentage of the prison population, mainly live on poverty/welfare, heavily involved in crime and disorders/riots. They are similar to the worst side o Blacks or Latinos, and that’s nothing to do with Islam and it’s not Islamaphobia. Congratulations! There is more ignorance and prejudice crammed into those few crapulent sentences than I’ve ever seen anywhere on these forums in such a short paragraph. Beginning with a gratuitous denunciation of Pakistanis who you apparently hate, it moves on to call Africa a country – it’s actually a continent with a lot of different countries and cultures, but never mind. We then learn that Muslims “tend to be” from this “country” of Africa (or worse, Pakistan!), and “a proportionately high percentage” are either in prison, living on welfare, or “heavily involved in crime”. If it’s “proportional”, what’s the problem? But I assume you meant “disproportionately”. Funny thing is, of all the Muslims I know or have ever known, and not a single one was doing any of those things. And then you throw in “Blacks” (capitalized) and Latinos, thus managing to denounce and insult, in total, more than half of the entire world population. Which doesn’t exactly bolster your credentials as an arbiter of social justice. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2016, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/media-too-pro-muslim/747303/39 "2016-02-28T23:55:05Z")
> [@lucid-nonsense](#): > > Liken? They do not have to liken anything. That _is_ Christians blowing up innocent people. Sure, it’s not on purpose, but that’s some pretty cold comfort, wouldn’t you agree? Are they doing so in the name of Christianity, though? I think that’s what would make the difference. ---
**Author:** ![Human\_Action](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@Human\_Action](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Human_Action)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2016, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/media-too-pro-muslim/747303/40 "2016-02-28T23:58:21Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Are they doing so in the name of Christianity, though? I think that’s what would make the difference. Probably not. Both are political violence, regardless of the individual trappings. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/media-too-pro-muslim/747303.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/media-too-pro-muslim/747303.md?page=3)