http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/01/12/1357151/-Chuck-Todd-indirect-attack-on-Muslim-handled-brilliantly?detail=email
Chuck Todd used a Wall Street Journal op-ed by ex-Muslim Ayaan Hirsi Ali to launch an indirect attack on Muslims albeit with much civility. She wrote the following:
If we take the position that we are dealing with a handful of murderous thugs with no connection to what they so vocally claim, then we are not answering them. We have to acknowledge that today’s Islamists are driven by a political ideology, an ideology embedded in the foundational texts of Islam. We can no longer pretend that it is possible to divorce actions from the ideals that inspire them.
Chuck Todd asked Arsalan Iftikhar to comment about Ali's oped based on the loaded snippet above. Arsalan Iftikhar was ready for that type of question. After all, the media is infected with those that have picked up the mantra of the right wing to continue an effective demonizing of Muslims.
"I would say that she is being too reductive in her reasoning," Iftikhar said. "And I think that it is important to keep in mind that when you are dealing with the second-largest religion in the entire world of 1.7 billion people, you know there is no minority demographic group today in Western societies that is placed with more collective guilt than Muslims.
And I think that it is important that we do not have this double standard in terms of calling out terrorism. I think terrorism today has been co-opted to only apply when brown Muslim men commit acts of mass murder and when white Christian people like Anders Breivik in Norway kill 77 teenagers and try to bomb the prime minister of Norway's office, we didn't ask Norway's Christian leaders to come out on national TV and condemn. So I think it is a little reductive in her conflation."
That could not be said any better. Unmentioned in the program was that while we were hyperventilating about the terrorist attacks in France, we had a domestic terrorist attack against an NAACP office in Colorado Springs that garnered little coverage. Where is the angst about the lone right-wing wolf terrorist attacks that have killed hundreds of Americans in America that have nothing to do with Muslims?only those who choose to broad brush their hated ones de jour are oblivious to the reality that the rhetoric they refer to can be used with most groups religious or zealot but they pick the one that has been by them made out to be the most scariest to those they seek to control. again right wing and math create an oxymoron they forget the 1.7 billion second largest religion might be a little more than they can handle should they ever get tired of the bigotry and racism being assigned to them collectively even though millions have renounced the activities of the guilty ones. note they vehemently oppose any inference that all White people are not like the haters and it's true but that is not the intent in statement they the ones who practice it say it to self exonerate.
This is the type of conflation that occurs with the manner in which crime is described when related to minorities. The media is generally at the ready to point out that black on black crime is at 90 percent but never let it be known that white on white crime has similar percentages. In effect people generally kill those they are closer to. This problematic type of reporting fails to inform that FBI data on criminality while valid when stating that the records show higher crimes for minorities, fail to inform how subjective policing affects that data. While white teenagers are summarily sent home or given a tap for petty crimes, minorities are actually codified for FBI counting as they enter the justice system.
Bad reporting gives good Americans bad data. Good Americans form opinions on bad data which distorts reality most of the time and sometimes creates a new reality.this last two paragraphs are worth a re read, and a multiple repeat this is what Fox does to Americans that they concentrate on, treading through elephant dung without hip boots puts the stench on you. recognize don't know if Chuck was deliberate or stumbled on if deliberate is he breaking that mold he has created for himself of his responsibility to correct a right wing untruth or injustice?? only time will tell
