Underreporting Muslim Violence

The mainstream media falls over itself to publish any alleged violence toward Muslims in the West and examples that are labeled "Islamophobic" by groups such as CAIR. But, according to columnist John Leo, the routinely underreport or even ignore acts of violence and statements by Muslims. Concentrating first on the "misleading and low-key report of the murder in Paris of Ilan Hamlimi:

A much bigger example is the misleadingly low-key reporting of the Ilan Halimi murder in Paris. We now know that Halimi was killed as a classic expression of Jew Hatred. But with so much evasiveness and misdirection by police, government and press, it took a month to get that fact clearly on the table. Halimi, a cell phone salesman, was kidnapped and held for ransom by a mostly Muslim gang. He was horrifically tortured for three weeks, then slain.  From time to time, neighbors had come to watch the torture or to participate in it. Nobody called the gendarmes. At first the government and the press presented this story as a straightforward kidnapping for ransom. A spokesman said Jewishnesss may have played a role simply because the kidnappers thought Jews were rich. AP and UPI, in feeds to the U.S., barely mentioned the possibility of anti-Semitism. After arrests were made, the BBC worked hard to avoid using the word “Muslim,” though verses from the Koran were recited during the torture...

In an excellent article last week, Colin Nickerson of the Boston Globe said the crime was being attributed to a “predominantly Muslim youth gang” notorious for  “virulent anti-Semitism.”  The gang’s taunting phone calls to Halimi’s father were filled with anti-Semitic slurs and a rabbi had been told, “We have a Jew.” The Globe said hatred of Jews is now a hallmark of what’s cool in France, even among young immigrants from non-Muslim nations. Very strong article. No dancing around, just good reporting.

And its not just the news media:

Governments and the media often avoid calling terrorism by its proper name. Presumably the idea is to calm the public and avoid embarrassing Muslims. It took nine months for the FBI and the government to admit that the attack on L.A. airport in 2002 was a terrorist operation. We had been told that personal reasons might explain why a pro-Palestinian gunman, who openly admitted the desire to kill civilians, would kill two people at an El Al counter. The same verbal dance took place recently when the Iranian student rented a large van and tried to run down and kill as many students as possible in North Carolina. He said he was attempting to: “avenge the deaths of Muslims around the world.”  But the university tried desperately to avoid the obvious T-word.

      Tony Blankley wrote a column on March 8, 2006 on the underreporting of Muslim violence. He said British politicians tell him there is increasing radical Muslim street violence, explicitly motivated by radical Islam, but not reported or characterized as such. Blankely said rioting Moroccan youths in Antwerp went on a rampage, beating up reporters, and destroying cars, but police were instructed not to arrest or stop them. A database search shows little reports on Antwerp riots. The scary riots in Australia last December, pitting Lebanese immigrants against native whites, were well covered.  But nobody seems quite sure that we are getting the full story about other serious disturbances. From time to time, the Internet carries reports of riots that don’t make the newspapers, but they are mostly uncheckable.

Blankley, Washington Times editor and the author of The West's Last Chance makes a valid point:

The public has the right and vital need to have the events of our time fully and fairly described and reported. But a witch's brew of psychological denial and political correctness is suppressing the institutional voices of government, police, schools, universities and the media when it comes to radical Islam.

It is obvious that we are being manipulated. It is out demagoguery or fear of violence? Is the media and are politicians afraid for OR of Muslims in the societies in which they reside?

We can't make a rational response to danger or to problems within our society without all the facts.