Pangalian Balindong is assuming a well-worn argument of Islamic supremacists and apologists: that the religion of Islamic jihadists is not connected to their violent acts, such that it would be no fairer to call Osama bin Laden an Islamic terrorist than it would be to call Timothy McVeigh a Christian terrorist. (McVeigh wasn’t even a Christian until years after his act, but that never matters to them, either.) If that were true, and if it were really true that the media was calling Islamic terrorists “Muslim” solely to cast aspersions on the Muslim community, then this bill would make sense.
But in reality, Islamic jihadists, not greasy Islamophobes and certainly not biased reporters, whose biases are all on the other side, are the ones who link their actions to Islam, invoking the Qur’an and Muhammad’s words and deeds to justify violence. So the only result of this bill would be to obscure that even further, making the public even more ignorant of the nature and magnitude of the threat it faces, and how best to deal with it. In that regard, this bill could have been framed by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, which has been trying for years to force the West to criminalize criticism of Islam, a category in which it includes “counter-terror” efforts — hence the massive effort to hoodwink people into thinking that resisting jihad terror and Islamic supremacism is “hate” and “bigotry.”
Watch for a bill like this to come to the U.S.
“Bill seeks to end discrimination vs Muslims in media reports,” from ABS-CBNnews.com, September 8 (thanks to Twostellas):
MANILA — A lawmaker has filed a bill prohibiting the media of using labels to describe the religion or ethnicity of criminal suspects.
“It may be said that there is already the practice in media of labeling criminal suspects according to their religious or ethnic culture; thus they are described as Muslim terrorists or Muslim bandits which smacks of being highly discriminatory,” Lanao del Sur 2nd District Rep. Pangalian Balindong said.
House Bill 1447 prohibits the use of “Muslim” or “Christian” to describe suspects. Balindong said the manner of reporting from media entities has become offensively biased even if the suspect has yet to be proven guilty.
He said labels contribute to the mindset against Muslims.
“Why then is our media doing the same to our Muslim countrymen? Indeed, our Muslim brothers are a minority among the Filipino majority, but should be treated with the same respect and privileges as any other Batangueño, Visayan or other Filipino citizen,” Balindong said.
The bill prohibits any person to use in mass media any word that would denote religious, regional or ethnic affiliation to describe any person suspected of or convicted for having committed criminal or unlawful acts.
The person found guilty of this will face imprisonment of not less than six months or a fine of not more than P10,000 or both at the discretion of the courts.
If the violator is the editor-in-chief in the case of print media and the news editor in the case of broadcast media and other forms of mass media, a fine of not lower than P50,000 shall be imposed.
If a juridical entity is a violator of this Act, a fine not lower than P50,000 shall be imposed for every violation and the penalties shall be doubled for the second and succeeding offenses as provided under the bill.