That should be “Qur’an,” and that small mistake is a reflection of the general ignorance about Islam that pervades this story from the Montgomery Advertiser, “Entertainment media’s Muslims bear little resemblance to reality” (thanks to EPG). Reporter Darryn Simmons seems to have gone to the Masjid Qasim B El-Amin in Montgomery to ask about Fox’s “24,” and has credulously reported as fact all the half-truths and distortions the people there fed him.
It starts with a red herring:
If they just watch TV and movies, Americans may think that many of those who believe in Islam are Arab terrorists, but local Muslim Ahmad Hasan said most Muslims aren’t even of Arab descent.
“That’s the most ironic thing,” Hasan said. “They portray Arabs as representing the religion, when, in truth, the number of Arabs that are Muslims is a minute percentage.”
I guess this is supposed to illustrate the ignorance of the masses, but in this context it isn’t even relevant. I myself have pointed out many times that most Muslims worldwide aren’t Arabs and most Arabic speakers in the U.S. aren’t Muslim, but what of it? How does it show that Fox is way off base? After all, there are Arab Muslims, and Arab Muslim jihadists. It isn’t as if the producers of “24” invented the concept. It looks as if the people in the Montgomery mosque want us to regard Arab Muslim jihadists the way we would regard Pennsylvania Amish car bombers.
And from the Ironic Juxtaposition Department:
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) took Fox to task about the “24” episode in the publication Broadcasting and Cable.
Rabiah Ahmed, spokeswoman for CAIR, said that the show is “taking everyday American Muslim families and making them suspects … it’s very dangerous and very disturbing.”…
Abdullah said he didn’t complain to the station, and he isn’t surprised to know that other Muslims did not.
“When you complain, it makes you look small,” he said. “It naturally bothers us of course, but we don’t complain to people about it — we complain to God.”
The reporter doesn’t seem to have asked Abdullah whether he thinks CAIR looks small for complaining about “24.”
“It doesn’t make sense,” he said. “Muslims are not like this, and Islam is an excellent religion — but if a lie is told often enough people begin to think it’s the truth.”
Ain’t it the truth! In fact, here comes a whopper now:
Muslims do not believe in converting people to their religion by force. In fact, the Qu’ran (or Koran) accepts religious pluralism and sees strength in diversity.
Note the language: the “Qu’ran” (sic) accepts “pluralism” and “diversity.” Whoever it was at the mosque who told this to Simmons has mastered the art of pushing today’s most effective cultural hot buttons. Muslims believe in diversity, you see. Not like those nasty Christians.
But of course, Simmons asked nothing about the humiliations and second-class status mandated for non-Muslims by Islamic law, and rooted in the Qur’an (9:29). “Pluralism”? “Diversity”? “The subject peoples,” according to a manual of Islamic law, must “pay the non-Muslim poll tax (jizya)” and “are distinguished from Muslims in dress, wearing a wide cloth belt (zunnar); are not greeted with ‘as-Salamu ‘alaykum’ [the traditional Muslim greeting, “Peace be with you”]; must keep to the side of the street; may not build higher than or as high as the Muslims’ buildings, though if they acquire a tall house, it is not razed; are forbidden to openly display wine or pork . . . recite the Torah or Evangel aloud, or make public display of their funerals or feastdays; and are forbidden to build new churches.” If they violate these terms, the law further stipulates that they can be killed or sold into slavery at the discretion of the Muslim leader. (“˜Umdat al-Salik, o11.3, 5.)
Yeah. That’s pluralism and diversity, all right. But like virtually every other reporter, he accepted what Muslims told him at face value, without probably even being aware that he might need to employ a bit of critical thinking in this regard.