Newsbusters (thanks to Doc Washburn) reports in –ABC Blames Bush, ‘Ignorant’ Americans for ‘Islamaphobia'” on an ABC 9/11 segment blaming Bush and ignorance for “Islamophobia.” No hint, of course, that maybe continuing acts of Islamic terrorism might be fueling this “Islamophobia.”
America, you ignorant Islamaphobes! Alright, maybe it’s not all your fault. Your anti-Muslim attitudes have been “stoked” by “inflammatory rhetoric” from . . . President Bush. That was the basic message of a segment narrated by Ron Claiborne this morning entitled “9/11 Remembered: Islamaphobia” on ABC’s Good Morning America.
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If there was any nasty name-calling, it was aimed at non-Muslim Americans, and it came from Claiborne and his chosen sources.
Claiborne: “Those who have studied American attitudes toward Muslims say at the root of prejudice is ignorance.”
And then: “Some Arab-Americans say President Bush has further stoked anti-Muslim attitudes with inflammatory rhetoric in denouncing Islamic extremists.” Let’s get this straight. Claiborne thinks it’s wrong for the president of the United States to vigorously denounce what Claiborne himself describes as “extremists”, the kind of people behind 9/11?
James Zogby of the Arab-American Institute then turned up to reinforce the notion that we aren’t mean-spirited – just dumb: “I think that more generally speaking, America is not Islamaphobic, it really just doesn’t understand the religion at all.”
OK, Zogby, teach me. Let’s talk it over. Please enlighten my ignorance. I’m right here, at director@jihadwatch.org, happy to discuss these matters in any public forum with you or with any Muslim spokesman.