They quickly changed it after complaints, but the original headline reflects the Post’s inveterate biases: a Muslim stabbed two non-Muslims solely because they were non-Muslim, and the Post’s headline made it appear as if Muslims were the victims. This is of a piece with the Post’s ongoing denial of the jihad threat and endeavor to portray Muslims as always and in every case innocent victims of “Islamophobia.”
“Washington Post’s Muslim stabbing headline quickly amended after criticism,” by T. Becket Adams, Washington Examiner, February 18, 2015 (thanks to Bill):
Washington Post editors promptly rewrote a controversial headline Tuesday afternoon after hearing online complaints that it was misleading regarding the religion of a man accused of stabbing two people in Detroit.
In an article initially headlined “Man stabs two at a bus stop after asking them if they’re Muslim,” the Post reported that a Muslim man, Terrence Lavaron Thomas, stabbed two people at a bus top after asking them if they were Muslims.
When they replied that they were not, “[Thomas] was not happy with that answer,” Southfield Police Chief Eric Hawkins said.
Thomas then drew a knife and reportedly attacked the two victims, both in their early 50s, according to the Post. The victims of the stabbing attack were later released from the hospital with “non-life threatening injuries.”
The original headline drew rebukes almost as soon as it appeared on the Post website.
“Of note: stabber ‘said he was a Muslim,’” the Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway said. “Given that, [Washington Post], I’d file this under ‘criminally incompetent and unclear headline.’ So obviously this headline is deceptive. But curious how you’d headline this story, given limited facts.”…
The Washington Examiner’s Tim Carney suggested that both the story and its headline were “vague” and misleading.
Shortly after these complaints were aired, the Post amended the headline to read: “Police: Muslim man stabs two after discussion about religious beliefs.”
The headline was edited “to make it clearer to the reader,” a Post spokesperson told the Examiner.
The article also includes a note that states: “The headline of this post has been updated.”
The hasty headline change to make clear the religion of the man accused in the stabbings came nearly a week after the Post emphasized in multiple headlines that three Arab-Americans who where were shot and killed in Chapel Hill, N.C., in a longstanding parking dispute were Muslims….