Terrorism by Muslims is evil, but it doesn’t define Islam
It’s easy for a newspaper in an almost all-white, conservative, Christian region to get away with a front-page article that denounces all of Islam. But two readers called us on it. Rightly.
Six days ago, we published a story about a former radical Muslim turned terrorist who converted to Christianity and now preaches about the evils of Islam.
Two readers – shockingly, there were only two – complained that we gave a bombastic apostle a platform for hate speech.
Those readers were right.
The writer of this story did a great job covering Walid Shoebat’s appearance in Bristol, where he spoke to a pair of gatherings at a Baptist church. Shoebat is a mesmerizing speaker, I’m told, and served up plenty of red meat to evangelical Christians.
The problem is that we allowed Shoebat (pronounced Showy-bat) to equate all of the Muslim religion to evil. It’s tantamount to a former Baptist going to Saudi Arabia and equating all Baptists with abortion-doctor killers.
There is no question that Shoebat’s appearance was newsworthy. It should have been covered. But we also should have tried harder and earlier to find Muslim officials to offer counterpoints. And we especially should have simply Googled speaker Shoebat, whose background as a terrorist with the Palestine Liberation Organization has been questioned by the likes of The New York Times and the Jerusalem Post.
Here’s the three-paragraph lede from a Jerusalem Post story published March 30, 2008, about Shoebat:
“When he was 16, says Walid Shoebat, he was recruited by a PLO operative by the name of Mahmoud al-Mughrabi to carry out an attack on a branch of Bank Leumi in Bethlehem.
At six in the evening he was supposed to detonate a bomb in the doorway of the bank. But when he saw a group of Arab children playing nearby, he says, his conscience was pricked and he threw the bomb onto the roof of the bank instead, where it exploded causing no fatalities.
This is the story that Shoebat, who converted from Islam to Christianity in 1993 and has lived in the United States since the late 1970s, has told on tours around the U.S. and Europe since 9/11 opened the West’s public consciousness to the dangers of Islamic extremism.”
The Jerusalem Post articles goes on to say that Bank Leumi has no record of any such bombing and that the Walid Shoebat Foundation, which solicits donations to fund his anti-Muslim crusade, is not a registered charity in Pennsylvania, as Shoebat claims. Furthermore, Shoebat claims on his Web site his last name is fictional – an assumed name to protect him from a $10 million bounty to any Islamist who can kill him. Even Shoebat’s own relatives scoff at such claims; their last names, by the way, are Shoebat.
Pressed by our reporter, Shoebat admitted his name is real and that his Web site contained a “mistake.” And in defense of our reporter, there was no one in the area to refute Shoebat. Have you tried to find a mosque in these parts? “I wanted to have a dissenting voice in there,” the reporter told me. “It was a Sunday and I was on deadline.”
“If the Bank Leumi bombing claim is unfounded, it is unclear why Shoebat would have wanted to manufacture a terrorist past. True or not, however, it has plainly brought him some prominence and provided him with a means to speak in favor of Israel and be paid for doing so,” the Jerusalem Post article concludes.
Here’s the lede from The New York Times article from Feb. 7, 2008:
The Air Force Academy was criticized by Muslim and religious freedom organizations for playing host on Wednesday to three speakers who critics say are evangelical Christians falsely claiming to be former Muslim terrorists.
We all know the evils of radical Islamists. We also know the evils of serial killers, and people like Timothy McVeigh and a host of other criminals who are not Muslim. As a society, we often are too quick to paint with a broad brush. Radical Islam does not define the Islamic religion any more than McVeigh, the executed Oklahoma City bomber, defines the U.S. Army, which he served with distinction in the Gulf War and was awarded the Bronze Star for valor.
Our lede on the front page Monday was: “Islam is the essence of evil,” Walid Shoebat, a self-described “former Muslim terrorist,” said here Saturday night.
A woman reader from Coeburn, Va., e-mailed me: “I was surprised and disappointed to read it and to see the prominence you gave it on the front page. I am not a Muslim, nor am I of the Islamic faith but I was offended by the ignorance shown by the speaker and by lack of actual reporting done by the author of the piece. I hope that people from the faith communities in the region take offense at this kind of reporting. The church[es] who sponsored this program should also apologize for hosting such ignorance. Your paper and Mr[.] Shoebat insult both Islamic and Christians faiths in his witness to both of them. His behavior and words, if accurately reported, appear to be far from Christian.”
Another coalfields reader faxed the article to the Richmond law firm that represents our parent company, Media General, and accused us of promoting hate speech. It would have been simpler and made more sense to have faxed his objection to me, and his failure to do that is bewildering.
Readers bewilder me a lot. A Bristol woman recently mailed one of my columns to corporate headquarters in Richmond in an attempt to get me fired. The woman wrote that my column, about the first day of school, was a platform to promote my two young sons.
And here’s the bewildering part: I get more compliments on the columns I write about fatherhood and my boys than anything else I write about.
The moral to the story is that while publishing hate speech is wrong, I guess love speech is, too – at least to some readers.
J. Todd Foster is managing editor of the Bristol Herald Courier and can be reached at or (276) 645-2513.
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Reader Reactions
fdr wrote “If the god of the jews is so loving and kind and so much more humane than the god of the muslim,than answer me,why do these INNOCENT firstborn die for the sins of their parents?According ot this verse they were.“
Fdr, i have read you argue for a womens “right to choose”. Answer me this one question. If you have a problem with that verse from the bible, then why don’t you have a problem with abortion? You have no problem with hundreds of thousands of “innocent” unborn children being murdered a year just in the U.S. How do you justify that behavior?
Fdr,
If we were boxing you would have a stand-in, because your no “smokin-joe”.
Fdr wrote ““It came to pass at midnight the LORD smote all the firstborn of Pharoah….unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon..Exodus 12:29.“
If those people actually cared about their children, would’nt they have obviously headed the previous 9 warnings and let the Jews(who were being held slaves) leave Egypt? It was the tenth judgement.
FDR wrote “ Why would this suppossed man of god curse and bring bears out of the woods to tare up thses kids.They did him no physical harm,how will you justify your god and his kind gentle prophet?“
Did they not mock the prophet of God? Is God not holy? If he truly is God and created all things, then mocking his prophet would be mocking him? The text does not say whether they were killed or not either.
Now you pointed out something you didnt like, but did read 2Kings chapter four where the women gave Elisha her last bit of food? She fed him and God fed her and her son. The son died and Elisha restored his life for what she had done for him.
FDR wrote “I wonder,is this how you “bible - believing” tea-baggers justify killing and slaughtering (or indirectly causing)the deaths of millions of people in the mid-east?“
Explain were get the idea that christians have killed millions of people in the mid-east? Do you have some kind of statistic to back that wild accusation? Why dont you explain the actions of atheist regimes and their dictators? Stalin, Mao, Hitler killed millions. That is an imperically verifiable fact.
FDR wrote” Even scarier,is this how you rightwing-nuts will justify the killing of anyone who disagrees with your lunatic fringe agenda in the future,even in this country”
Unless you can see into the future, i dont see were you get this wild eyed idea? Its far more likely that atheist will be the ones doing the killing. Their track record is extremely violent. You cant even tell me what right and wrong are and were the idea came from?
No kdr1, you have misunderstood! I am saying there are inconsistencies which are not in agreement with known historical events and those who want to do research as historians are being jailed for doing those investigations and writing. I am for freedom of thought and expression and the First Amendment; for both you and me.
One can deny what he chooses! Being able to think and not accept everything we are told is an attribute I hold as being critical to keeping our freedom. You, sir, denied as unverifable, the murder of peace activist Rachel Corrie by Israeli tanks…the Israeli bombing of the King David Hotel by 20 Irgun terrorists dressed as Arabs…Ariel Sharon’s massacre of 1,500 weaponless Palestinians in the Shatsla and Sabra refugee camps and the Israeli film crew (Mossad), filming the Twin Towers attacks. I also assume you also deny that Mossad agents were caught in Erwin, Tennessee after 9-11 and deported to Israel.
Sir, I can provide more instances, but I know you would only poo poo anything else I might provide. These instances (and I can name many, many more)...and they can all be verified more easily than a Jewish holocaust!
Hey kdr1,“You can run but you can’t hide”.In boxing we used to call guys like you “fan dancers”,a slugger would chase you all over the ring as you danced and weaved and threw some ineffectual pitty pats.I feel like Smokin’Joe chasin’some scaredy-cat skippy around the ring.
Now,here is a verse I looked up….I am typing it…..no copy and paste…..not even this one verse….“It came to pass at midnight the LORD smote all the firstborn of Pharoah….unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon..Exodus 12:29.
If the god of the jews is so loving and kind and so much more humane than the god of the muslim,than answer me,why do these INNOCENT firstborn die for the sins of their parents?According ot this verse they were.
Next:and he(Elisha)went up…...and as he was going upby the way,there came forth little children…..and mocked him….and he (the man of god)....cursed them in the name of the Lord.And there came forth two she bears out of the wood,and tare forty and two children of them.2kings2:23&24;.
If the folowers and preachers of your god(the god of Israel and the Jews)are supposed to be so loving,kind and gentle to others than why this?Why would this suppossed man of god curse and bring bears out of the woods to tare up thses kids.They did him no physical harm,how will you justify your god and his kind gentle prophet?
From the ezekial9:4-6;some more of the christian/jewish gods love and care for humanity.“And the Lord said unto him,.......(THE LORD SAID)
Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither
have ye pity: Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women…. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house.“ (Ezekiel 9:4-6)
I wonder,is this how you “bible - believing” tea-baggers justify killing and slaughtering (or indirectly causing)the deaths of millions of people in the mid-east?Even scarier,is this how you rightwing-nuts will justify the killing of anyone who disagrees with your lunatic fringe agenda in the future,even in this country?Aren’t you all piling up the ammo for Armageddon?
What’s your excuse now, Mr.Fan-dancer?
freedomman,
So i take it you deny the holocaust. That is sad for someone to be so diluted they can’t even see reality.
Sorry FDR, i had to go to work.
Now what were we discussing? Oh yeah, you copy and paste garbage from atheist sites.
FDR wrote “Because I think for myself,mister,and won’t drink your hypocritical,fundie,Drugrush Lamebrain,Faux news,kool aid.“
Oh really, you think for yourself. If you think for yourself, then why do you copy and paste info from a garbage website instead of “thinking for yourself”?
No mr hypocrite, you definetly drink the kool-aid. You believe blindly that garbage you read. Now if you would like to discuss something you copied and pasted, then make an argument and i will respond.
WW II was instigated for the strategic interests of Israel, as witnessed by the Balfour Declaration.. Does anyone wonder why only Jewish victims of WW II are shown in all the “documentaries” regarding WW II? Far more people have been killed in all wars than those in “a Jewish holocaust”, of which certain aspects have been investigated and questioned by scholarly studies. Many aspects of history have later been proven wrong when scrutinized by honest investigation. However, in Germany, there are thousands imprisoned today merely for questioning certain aspects as to what actually happened. The truth should not fear investigation. And note I did not use the term “the holocaust”, for to do so does injustice to the millions of white Russians killed when the communist Zionist bolsheviks took control of Russia. The entire history of mankind has been one of “holocausts”. That is what happens when war occurs. Americans have heard much more about the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but not aware more people perished in a holocaust in Dresden….than in the former cities. It was so hot, asphalt melted and bubbled. In war, no side has a monoply on virtue.
As one researcher put it: “Did the Nazis, while in the midst of the war effort, really construct huge and complex gas chambers; transport millions of Jews to camps, and exterminate their victims in this manner? If their intention was to kill them, wouldn’t bullets costing a few cents apiece, have killed them more efficiently and eliminated the huge expense and logistical nightmare of transportation, housing, food and medical care? If the Nazis really intended to kill all the Jews, why would they even need to build concentration camps?“
No authoritiy on a “Jewish holocaust” ever claimed the Germans gassed a single person at Dachau Concentration Camp near Munich. The official death toll has been reduced from 300,000 to 30,000. The Jews were starving in this work camp and had no more food than the German citizenry…. the deaths from disease. Why would the Germans even feed them anything if their own army and citizens were starving.
Another researcher states: What did American soldiers actually see? They saw terrible scenes of human suffering and death. They saw piles of corpses emaciated from hunger and disease, just as Yankee troops saw the same at Andersonville during the War Between the States. Nevertheless, did any Americans see gas chambers in American occupied Germany? According to accepted authorities on the subject, including the famous Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal, Americans saw no such sights in Germany, nor could they have, because the only gas chambers supposedly used on Jews were in the Soviet zone.
A Jewish holocaust is used as an “argument stopper” every time the Zionists want to justify their 300+ nuclear weapons and their refusal to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty…just to make sure they remain the only Middle Eastern nation with nuclear weapons. It is used as propaganda every time they want to seize more territory from the Palestinians. It is used to destroy the reputations and lives of good men and women who want freedom of speech to research and write on the subject.
The truth need not fear investigation. Imprisoning researchers is proof there are dirty lies ready to be uncovered and the only way to stop it is to imprison the investigators.
Hehe and LOL,KIA1(Know It All 1) CAN’T ANSWER-no fundi can,and they know it.What I copied and posted are my “thoughts exactly”(ever say that,hypocrite?)I’ve wasted my time reading that silly book through several times many years ago.I aint takin’the time to look up those verses,hence the copy,dumba—.Are you denying they(THE VERSES)are in your silly book?KIA1 said"I dare say i know more about the subject of atheism than you do, and I am a Christian!“
Yawn,Yea,I know Mr.KIA1.Why do you think I call you Know It All?“Religion is the impotence of the human mind to deal with occurrences it cannot understand.“ - Karl Marx
I know people like you hate people like me.Why?Because I think for myself,mister,and won’t drink your hypocritical,fundie,Drugrush Lamebrain,Faux news,kool aid.Go ahead and drink up.Lord it over what gullible sheep you can find,I’m sure it strokes your ego.
Waiting…...
“Well FDR, since you copied and pasted all that garbage from one of the atheist web sites i will not respond to that. If you are not going to post you own thoughts and knowledge of the subject, then i dont feel obliged to respond. Why dont you read some useful information to help defend your argument. I dare say i know more about the subject of atheism than you do, and I am a Christian!“
Good excuse.You are a real comedian KIA1.You CAN’T answer.WWJD?
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