A radical ideological commitment that turns converts into killers? Now that's something the press can really tear into.But wait, you say you're not talking about a frantic schizophrenic who murdered an abortionist but rather a series of converts to Islam like Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad who killed a U.S. soldier and wounded another in Arkansas...and like the four men who tried to bomb two synagogues in New York?
Well, that must be different.
After all, just look at the disparate media attention given the George Tiller murder. That shooting was an outrageous and deplorable act certainly, but one involving a deranged murderer acting completely contrary to the character of the pro-life movement. It's rarity is one of the things that makes it stand out so dramatically -- this despite the abortion lobby trying to make it seem that violence is rife among pro-lifers.
The facts are as clear as can be, however. The pro-life movement's hallmarks are its peaceful, prayerful and patient tactics. Indeed, no protest movement in history has been so profoundly peaceful.
It's the abortionists who deal in violence, as they barbarically mangle the bodies of preborn boys and girls to death every day.
But the reporters of the MSM, dedicated themselves to abortion rights, are distorting this story. Their reports unapologetically portray abortionists as sympathetic, heroic, altruistic characters. There is no mention of babies torn to pieces at huge profits, of underhanded and deceitful business practices, of illegal activities, of botched abortions in which the lousy doctors involved continue to ply their trade.
Nor, of course, is there barely any mention of what pro-lifers really believe and do.
And what of the press coverage of the Muslim converts? Has the MSM responsibly covered those stories? Haven't they frequently even held out on their audience what they know about the assailant's religion and background? Haven't even the suspects' Muslim names been sometimes left out of the story, so concerned are reporters about smearing with a broad brush a particular faith?
I'm not insisting that the press go easy when a criminal turns out to be Christian or anti-abortion or conservative -- I'm just asking for a fairer all-round responsibility from the media. And one area that needs improvement is the reporting of crimes motivated by radical Muslims, including those involving the persecution of Christians, the targeting of Jews, anti-American terrorism, even the severe "honor codes" in which they brutally treat members of their own religion.
Here is an example of how it should be. It comes, no surprise, from Fox News.
The suspect in the deadly shooting at a military recruiting center in Arkansas is the latest in a series of Muslim converts accused of planning or launching violent attacks in the U.S., part of what security experts call an alarming domestic trend.
The attack came less than two weeks after a foiled bomb plot on two synagogues in Riverdale, N.Y., allegedly led by four men who converted to Islam in prison or shortly after their incarceration.
Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, the 23-year-old accused of killing a U.S. soldier and injuring another in the attack Monday in Little Rock, was born in Tennessee as Carlos Leon Bledsoe. He reportedly converted to Islam as a teenager, and court records show he changed his name in March 2006.
Little Rock police said there was no indication Muhammad was part of a wider plot to attack the military, but terrorism experts say there are important connections between his and other homegrown terror plots in recent years, including their targets, motives and inspiration.
"The real common denominator is the ideological commitment (present) in every single case I've seen over the past few months and over the past few years," said Walid Phares, director of the Future of Terrorism Project at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
Phares said the vast majority of converts are nonviolent, but a few embrace the teachings of extremist religious mentors. "In the lives of these diverse people there's always one moment where there's a click," he said — in which the budding convert is turned by a radical cleric or ideologue, or swayed by indoctrinating material they find online.
Prosecutors say Muhammad was targeting U.S. soldiers "because of what they had done to Muslims in the past" and was angry about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But some terror experts say that reasoning is a cover for their true grievances. The alleged ringleader of the plot in New York professed a similar motivation and hoped to take down a military plane at a local airstrip — but only after he tried to bomb two synagogues in a war against the Jews.
"I think there are a lot of personal reasons these people do this — as opposed to the ideological reasons or religious reasons that become the excuse," said Neil Livingstone, a national security and terrorism consultant.
Livingstone said some people on the margins of society are "easy marks" for radicals who energize them with twisted teachings about Islam. "Most of these guys — I think what it comes down to — they're misfits, they believe they've suffered injustice. ... They basically are striking back at society," he told FOXNews.com.
That is especially the case in prisons, where many black inmates convert to Islam and which have been identified as a "radicalizing cauldron" by law enforcement officials.
The Riverdale plotters are the most recent example, but another group of ex-cons was preparing terrorist attacks on Jewish and government targets around Los Angeles in 2005 when it was disrupted by local law enforcement.
Muslim advocacy groups say such radicals practice a false faith and only make up a small minority only of American Muslims. "It's a ridiculous form of Islam," said Kamal Nawash, president of the Free Muslim Coalition. Nawash said that some converts, particularly those who have been incarcerated, practice "the most extreme version of the religion" and enter with their own personal and political grievances...
That's good reporting -- a balanced and complete story. Wouldn't it be nice if there was a lot more of it?
