May 17, 2007, - 1:25 pm
“Cheerful Plastic Slides”: New York Times’ Whitewash of Fort Dix Six Mosque
By
You can tell a lot about a reporter’s agenda by the adjectives he or she uses. In a New York Times whitewash of the mosque of four of the Fort Dix Six terrorists, the adjectives border on the absurd.
New York Times reporter Alan Feuer wrote a piece on the Al-Aqsa Islamic Society of Philadelphia, the mosque of Philly cab driver Mohamad I. Shnewer, as well as Eljvir, Shin, and Dritan Duka (who were repairing the mosque roof)–all four were Fort Dix Six terrorists (really 10–four terrorists were released and won’t be charged). Here’s how he describes the mosque:
It is the best-kept building in its North Philadelphia neighborhood, a blighted urban landscape dominated by the crumbling brick pile of the abandoned Gretz brewery across the street.
This is a lie. How could “reporter” Feuer possibly know this is the best-kept building in the neighborhood? Did he personally go inside and examine every single building in the neighborhood. Of course not. He wrote this to impress upon us the “neatness” and “well-kept” state of this mosque, because only messy people are terrorists, right? Or because their neat and well-kept building, of course, trumps any plot the mosque might be connected to, to “kill as many [American] soldiers as possible.” Right?
NYTimes: Black people in urban North Philadelphia–blighted, unkempt, abandoned crumbling buildings. Muslim Arabs and Albanians–“best-kept building.” We get it.
Then there is this hilarity:
On weekday mornings, students from the mosque’s large religious school shoot hoops on two tidy basketball courts or slip down the cheerful plastic slides.
“Tidy basketball courts?” Have you ever seen an “untidy” basketball court? Me neither. “Cheerful plastic slides”? Hmmm . . . what makes a slide “cheerful”? Are there slides that are angry or sad? Have you ever seen kids go down a “glum plastic slide”? I was not aware that playground structures could express emotions. But, hey, what do I know? I don’t “report” for the New York Times. I guarantee you: Had Feuer been reporting on a church playground–well he never would have mentioned that a church had a playground, because we can’t portray churches as child-friendly–I guarantee you the slide would be a “depressed plastic slide.”
NYTimes: Muslims’ playground structures are happy, cheerful. Their basketball courts are neat and tidy. Therefore, they could not have a thing to do with Islamic terrorism, right? Because everyone knows that if your plastic slide is cheeful and your basketball court is tidy, you’d never preach hate or approve of Islamic terrorism and the mass-murder of American soldiers. Nevuh Evuh.
Then there is this absurdity:
It is unclear what role, if any, religion played in the attack.
Hmmm . . . the Fort Dix Six (Ten) were all Muslim. They talked about how “Allah will provide” for their families when they are gone. But religion had nothing to do with it? Maybe Allah is code for Donald Trump in the Official New Mosque Slang Dictionary.
Then this:
The lengthy criminal complaint summarizing the FBI’s 15-month undercover investigatoin of the group does not mention where–or how often–they prayed. Certainly, there is no evidence that they picked up radical ideas at either mosque.
Uh, how often they prayed is not relevant. And the New York Times just told us at the beginning of this article where they prayed–that four of ’em prayed at this particular mosque, the Al-Aqsa Islamic Society. I guess the reporter has a short memory from the beginning of writing his articles to the end. And since the case has not even been tried yet, how can he say that “certainly, there is no evidence”? He does not even know what the evidence is yet. Hello?
And finally, “reporter” Feuer tells us that the mosque couldn’t possibly be involved in terrorism or preaching hate because when Philadelphia Police Captain Bill Fisher’s–head of the Philly PD’s civil affairs unit and liaison to the city’s Arabs–wife died of cancer three years ago, “the mosque sent a fruit basket.”
Yes, terrorists are never nice to your face. They’d never send a fruit basket to keep you fooled, to keep useful idiot allies on their side. Would they? Taqiyyah, my friend. Taqiyyah.
Tags: Al-Aqsa Islamic Society, Al-Aqsa Islamic Society of Philadelphia, Alan Feuer, basketball, Bill Fisher, cab driver, cancer, Captain, Debbie Schlussel, Donald Trump, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Fort Dix Six, Gretz brewery, Mohamad I. Shnewer, mosque of Philly, New Mosque Slang Dictionary, New York Times, official, Philadelphia, Philadelphia Police, reporter, The New York Times
They would feel right at home in North Philadelphia and West Philadelphia for that matter. There is the no snitch policy.
John Cunningham on May 17, 2007 at 2:06 pm