The Times finds a (liberal) way to makes Moslems look bad

Is the New York Times going anti-Moslem? From a story on the passions shaking up the Netherlands in the wake of the jihadist slaughter of Theo van Gogh:

Mr. van Gogh’s killing has unleashed widespread anger toward the country’s growing conservative Muslim population, much of which rejects the liberal tenets of Dutch society. The conflict is echoed across Europe, where decades of gradual Muslim immigration have created communities that are often at odds with the larger societies. [Italics added.] [“Dutch Muslim School Bombed; Link to Killing Suspected,” Craig S. Smith, November 9, 2004]

“Liberal” Europeans versus “conservative” Moslems? The choice of words suggests that the Times’ editors are beginning to share the growing alarm about the Moslem immigrant communities in the West, but that, in order to make themselves and their readers feel comfortable about expressing this alarm, they had to find the right language in which to frame it. “Conservative” Moslems versus “Liberal” Dutch society will do very nicely. Before you know it, the Times will be describing Moslems as “ignorant,” “bigoted,” and “reactionary.” Every time Moslem spokesmen defend Moslems from criticism or make any general point, the Times will say that “conservative Moslems” are “cynically dividing” society for religious purposes. Every time Moslem terrorists kill some innocent non-Moslem, the Times will say that they were spurred to the act by “right-wing ideology of intolerance and exclusion” that is being spread by “conservative Moslem radio hosts and Internet sites.” And who knows? If this keeps up, the Times could be soon urging the end of all state subsidies to Moslems, the closing down of all Moslem-oriented multicultural programs, and the cessation of Moslem immigration into Europe and America.

Remember: When the Times was defending Communist Russia back in the 1930s, it called it “progressive” and the “wave of the future.” When the Times turned against the doddering Soviet regime, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, it called its defenders “conservatives.”

Posted by Lawrence Auster at November 09, 2004 10:12 PM | Send