Will Media Remember Praising Al Awlaki the ‘Moderate?’
With the news that an American air strike has killed the U.S.-born head of Al Quaeda in Yemen, Anwar Al Awlaki, the media will explain his significance in the terrorist organization, and his role in inspiring the Ft. Hood shooter and the “underwear bomber.” What they probably won’t tell you is that they once celebrated Al Awlaki as a “moderate” and a bridge-builder “between Islam and the West.”
Awlaki once served as imam of the Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Northern Virginia, the very same place that attracted many of the 9/11 hijackers and, later, Major Nadal Hasan, the Ft. Hood shooter.
Yet before and, remarkably, after 9/11, the Washington Post, The New York Times and the Baltimore Sun, along with NPR, fawned over Al Awlaki as one of a “new generation of Muslim leader capable of merging East and West,” in the Times’ words. In Nov. 2001, just two months after the 9/11 attacks, the Post did a video profile of Al Awlaki and hosted him in an on-line Q & A session with readers. "[T]he greatest sin in Islam after associating other gods besides Allah is killing an innocent soul,” the bridge-builder told questioners.
Just a few years later, Al Awlaki was praising Nadal Hasan as “heroic,” saying “may God richly reward him.”
Al Awlaki turned out to be an exact opposite of the moderate he professed to be, and clearly burned the credulous media. That’s understandable. What’s not is that the media learned nothing from the experience.
Another name often mentioned in those old puff stories about so-called moderate imams was Feisal Abdul Rauf – the Muslim cleric who caused a storm of controversy in 2010 with his plan to build a mosque within two blocks of Ground Zero in Manhattan.
When the story exploded, the media rushed to Rauf’s defense, burnishing his “moderate” credentials. For the Post, Rauf seems to have taken over Al Awlaki’s old post as in-house Muslim public relations director. Since 2008, Rauf has penned at least 20 “On Faith” columns for the Post’s website. Rauf may or may not be as radical as Al Awlaki, but it’s hard to trust the conclusions of the “see-no-evil” media.
Al Awlaki’s death should serve as a reminder to the media of its embarrassment at his hands. And maybe it does, but don’t hold your breath waiting for an acknowledgement.
- Matthew Philbin's blog
- Login to post comments
Comments
What if Bush had taken him out?
Submitted by scottyusmc on Fri, 09/30/2011 - 9:33am.
The lame-stream-media would be calling for his head over the lack of "due process" and the murder of an American. They will sing the success of BOB for having killed this terrorist. Murder if by Bush; justified if by BOB... Hypocrites!!!!
Good Point
Submitted by libBuster on Fri, 09/30/2011 - 9:51am.
Good point. Any number of leftist lawyers would be up in arms if Bush had ordered the killing of a putative US Citizen without trial. There would be calls form Democrats in Congress for a special prosecutor and efforts to get it before a carefully selected District Court Judge.
Special prosecutor??
Submitted by retrocon on Fri, 09/30/2011 - 1:34pm.
No, impeachment!
POTUS signed an executive order to kill US Citizens. Sounds like a high-crime to me, since he does NOT have that authority anywhere in the constitution. And we can't claim war powers on this.
World Court
Submitted by libBuster on Fri, 09/30/2011 - 3:11pm.
The Democrats might punt on impeachment and ask their leftist buddies in the World Court to take up the matter, under the banner of War Crimes.
I am sure that the ACLU's position is that an American citizen can only be executed by a warrant signed by a duly commissioned Federal District Court judge after trial and conviction of a violation of the US Code.
lol scotty
Submitted by gmaniac1 on Fri, 09/30/2011 - 11:41am.
"The lame-stream-media would be calling for his head over the lack of "due process" and the murder of an American."
that quote just made my day... said with a Dirty Harry accent!
Obama would still take credit for it, scotty
Submitted by Blonde on Fri, 09/30/2011 - 11:48am.
Just as he lays the blame for all bad things (Solyndra, etc), he takes the credit for all positive events.
Now President Downgrade is on the tube ANNOUNCING the death of terrorists. He's doing his job, READING THE NEWS, in between campaign trips.
I really wish Roger Ailes & Rupert Murdoch would do us a huge favor, offer Obama a hunk of change to read the news on Fox (he could "read" all of the days events, which would then be compiled and shown at 3:30 a.m.)....if he'd resign, now.
It's a win/win. Obama can do what he does best, read the Teleprompter, and we would be rid of him.
Handy Reference Guide to Obama's Gaffes and Goofs ~ Currently Numbering 200 (and Counting)
MSNBC: "Al Awlaki who"?
Submitted by LAM SON 719 on Fri, 09/30/2011 - 9:39am.
MSNBC: "Al Awlaki who"?
CNN- Home grown
Submitted by Agnostic on Fri, 09/30/2011 - 9:40am.
CNN - heard while waitning in the lobby of a hospital
touting a person born in the US while the father was here for school and left when he was seven years old as a home grown terrorist. No facts, No journalism - all agenda.
So, Al Awlaki has assumed room temp?
Submitted by UpNorth on Fri, 09/30/2011 - 10:39am.
Good, although I agree, if Bush had done it, we'd be up to our armpits in calls for special prosecutors, Chuck-U Schumer pressers and Harry Reid telling us that, no matter what, "this war is lost".
"Greatest sin is ... killing an innocent soul"
Submitted by Newsbubba on Fri, 09/30/2011 - 10:47am.
When Al Wacky says something like this, you have to remember to really listen in the same context he is blabbering these "moderate" statements. You see, unless you believe in radical Islamo-Fascist rule, you ain't innocent! That kind of opens up the potential targets for these crazy bastards.
Our "fellow American citizen," Al Wacky, may have been "moderate" when he was alive, but now he is just another dead SOB terrorist. All I want to know is how Bambi got all the way over there and killed him and got back by breakfast this morning.
I was really disappointed by a Fox corespondent this morning saying, sadly, that he was reaching out to all of his contacts to find out if the body "had been handled according to Islamic law." What?
They should take all of these guys, grind up the remains and ship it to the nearest hog farm for feed, and film the hogs slopping over the bastards. Then they could run that on TV for their entertainment.
Will the MSM remember Awlaki?
Submitted by celator on Fri, 09/30/2011 - 10:48am.
Will the MSM remember Awlaki? Well, sure they will. They'll mourn him by wearing black armbands. He was one of their heroes, after all.
I've already heard the meme
Submitted by DaChew on Fri, 09/30/2011 - 11:03am.
I've already heard the meme the media will be using to work themselves out of this. They will mention the "moderate" Al Awlaki but it will always be in the context of his "double life", one being the openly moderate bridge from Islam to the West and the second being his super-secret identity as terrorist and enabler of two of the 9/11 hijackers. What they're going to ignore is all the evidence there was available at the time they were calling him moderate so they can act as if it was unknowable who he really was.
They'll admit they were wrong about him being a moderate but it will only be because they couldn't have known at the time. They'll plead ignorance rather than bias to save their journalistic "integrity" which they currently assume anyone thinks they still have.
Hold the media's treasonous
Submitted by jessieH on Fri, 09/30/2011 - 11:09am.
Hold the media's treasonous feet to the fire!
Kudo's with a BIG caveat
Submitted by Tomorama on Fri, 09/30/2011 - 12:10pm.
Good point Newsbusters.
My initial reaction was: Excelllent job for all those involved and kudos to Obama for signing off (in a way) on the operation.
One less alive POS, yay.
BUT, I also realize whenever Boooooosh took out a high level member, there was handwringing and wondering "Will this not lead to them being angry at us and causing more of them to hate us"?
Over and over and over, rinse lather repeat.
ESPECIALLY the gnashing of teeth IF Bush was simply using drones, then we also heard about all the "innocent people that ALSO were killed to get this one guy".
Over and over and over, rinse lather repeat.
All we hear now is gush, gush, slurp, slurp all is great in the slurp, gush world.
"Stop grumblin'. Stop cryin'. I was busy doing Al Awlaki ."
Submitted by SickofLibs on Fri, 09/30/2011 - 12:19pm.
.
Is waterboarding worst than being killed by a missile?
Submitted by txco on Fri, 09/30/2011 - 12:39pm.
Where are all the people that were against waterboarding. Isn't killing someone with a misslile worst?
A missle?
Submitted by Dave the mailman on Fri, 09/30/2011 - 1:22pm.
Well, at least Al Wacky couldn't claim they punched him; Obama would have them courtmartialed
Be careful, my friends...
Submitted by retrocon on Fri, 09/30/2011 - 1:44pm.
I could not claim to be a constitutional conservative and applaud this action.
Just as i DID NOT approve of holding Jose Padilla without a trial.
Like it or not, we are NOT under a constitutional declaration of war. These are US Citizens, and due process is guaranteed. Even if we were under a declaration of war, i don't think an order for the murder of a US citizen would be legal, without due process!
I am all for strong measures, including the killing and "enhanced" interrogation of non-citizens, during a conflict like this. However, we have to honor our commitment to citizens of the US, whether they hate this country or not, or we become little more than a dictatorship. And certainly, if a US citizen is killed in the process of fighting against us, on the battlefield in Afganistan, or the streets of New York, that's a completely different issue. This is very different.
Think about what some are applauding! The POTUS signed an executive order to kill US Citizens, without a conviction, or even an indictment or a trial! And then the order, and the US Citizens were executed. Who will be next on the list?
So, i support fighting the "war" on terror, i support using almost whatever means necessary. But i cannot support a unilateral executive order to murder a US citizen, without due process, without grand jury, trial, and even without stripping them of citizenship (a form of due process, at least). If i were to, then i am no better than the progressive left, who think the US Constitution is little more than toilet paper to be used and discarded.
If we do not hear the ACLU or MSM take issue with this action, especially after the uproars with Padilla and Guantanamo, shame on them. But shame on us if we let it slide.
I realize that this response is a little off topic, not addressing the "media aspects" of this much. But of all the power we've seen the Obama usurp in his role as POTUS, this is the most signficant.
We already are
Submitted by jon_torlin on Fri, 09/30/2011 - 1:46pm.
or we become little more than a dictatorship
We already are little more than a dictatorship, look at the crap Bambi's gotten away with so far. If Congress isn't going to impeach the bogus potus for Libya which in a nutshells is aiding and abetting al qaeda terrorists(and other terror groups involved), they won't impeach him for anything, even Fast and Furious.
All the while, he'll keep taking it little by little to destroy this country through small steps of rendering this country defunct. Even if there are penalties to be suggested(if not applied) for F&F or anything else for that matter, unless this piece of crap is removed from office, ain't nothing gonna happen.
-Jon
You are 100 percent correct, Jon...
Submitted by retrocon on Fri, 09/30/2011 - 3:22pm.
I guess my point is, regardless as to whether it's republican doing it a little, or democrat doing it a lot, we have to avoid praising results with which we may agree, when those results are obtained through unconstitutional actions.
And also to your point, where is the press as "Dear Leader" usurps more and more legislative powers through executive order and regulation.
It is truly scary...
oh, the second amendment is going to be next. I'm just not sure whether he will make his hand known before the next election, depends on whether he thinks it will be close enough to "steal."
praising results
Submitted by jon_torlin on Fri, 09/30/2011 - 3:48pm.
When it comes to this charlatan, I don't care WHAT he does, even if some people say it's good, it doesn't change the fact that he's still a charlatan.
To quote/paraphrase a line from Star Trek: The Next Generation's First Season episode "Hide and Q" by Geordi LaForge: "I don't like who I'd have to thank."
Given that his goal is to destroy this country, no amount of "good" would ever make up for that, even if a scumbag was killed, be it bin Laden or Al-wackiness.
I will NEVER thank DuhOne for anything.
-Jon
Now they are singing Hussein's praises
Submitted by frank14 on Fri, 09/30/2011 - 1:56pm.
Although this morning on Fox and Friends Geraldo as an aside said that the poor terrorist wasn't given due process. Democrats are pro-death penalty when they are in charge.