After the worst terror attack on U.S. soil since 9-11, New York Times reporter Liz Robbins found time to pity some Muslim high school students in New York City who had their feelings hurt, on the front of Saturday’s edition: “Young New York Muslims, Robbed of a Respite.”
That “respite” referred to Islam’s holy month of Ramadan, which has become a popular time for Islamic terrorists to mount assaults. Forty-nine innocents were “robbed” of their lives in Orlando. Another article left no mistaking which political party was on the right side of the issue: "Politicians have been divided on how to define the Orlando tragedy. President Obama called it both 'an act of terror and an act of hate.' But some Republican officials have refused to acknowledge that it could be considered a hate crime."
For Muhammad Hannan and other Muslim high school students in New York City, this has been a Ramadan of contrasts and conflicting emotions.
The joy of breaking a 16-hour fast with the first bite of a sweet date. The horror of hearing about the attack on a gay nightclub in Florida that left 49 dead. The drudgery of reviewing a year’s worth of earth sciences and trigonometry notes. The frustration of defending Islam -- and the right to be in this country -- after another terrorist attack carried out in the name of the Islamic State.
The Times quickly located the enemy: Donald Trump’s anti-Islam rhetoric.
Ramadan is usually Muhammad’s favorite time. This year, though, the holiday, which encompasses a month of fasting from dawn to dusk, has not offered its usual refuge. Already, Ramadan coincided with the Regents, the series of state tests that most high school students in New York take.
Then on Sunday, a Muslim man born in New York, Omar Mateen, called 911 to proclaim his allegiance to ISIS and opened fire in the Pulse nightclub in Orlando.
Within a day, Donald J. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, was renewing his call to ban Muslims from entering the United States.
And the day after that, another student in Muhammad’s English class started echoing Mr. Trump’s call.
“He was talking a lot of bad things, with no proof,” Muhammad said of the classmate. Muhammad replied that there were differences between Muslims like Muhammad Ali and those like Omar Mateen.
The Times makes a point to scour the land for “Islamophobia” after terror attacks by Islamic jihadists.
In another Saturday piece, “Hate Crimes Now Directed at L.G.B.T. People the Most,” Haeyoun Park and Iaryna Mykhyalyshyn took a typical Times jab at Republicans who committed the sin of omission in not calling attention to the fact that Pulse was a “gay club.” (This after years of the mainstream media decrying the GOP for making an issue out of people’s sexuality.)
The Times left no mistaking which political party was on the right side of the issue.
Politicians have been divided on how to define the Orlando tragedy. President Obama called it both “an act of terror and an act of hate.” But some Republican officials have refused to acknowledge that it could be considered a hate crime.
Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, has omitted any mention of gays when talking about the massacre, and Representative Pete Sessions of Texas has said the site of the shooting was not a gay club.
