Silence of the Left? NBC Casts Afghani Conversion Case as Conservative Issue

Where is the liberal moral outrage? Oh, to be sure, the left is making its political points in the wake of the case in which a man is facing the death penalty in Aghanistan for having converted from Islam to Christianity. Story here. Administration critics have been quick to question the value of Pres. Bush's efforts in bringing democracy to the Muslim world if situations such as this one are the outcome.

But in reporting the matter on this morning's Today, NBC's Andrea Mitchell cast domestic protest of the matter strictly in terms of moral outrage on the part of the "Christian right".

Mitchell began her piece with footage of "Christian conservatives, a crucial part of George Bush's Republican base, protesting outside the Afghan embassy in Washington." Ironically, the protestors had borrowed a favorite chant from lefty protests of yore: "The whole world is watching!"

Said Mitchell: "You saw what happened with the Harriet Miers nomination, when the Christian right, when the conservative base rebelled. That could happen again."

Continued Mitchell: "Desperate to prevent a rebellion on the right, the administration ratcheted up the pressure for the release of 41-year old Abdul Rahman, threatened with death for converting to Christianity."

When US soldiers at Guantanamo were [falsely as it turned out] accused of flushing a Koran down a toilet and otherwise disrespecting Islam, the left went into high moral dudgeon. But now that a Christian is the prospective target of the ultimate 'disrespect,' the left seems strangely silent, other than to attempt to score political points.

Why weren't those "Christian conservatives" outside the Afghan embassy joined by their liberal Christian brethren? Where were the Christian Peacemaker Teams and their ilk? Mitchell and NBC were curiously incurious as to the left's absence and relative silence.

Could it be that in the multicultural world of the American left and the MSM, moral outrage is a one-way street?

Finkelstein lives in Ithaca, NY, where he hosts the award-winning public-access TV show 'Right Angle'. Contact him at: mark@gunhill.net