While the story of the South Park death threats may not specifically constitute bias in the media per say, it does highlight an embarrassing pattern that has sent Big Media the way of the dinosaur, and a disturbing pattern that has people kowtowing to aggressive threats from radical Islamists.
We'll start with the MSM. Zachary Chesser, or Abu Talhah Al-Amrikee as he is known on the Revolutionmuslim.com Web site that hosted his death threat, recently garnered serious attention from major networks such as CNN and Fox. But the fact remains that these networks only came upon Chesser after an egregious threat was made, and after several blogs had already covered it. And they certainly hadn't done their homework as the blogs had, documenting the history of his disturbing radical statements.
The Jawa Report has been able to highlight several instances of odd behavior from Chesser, including a statement regarding the recent plane crash that killed the President of Poland and his wife, along with 96 others. The statement, as highlighted here, includes a celebration of the tragedy:
"This is good news, because Poland is a country which has soldiers in Afghanistan. Rather than the mujahideen killing these kuffar, Allah has done it for them in a manner which is easier."
They also linked to Chesser's praising of the Moscow subway attack, and a series of postings designed to offer counter-counterterrorism advice - some of which were posted back in March.
Then of course there is the kowtowing. Comedy Central has become infamous for bowing to the pressure, sacrificing free speech to appease those who make death threats while cloaking themselves in the first amendment.
The question now is will Chesser's former school, George Mason University, make a stand against this form of hate speech? Here's why they should...
Chesser, according to a Whois search, apparently registered a Web site known as Youtubejihad.org. This information appears below:
As you can see, Chesser used his internet account from when he was a student at George Mason University to start a site to promote jihad, presumably as he has similarly done on the Revolution Muslim site, his Mujahidblog site, and his Twitter comments. One such comment - since removed but thankfully captured by The Jawa Report - made a similar threat even before the Revolution Muslim buzz:
May Allah kill Matt Stone and Trey Parker and burn them in Hell for all eternity.
Further describing the efforts of the Youtubejihad site is the Bill Warner Private Detective blog, which claims:
The Youtube Jihad Blog consists of Chesser and five other contributors. The contributors - who post videos containing fatwas, lectures, nasheeds (Islamic songs) and other materials - also operate YouTube channels that include the same videos. One video posted by Chesser on February 22, 2010, titled "America Tuta Fika," shows several militants pointing their guns at the screen as Chesser sings "America, America, America here we come, we come to please our lord, and jihad is all we know."
Threats being published on a site registered with a George Mason e-mail address do not constitute criminal behavior according to the University police department. Public Information Officer, George Ginovsky, said, "This matter has been reviewed by the GMU Police Department. Our review has determined that it does not warrant a criminal investigation by us at this time."
While death threats may not rise to the level of criminal behavior in the eyes of the GMU Police, the issue of whether or not Chesser violated the school's Terms of Service by registering jihadi Web sites under their e-mail account is still being reviewed.
Mason Press Secretary Dan Walsch summarized, "This specific matter remains under review." Though it appears the school would rather just see the whole issue go away. Walsch explained, "In terms of rendering his email address inactive, because this controversy corresponds with it being a year since he was an active student, we would normally be discontinuing his account any way."
On the other hand, they could take the lead on this and make a statement that says ‘we do not approve of students promoting jihad through our resources.'
The GMU policy for computer use includes the following:
RULE 5: Do not use Mason's computing resources to violate other policies or laws. Including using Mason's computing resources to violate harassment laws or policies.
To assist the University in their review, we provide an excerpt from the National Conference of State Legislatures, which provides the Code of Virginia (emphasis mine throughout):
§ 18.2-60 - ...Any person who knowingly communicates, in a writing, including an electronically transmitted communication producing a visual or electronic message, a threat to kill or do bodily injury to a person, regarding that person or any member of his family, and the threat places such person in reasonable apprehension of death or bodily injury to himself or his family member, is guilty of a Class 6 felony. However, any person who violates this subsection with the intent to commit an act of terrorism as defined in § 18.2-46.4 is guilty of a Class 5 felony.
At the very least, there is the following law:
§ 18.2-152.7:1. Harassment by computer; penalty.
If any person, with the intent to coerce, intimidate, or harass any person, shall use a computer or computer network to communicate obscene, vulgar, profane, lewd, lascivious, or indecent language, or make any suggestion or proposal of an obscene nature, or threaten any illegal or immoral act, he shall be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.
Once presented with the information that Chesser was using University e-mail to register web sites promoting jihad, his account should have been suspended. Since it hasn't, it will be interesting to see how George Mason responds to this incident.
Will they ignore the threat? Will they cower in fear as Comedy Central did?
Only time will tell...
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Photo Credit: Times Online
