Desperately hyping up any instances of alleged “Islamophobia” it can find, the New York Times on Wednesday covered tensions between students living in a high-rise at the University of Arizona, and the members of an adjacent mosque. More proof that the Times is hypersensitive to at least one religion’s complaints of discrimination.
There’s not much newworthy going on in the story -- the worse bit of "Islamophobia" the NYT uncovered was a single instance of a regrettable, sophomoric insult (from someone who may have infact been a sophomore) yelled from a passing car. But reporter Fernanda Santos managed to spin it into the lead story of Wednesday’s National section: “University of Arizona Students Hurl Insults, and Litter, at Mosque in Tucson.”
Rania Kanawati, a Syrian immigrant, was walking to her car after Friday Prayer last month at the Islamic Center of Tucson when a beer can landed right behind her, then another one fell by her side.
On another night at the mosque, Ahmed Meiloud, a Ph.D. candidate from Mauritania who is the Islamic Center’s president, was leaving the building when someone yelled from a passing car, “Terrorist, go back to where you came from!”
The diverse congregation of the Islamic Center -- a squat copper-domed complex just outside the University of Arizona’s campus -- has endured taunts and vandalism ever since hundreds of students moved into two private high-rise apartments next door three years ago. In at least one instance, a shower of crushed peanuts rained down on the mosque; more typically, cans and bottles are flung from apartment balconies, usually on the party nights of Friday and Saturday.
