READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE!!
READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE!!
Good advice. But, the lead in did point us to the wrong mindset . . . :-)
Jumping from the first few sentences to this would have worked better, methinks.
. . . But what ''Muslims in America and throughout the world" most need to hear is not pandering sweet-talk. What they need is a blunt reminder that the real desecration of Islam is not what some interrogator in Guantanamo might have done to the Koran. It is what totalitarian Muslim zealots have been doing to innocent human beings in the name of Islam. It is 9/11 and Beslan and Bali and Daniel Pearl and the USS Cole. It is trains in Madrid and schoolbuses in Israel and an ''insurgency" in Iraq that slaughters Muslims as they pray and vote and line up for work. It is Hamas and Al Qaeda and sermons filled with infidel-hatred and exhortations to ''martyrdom."
But what disgraces Islam above all is the vast majority of the planet's Muslims saying nothing and doing nothing about the jihadist cancer eating away at their religion. It is Free Muslims Against Terrorism, a pro-democracy organization, calling on Muslims and Middle Easterners to ''converge on our nation's capital for a rally against terrorism" -- and having only 50 people show up.
Yes, Islam is disrespected. That will only change when throngs of passionate Muslims show up for rallies against terrorism, and when rabble-rousers trying to gin up a riot over a defiled Koran can't get the time of day.
Point well taken. However, the role of demogogues and sensationalist journalism exacerbates weaknesses and inflames the mob. Newsweek didn't just print the story, it hyped it in emails to the world media. Whatever we can do to restrain the sensationalist tendencies of the press and get it to act soberly we should do.