Print and visual media in the US have ignored the fact that the man who alerted law enforcement about a bombing attempt at New York’s Times Square earlier this month is a Muslim immigrant while stressing the Muslim background of the chief suspect over and over again, leading to the public to link linking Islam and terrorism.
Aliou Niasse, a Senegalese Muslim immigrant who sells framed photographs of New York in Times Square, said he was the first to spot the car containing the bomb, which pulled up right in front of his cart, UK’s Times Online reported the day after the incident.
“I didn’t see the car pull up or notice the driver because I was busy with customers. But when I looked up, I saw that smoke appeared to be coming from the car,” he was quoted as saying. He added that he first thought of calling 911 but didn’t because his knowledge of English is insufficient and he had no units left on his phone. Instead, he told a fellow street vendor about what he saw, who then alerted a police officer.
This vendor alerted a police officer on horseback, who saw that the dark-green Nissan Pathfinder had smoke coming out through the vents near the back seat and smelled of gunpowder. A bomb squad was called in and disabled an improvised bomb planted in the vehicle, avoiding what could have been a large explosion with the potential to kill hundreds of people in the crowded square, thereby causing the largest shock to the country since Sept. 11.
Authorities confirmed that the bomb, made of three propane tanks, consumer-grade fireworks, two filled 19-liter petrol containers, two clocks and electrical wire, could have killed many people.
“This wasn’t make-believe. This wasn’t a false alarm. This was the real deal to hurt people,” said Fire Commissioner Sal Cassano, adding that the force of a bomb could have taken down the front of a building. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg also said the city had avoided “a very deadly event,” noting that the bomb “certainly could have exploded and had a pretty big fire and a decent amount of explosive impact.”
The American media coverage of the failed attack on May 1 turned into a smear campaign against Muslims and the Islamic faith, with inflammatory remarks pointing to Pakistani-American suspect Faisal Shahzad being Muslim. However, the approach fell short even of giving a fair assessment of the incidents’ ramifications since the street vendor who first spotted the bomb-laden vehicle on Saturday was also a Muslim.
CNN contributor and Redstate.com blogger Erick Erickson complained that the words “Muslim” and “Islam” are “not mentioned” enough in stories about Shahzad, openly suggesting that terrorist endeavors derive from the chief suspect’s Muslim background or his commitment to the Islamic faith. “It really is pathetic that you’re more likely to see the words ‘racist’ and ‘Republican’ together in the newspaper these days than ‘terrorism’ and ‘Islam’,” he wrote on the blog on Tuesday.
Such a biased generalization was also heard from hate radio host Neal Boortz’s mouth. “OMG! The Times Square Bomber is a Muslim. Shocker! Who would have believed it?” Boortz satirically commented the same day, pointing out that it was routine news for people to hear another Muslim had terrorist ideas in mind.
People have gotten used to hearing similar remarks uttered by ultranationalist and racist media outlets such as hate radio, but a mainstream source such as The Washington Post also joined in when it published coverage of the incident in the Wednesday issue of its free-of-charge Express daily.
It featured a black-and-white photo of Shahzad with the sensationalist headline “MADE IN PAKISTAN” that day. While the fact that the prime suspect is Pakistani has been highlighted by the media, no one has made any reference to Niasse being Senegalese or Muslim.
Questions now linger over whether these media will also find it at least newsworthy to mention that hundreds of people’s lives were saved thanks to the early tip-off of a poor Muslim immigrant and if they will regret, or even apologize for, denigrating Muslims and Islam.
source: http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/news-209547-100-us-media-ignore-muslim-prevented-ny-bombing.html
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