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Newspapers Smear Islamic Web Site as "Terrorist Recruiters"
WASHINGTON, Aug 22 (IslamOnline) - A well-known American commentator on the Middle East has said that Muslims in America gripe baselessly about distorted media reports that damage the image of Islam and Muslims in the West.
"As for the media, they treat Islam and Muslims with a truly unique delicacy," Daniel Pipes said in a November 2000 article in
Commentary Magazine. "Sympathetic news reports show Muslims as good neighbors, as classic exemplars of the American dream, and as part of the fabric of American society."
Indeed, Muslims can see a growing list of articles that mark genuine progress in shedding light on the truth of Islam in America. But, then they also come across an even greater amount of articles that display grave ignorance about Muslims and their faith or carelessly flout all accepted rules of journalistic integrity.
Perhaps the most flagrant example in recent times occurred just last week: an article published in the
Ottawa National Post on Thursday, August 16th, told of "a Montreal Web site" that was "being used to recruit for Islamic terrorist training in Afghanistan."
The article mentioned an "invitation to jihad" that was posted on the site, "call[ing] on Muslims to train for holy war at paramilitary camps run by mujahedin fighters in Afghanistan."
The article quoted the posting, saying it was signed by one "Brother Abdul Aleem," as saying, "The mujahid brothers will accept you with open arms and within a period of two weeks; you will be given commando training and will be sent to the frontline."
But the site, Islamway.com, is actually run out of Ann Arbor, Michigan, and is owned by the Islamic Assembly of North America (IANA), which uses it for the sole purpose of propagating information about Islam, primarily to Muslims, but also to non-Muslims.
"It's basically informational educational da'wah," said Islamway representative Shahid Bolsen. "No politics, just information on Islam."
And the posting, Islamway explained in a statement on the website, was made by one of thousands of individual visitors on one of Islamway's English language open discussion boards, as a response within a dialogue with another individual.
The National Post article was prompted by a "discovery" of the posting made by members of the Canadian chapter of B'nai Brith, also known as the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish organization devoted to "combating anti-Semitism, bigotry and racism in Canada and abroad," according to its own site.
A press release on B'nai Brith's site, also dated August 16th, said, "In light of the discovery of Islamic terrorist websites operating out of Canada, B'nai Brith Canada officials have held serious high level discussions with the Intelligence Forces of Canada."
Frank Dimant, B'nai Brith Canada's executive vice president, said in the press release, "Canada cannot be seen as a safe haven or point of transit for Islamic terrorists. We intend to make this a priority with the government." Dimant was also the only person quoted in the entire article with regards to "a Web site… that is recruiting for people to participate in jihad."
The National Post story latched onto the "threat" of Islamway after an earlier report on a "site U.S. experts say is run by the Middle Eastern terrorist group Islamic Jihad [that] is registered in Toronto," implicitly linking Islamway to a Palestinian group.
Bolsen said that after Thursday's article, the New York Post, and even Reuters News Agency, picked up the story.
The New York Post article warned of a "hate-preaching Web site… created to recruit deadly new armies of Islamic terrorists… on the site, potential recruits are told they will have to pray at a mosque five times a day, grow a full beard and follow the teachings of Islam."
It also implied a link to "the terrorist empire of Osama bin Laden" through the "Afghan training camps" that the site was supposedly recruiting for.
Bolsen said, "No one has ever contacted IANA or Islamway to try to get anything resembling a balanced story." The
National Post's - or B'nai Brith's - reporting efforts were limited to a phone call to the "Montreal address"; both articles said that someone answered the phone there saying, "No English!" and hung up.
"It's very traditional smear journalism, based mostly on the reliance of the reporters on what they're getting from B'nai Brith," Bolsen said.
Islamway and IANA reacted vigorously to the articles, calling on members and other Muslims to write letters to the editor of the
National Post correcting the article's many errors.
Despite the numerous letters sent, Bolsen said, the National Post never responded with an explanation - "never an apology, never a retraction or anything."
Instead, he said, "Their response was to take some inflammatory statements from the letters… [and say] that the RCMP [Royal Canadian Mounted Police] and National Security Service were investigating Islamway," he said.
Bolsen said that a Canadian television reporter who had researched the story himself and found it to be baseless contacted Islamway for a story, but in the end did not produce anything because he had gotten no response from B'nai Brith, and the RCMP had told him they were not going to pursue any charges.
With the lack of response so far from the editor, and the widespread dissemination through news agencies, Islamway has decided to leave the issue behind, choosing not to pursue any legal action.
"As far as we're concerned, it's over," Bolsen said.
With more than 4,000 members and site visitors, Bolsen said Islamway.com is a popular and top-ranking Islamic Web site - published in Arabic, Dutch, English, French and Urdu - with one of the largest caches of audio content available on any Islamic Web site, including lectures, Qur'an recitation and
nasheeds, or Islamic songs.
With additional reporting by Ayesha Ahmad
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