90% of Top Newspaper Headlines Censor Islam in Nairobi, Pakistan Attacks

Dare a top newspaper journalist to play connect-the-dots and chances are he’ll fail miserably – at least with drawing the line between Islam and terrorism. In Nairobi, Kenya last weekend, Islamist militants took over a high-end shopping mall and began executing non-Muslims. In Pakistan, Islamist suicide bombers detonated at a Christian Church on Sunday. 

Yet on Monday, September 23, 90 percent of the top ten (via circulation numbers) daily newspapers’ headlines in the United States censored the words “Islam” and Muslim” from Nairobi and Pakistan reports. One – the New York Daily News – didn’t even have a headline for the latest Islamic terrorist attacks. That’s journalism at its finest. 

The Wall Street Journal’s (WSJ) headline by Heidi Vogt announced that “Assault on Mall Stuns Kenya” and called the act a “terrorist attack” by “armed militants.” In a small reference to the Pakistan Christian fatalities, the newspaper credited a group linked with the “Pakistan Taliban.” 

As the second most popular newspaper after the WSJ, The New York Times proclaimed “Carnage In Mall Shows Resilience of Terror Group” for an article by Nicholas Kulish, Mark Mazzetti and Eric Schmitt. In fact, on the front page the Times used every description but the Islamic connection to describe the aggressors: “the ferocious armed political movement known as the Shabab” – with ties to Al Qaeda and Boko Haram. 

Only USA Today (number three in circulation) broke Islam silence with a headline admitting, “Islamists kill dozens in Kenya and Pakistan” (under an even larger headline: “Two New Terror Attacks”). Jim Michaels and William W. Welch’s story detailed how “Islamic extremists unleashed bloody attacks.” For Pakistan, the reporters called Sunday’s two suicide bombers assault “the deadliest-ever attack against the nation’s Christian minority” and included a picture with a caption describing, “a relative of victims of the Christian church bombings.” 

Via: Newsbustrers

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Bashar al-Assad warns US to ‘expect everything’ if it goes ahead with a military strike

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has warned the US that there will be “repercussions” if it goes ahead with Barack Obama’s plans for a targeted military strike in response to the alleged chemical weapons attack in Damascus.

In his first American TV interview for two years, the dictator told journalist Charlie Rose: “You should expect everything.” While he stopped short of describing his remarks as a threat, he said: “I am not a fortune teller to tell you what’s going to happen.”

The danger did not just come from his own government, Mr Assad added, making a reference to the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the invasion of Iraq.

When asked if all-out chemical warfare could be one of the “repercussions” he meant, Mr Assad said it “depends if the rebels or the terrorists in this region – or any other group – have it (chemical weapons)”. He added: “It could happen.”

And in a final ominous statement released by CBS ahead of the full interview’s showing tonight, Mr Assad warned: “You are going to pay the price if you are not wise with dealing with terrorists.”

Mr Rose’s entire conversation with the leader of the Syrian regime is set to air at 2am (BST) tonight on PBS.

In comments made on the network’s Face the Nation programme earlier, the journalist gave advance warning of some of the claims made by Mr Assad.

Via: The Independent

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