Saturday, February 20, 2010

Sins of Omission

Islamophobia is to Murdoch's Australian as anti-Semitism was to Der Sturmer.

This is the opening sentence of a news report in Murdoch's Wall Street Journal:

"Malaysian authorities said Wednesday that officials caned four Muslim men and, for the first time, three Muslim women this month after being found guilty of having sex out of wedlock." (Malaysia says Muslim women caned, James Hookway, 18/2/10)

And this is how it appears in The Australian a day later:

"Human Rights groups have condemned the caning of three Muslim women for having extramarital sex, the first time the punishment has been carried out in Malaysia." (Muslim women caned, AP, 19/2/10)

Why does The Australian leave out those 4 men? There can only be one reason: for maximum Islamophobic effect, portray the punishment as misanthropy, pure and simple.

The Australian needs a bloody good thrashing.

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