Fox News in all its glory

Last updated on: September 12, 2013 at 12:52 am by Svend White

Fox News in all its glory 2013-09-12T00:52:28-05:00 Svend White

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I’m hard pressed to recall a case where the abject imbecility of contemporary Islamophobia is not only captured in a short video clip, but demolished in a single sentence. Watch John McCain inadvertently slap down the air-headed Brian Kilmeade on Fox News on the significance of “Allahu Akbar.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1zkSwihbPg

Journalists are often required to cover and discuss a wide range of disparate topics, so I don’t blame them for occasionally getting important facts wrong. That doesn’t let them off the hook for being grossly unprofessional, superficial, partisan and compromised by conflicts of interest (for more on these issues, see the invaluable work of FAIR). Where I commenting on current events day and day out on TV, my gaffes, senile moments and inscrutable malapropisms would undoubtedly be legendary.

But that’s not the kind of misstep we’re dealing with here, to put it mildly. Note how the gentleman clearly considers the clip in question compelling evidence, a smoking gun that throws light on the true nature of the Syrian conflict. And then observe his evident shock when McCain not only rejects this supposed prima facie evidence of jihadi influence over the whole Syrian resistance movement, but turns the tables and applies the principle to Christians.

Coming from a journalist and pundit, such bald stupidity and obliviousness to the most minimal, self-evident rules of grown-up thinking about the world is something akin to mental retardation. This role is clearly cognitively beyond Kilmeade.

Of course, the sad thing is that this mindset, this inability to apply the simplest, most basic human categories to Muslims, is hardly proper to Fox’s pretend-newsroom. It’s quite widespread in American political culture today, and not just on the Right.

I don’t often have good things to say about John McCain, but you have to give credit where it is due. That was an inspiring and admirably succinct retort.

Update: I’ll admit that there are situations when that prayer, however beautiful and profound it is in principle, can have mixed associations, even to me (and, like other practicing Muslim, I recite these words literally a hundred or so times a day as part of my daily prayers). I’ve never heard it employed in the sinister manner of terrorists in Hollywood films, but I have occasionally encountered it used in ways that are off-putting and more ideological than spiritual, like the “USA! USA!” chants one hears at right-wing political rallies.

But is neither here or here. That video was of people caught in a fight for their lives against a terrifying war machine. Kilmeade seems to expect fighters to celebrate surviving such a harrowing David & Goliath-like encounter with high fives and end-zone dances. I’d love to know what, in his simple mind, moderate Arabic-speaking people (Muslim or otherwise) say after such a close shave during a pitched battle. I suspect that Kilmeade imagines that good guys always belt out Queen’s “We are the Champions” in such situations.

Islamophobia

Previous Post

July 25, 2013

The pros and cons of White House iftars in the Obama era

Next Post

November 17, 2013 The scourge of Veil Porn

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category American Politics Animals in Islam Anti-Semitism Christian Jihadism Christianity Culture & the Arts Current Affairs Denmark Dogs in Islam Family life Film Gender Great MP3s Hate in America Imam W.D. Mohammed Interfaith Dialogue International Affairs Islam and the Left Islamic Thought Islamophobia Jihad Judaism Legos Link of the Day Marriage Misc Modernity/Post-Modernity Mormonism Multiculturalism Music Muslims in the Melting Pot Must-Listen Podcasts Non-Muslims and Islam Pakistan Pictures Pigs in Islam Polygamy Pork Progressive Muslims Race Relations Really Important Stuff Religion Required Reading Robert Spencer Scandinavia Science Science Fiction Sex in Islam So-called Globalization South Asia Star Trek Strange but True Studying Arabic Stupid Muslim Tricks Sufism/Tasawwuf Television The "Miami 7" hoopla The Corporate Media The Danish cartoons The GWOT The Jihad against Islam The Middle East Vikings! Wahhabism/Salafism Washington and the Middle East Web/Tech Women in Islam

Select a Month March 2014 February 2014 November 2013 September 2013 July 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 September 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which writer besides Solomon and David contributed to Proverbs?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Agur Moses Asaph Nathan