Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Latter-day Saint
“Fake News” from London, and Some Presidential Tweets

“Fake News” from London, and Some Presidential Tweets

Last updated on: June 5, 2017 at 9:55 pm by Dan Peterson

“Fake News” from London, and Some Presidential Tweets 2017-06-05T21:55:33-06:00 Dan Peterson

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.

London’s Borough Market, where some of Saturday’s terrorist violence was perpetrated.
(Wikimedia Commons public domain)

One of the commenters on my blog — I seriously wonder, sometimes, whether he might be a liberal trying to make conservatives look silly — responded to my post “Why don’t Muslims in the United Kingdom condemn terrorism?”

“Hahahahahahahaha,” he argued, declaring that the Evening Standard article cited in that post “is pushing a false narrative to serve the commie liberal agenda.” (Everybody with whom he disagrees, or pretends to disagree, is a “commie liberal.”)

“The article is all lies,” he explained, “and the photos have been proven to be a set up, staged by CNN. There is a video showing the whole ‘Muslims praying’ was STAGED! The people who shot the video of the news staging the Muslims was [sic] called names by the news outlet crew members.”

(Honestly, I don’t quite know what that last sentence means. Your guess is as good as mine.)

“The Muslims,” he further declared, “were given the signs, told where to stand, the crew members put down the flowers and stuffed animals after the Muslims were told where to stand, and the Caucasion [sic] police were told to get out of the picture to make room for non Caucasion [sic] police.”

By the way Caucasian is a fairly slippery category, but Arabs are often reckoned Caucasian by people who care about such things (I don’t), and Iranians and Pakistanis quite unquestionably are “Caucasian” under typical definitions of the word. Or, better, “Indo-European.”

The quoted paragraph above may, though, perhaps reveal some sort of racism. I’m very leery of leveling the charge of racism, but I get nervous when anybody irrelevantly begins to differentiate Caucasians from non-Caucasians and seems to be using the term in a sloppy fashion more familiar from a certain prominent European country’s 1930s and 1940s ideology than from modern speech.

“The police were in on the staging,” he continues, hinting at a larger conspiracy to deceive the rest of us.

This was, he says, “The same police force whose officers ran away from the Muslim attackers at the pub, leaving citizens to use chairs against the Muslim stabbers.”

Has anybody else heard about this alleged “running away”?

My understanding is that the perpetrators of the London Bridge attack had been shot by the police within just eight minutes of the start of their murderous spree:

http://theconversation.com/eight-minutes-on-london-bridge-years-of-training-led-to-lightning-police-response-78815

That’s pretty quick.

Anyway, here’s a response to the claim that CNN “staged” the Muslim demonstration against terrorist killing:

Fox News: “CNN denies staging pro-Muslim shot after London terror attack”

A second item:

Why on earth is the president of the United States of America picking a fight with the Lord Mayor of London?

CNN: “Trump lashes out at London Mayor Sadiq Khan, again”

Is it, perhaps, because Mayor Sadiq Khan is a Muslim?

I find the spectacle more than a bit embarrassing, and entirely inappropriate.

At least, though, he’s elevated his target from tweeting attacks on a former Miss Universe. That’s progress, I guess.

Posted from Richmond, Virginia

Uncategorized

Previous Post

June 5, 2017

"Why are Atheists Generally Smarter than Religious People?"

Next Post

June 5, 2017 "Religious liberty battle still rages over gay marriage"

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 March 2014 August 2013 February 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who said, "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain"?

Select your answer to see how you score.

John Paul James Peter