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The Tennessean published a pretty good article from Bob Smietana over the weekend that dealt with a Muslim groups defeated mosque-permit application. The article discusses familiar themes of NIMBYism and is laced with Islamophobic sentiments from the most vocal opponents of the project:
One of the worst movie experiences of my life was watching Sex and the City. I know it was a big hit but the whole thing just annoyed me. And not just because of the jokes about losing control of one’s bowels. Certainly the moral message of the film didn’t sit well with me either. It’s not like I’m a snobby consumer of entertainment. I was an enthusiastic watcher of the HBO series. (I know, I know.)
The New York Times media reporter David Carr had a fun piece this week about how headlines have changed in the internet age.
May 20 is “Everybody Draw Muhammad Day.” We looked at coverage of this event a month ago. It was the brainchild of an illustrator upset at Comedy Central’s censorship of the South Park show. South Park, which has depicted the Prophet Muhammad in the past to no criticism, was pretending to depict Muhammad again. Comedy Central fearful of Muslim violence, blocked the pretend depictions and censored previous shows.
In my time as religion editor of The Oklahoman, a pastor of a large Baptist church wrote a book condemning Islam. After I reported on the book, I got a tip that the pastor had plagiarized large sections of the text and faked endorsements from syndicated columnist Cal Thomas and evangelist Franklin Graham. My investigation confirmed that the pastor — who claimed to be a leading expert on Islam — really was not.
To tell you the truth, I don’t think there is much to be gained by GetReligion readers if we dwell on the media frenzy surrounding the photos of Rima Fakih dancing in a 2007 pole-dancing contest sponsored by Mojointhemorning.com, a morning show on Channel 955 in Detroit. This update does sound a but ominous, however:
Long-time readers of GetReligion know that since the beginning of this blog we’ve been playing whack-a-mole with reporters who misuse the term “fundamentalist.”
If you are interested in the future of Islam, which means you are interested in the future of world affairs, then you are interested in Indonesia.
