What are the priorities of the supposedly tolerant elites, asks Rita Panahi at the Herald Sun.
"We live in bizarre times when bigotry, intimidation and violence are all but ignored while imaginary fears and faked crimes are amplified," she writes.
And indeed. the imaginary Muslim backlash has become a staple of every post-terrorist attack report. It got so ridiculous that a Muslim woman's claim of not getting a Coke can on a plane became a trending story for a day. As I noted in a past article.
“Muslim Chaplain Tahera Ahmad Denied Diet Coke,” NBC News blared. “I Can’t Help But Cry,” the CNN headline declaims. “'No Diet Coke for you': Islamophobia at 30000 feet,” bleated The Guardian.
“Outrage after United Airlines refuses Muslim woman Diet Coke,” the Mirror chimed in.
The Diet Coke crisis was upon us. Islamists called for a boycott of United Airlines and #unitedfortahera became a trending hashtag as random idiots denounced racism and commiserated with the horror of being denied a Diet Coke and pledged not to fly United until they actually need to use their airline miles.
Most of the rest of us would have to lose our legs in an airplane engine to get this much publicity and even if that happened, we would still be stuck crawling across the tarmac while the media eagerly converged on a Muslim passenger who had gotten an Islamophobic eyelash caught in her eye.
Meanwhile the media ignores actual anti-Semitic violence by Muslims.
Here's Rita again.
One in 10 Jews in France has suffered a physical assault, according to a 2016 Ipsos survey, and a 2013 EU poll revealed three in four are so fearful of attacks they no longer publicly display signs of their religion such as wearing the Star of David.
But why bother covering that?
Two recent incidents involving “hate crimes” perpetrated against vulnerable schoolgirls perfectly illustrate the perversity of fanning faux fears while ignoring real attacks. In the northern Paris suburb of Sarcelles, a Jewish girl’s face was slashed with a utility knife in what many, including French politician François Pupponi, are calling “a heinous anti-Semitic attack”.
The 15-year-old victim was wearing the uniform of a local Jewish school when attacked, and the knifing followed several other anti-Semitic incidents, including this month’s torching of two kosher shops. The crime barely received any coverage.
A few days later, we heard about the ordeal of a Muslim girl in Canada who, on the way to school, was approached by a man with scissors who cut the end of her hijab. Within an hour, the media were in overdrive, reporting this horrifying example of Islamophobia.
Khawlah Noman, 11, fronted a press conference and said: “I felt confused, scared, terrified.”
Political leaders including Toronto mayor John Tory, Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned the attack.
Mr Trudeau said: “My heart goes out to Khawlah Noman following this morning’s cowardly attack on her in Toronto. Canada is an open and welcoming country and incidents like this cannot be tolerated.”
The story was front-page news and inspired a multitude of outraged comment pieces seizing on the crime as an example of the virulent Islamophobia in the West.
The only problem is, it never happened. Three days later, Toronto police confirmed the attack had been faked. The girl’s family, who were by her side at the press conference, apologised. No one will face any charges.
But even after the hoax was revealed, there were multiple pained feelpieces warning of an Islamophobic backlash in response to the faked Islamophobic backlash.
And when that's exposed, there's bound to be a fake Islamophobic backlash to the fake backlash to the fake hate crime.
But Islamic anti-Semitism (like Islamic homophobia and sex grooming gangs) is one of those things that the media will only report on when it absolutely must. Meanwhile it will go on seeking out Islamophobia and other conventional hate crimes.
That's why the media still refuses to classify the Pulse massacre as Islamic homophobia. These are not the hate crimes that the media is looking for. These are the crimes that it covers up.