FOX and some others are saying there's some kind of media blackout or double standard in the coverage of Bosnian-born rampage shooter Suljeman Talovic, who was Muslim. Why aren't the media emphasizing his religion, they demand to know?
Wrote one blogger: "The mainstream media seems to cover up Muslim terrorism with their PC-style — very much like a full burqa cover-up." On a Free Republic forum and elsewhere, they're speculating on hearsay that Talovic shouted "Allahu Akbhar!"
But the fact that Talovic was Muslim seems to appear, in one way or another, in every news story I've seen. It hasn't been hidden… or at least, everyone seems to know about it. At any rate, without evidence that his killing spree was religiously motivated, why should his religion be emphasized?
We don't go out of our way to point out that most rampage murderers are white Christians, or were at least raised Christian. Is this fact relevant?
In fact, the FBI quickly ruled out terrorism, Muslim or otherwise, as an explanation. Said FBI agent Patrick Kiernan, "It's just unexplainable." That kind of bafflement after such a murder spree sounds oddly, sadly familiar, doesn't it?
The FBI's opinion didn't matter though to Investor's Business Daily, which coined a new term for Talovic's "Muslim-inspired" murder spree: Sudden Jihad Syndrome. Without any evidence to support it, IBD concluded ominously:
"We're likely to see more of these seemingly random domestic attacks. They may seem isolated, but all have radical Islam at their nexus. They're not 'senseless' or 'utterly inexplicable' or 'impossible to rationalize,' as the media intone. They are purposeful. These men act as conscripts called up for a mission, sick as it is."
Only The New York Times' coverage put the Talovic shooting story in the proper context, simply, by reporting in the same article on "Other Fatal Shootings" the next day: (1) in Phoenix an 84-year-old man fatally shot his granddaughter and a 16-year-old friend of his grandson who was staying with the family, after the shooter got into an argument with his grandson, 20, about the friend; and (2) in Philadelphia a gunman killed three men at a board of directors meeting, wounded another, then shot and killed himself, over "some issue about money."
The black irony of Talovic's murder-rampage is that it shows just how "American" he had become. Murderous shooting sprees at work places, malls, and schools happen all the time in America, dozens per year. They've become so common that we hardly hear about them anymore.
In response to FOX and conservative bloggers, who are wrong, I say the only reason Talovic got national media coverage was precisely because he was Bosnian and Muslim, and shot a bunch of white Christians in Utah. The media loves stark "us and them" contrasts. But the national media ignore the "mundane" murder rampages that happen every week (usually white-on-white), which are only covered locally.
Guns and gun crime are all too common, and unfortunately, all too American. A hardened cynic might say that on February 12, 2007, Bosnian war refugee Talovic passed his final citizenship test. Alas, he was one of us.
Why No Mention That Salt Lake Shooter Was Muslim?
By John Gibson
February 20, 2007 | FOXNews
Remember that story of the shooter in Salt Lake City who opened up on shoppers last week? He was killed by an off-duty cop who heard shots and ran to confront the shooter.
Eighteen-year-old Sulejmen Talovic showed up at the mall in Salt Lake and began shooting people at random. He killed five and wounded several others.
The story died as fast as the victims. You had to wonder why. Yes, I know Anna Nicole knocked all stories off the air, but usually we dig down deep when it comes to these teenage shooters. We want to know if they played "Grand Theft Auto," if they were loners, blah, blah, blah.
This time even the papers were relatively muted in their coverage. For instance, you probably didn't notice much coverage over the fact the shooter was Muslim, did you? No, they didn't say much about that.
Talovic was from Bosnia. He was a Muslim. He attended a mosque in Salt Lake and he was reported to have been shouting "Allah Akbar" at the end of the shootout when he was cornered, at least according to some witnesses.
So why do we get all prissy about the fact that he was a Muslim? Do we think that European Muslims don't do terrorism? That his Muslim religion was just another fact in all the other facts about him?
We probably certainly wish that were true, but we don't know because nobody looks into it much. Sure, maybe some of the reason is Anna Nicole, but I sense a chill in the air coming from the Council on American-Islamic Relations and others who think it would be racist and bigoted of us to notice he was a Muslim and wonder if maybe his religion was a motivating factor in his act of terror.
The New York Times dropped a hint when it mentioned Islamic burial rites. Hmmm, the savvy reader might have said to him or herself, I just wonder what the mosque had to do with this deadly outburst?
But never mind I said it. I don't want to get in trouble. I know it's wrong to ask if his faith had anything to do with his killing spree. Forget I mentioned it.
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