The Times Misses the Point on Islamic Loons

As reported in an earlier item, the New York Times ran a softball piece in its Metropolitan Section today on a bunch of Islamic loons. The story seemed to have only one purpose, which was to demonstrate the "moderation" of the mainstream Islamic groups quoted in the piece.

Well, the New York Observer has come out with a story on the same subject, and it is now obvious that indeed the Times had completely missed the story. It seems that these street-corner nuts have been harassing gays. Not one word appeared on that in the Times piece.

The Observer also makes nonsense of the group's "nonviolence" claims, swallowed whole by the Times, saying that its "commitment to nonviolence seems to be something less than serious. The main moderator [on its website], 'Islamic Revival,' offers images of masked, armed and marching Islamists over the heading 'Support Our Troops' and animations of exploding military vehicles."

In short, the Times was snowed and did a horrific, incomplete job, in its zeal to showcase the "moderate" CAIR and the Islamic cleric quoted in the piece. Compare the superficial, amateurish Times piece with the Observer piece and it is really shocking. This is an excellent example of how political correctness trumps good journalism at the Times.