Peculiar Bias: How The Tennessean Became a Fellow Traveler with CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood
by Rebecca Bynum (November 2010)
Council on American Islamic Relations, established as a front for one of the most violent wings of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, dedicated to the destruction of Israel and the ultimate annihilation of the Jews, immediately issued a press release calling for the IRS to investigate Emerson.
So how did the venerable old Nashville Tennessean, The Tennessean of John Siegenthaler and David Halberstam, find itself a fellow traveler with the Muslim Brotherhood in America? A closer look at the author of this series, Bob Smietana as well as the overall journalistic policy of The Tennessean, is in order. It must be noted that Mr. Smeitana, a seasoned reporter used to asking questions, refused to answer a single question or allow me to quote him directly from email correspondence for this article.
controversial PhD thesis in 2004. Professor Wagner also cofounded Evangelicals for Middle East Understanding with Ray Bakke which promotes the ideas of the traditional dhimmi churches of the Middle East. These churches take the position that Israel and the Christian Zionists who support her are causing the problems they are having with the Muslim population which is influenced by the global resurgence of Islam. Muslim Arabs are increasingly asserting their identity as Muslims over their identity as Arabs and therefore are reasserting Christian dhimmitude. The churches have long supported Arab nationalism as a way to claim their equality with Muslim Arabs and so they tend to identify Israel as the cause of their strife. As Geoffrey Clarfield writes:
Arabic speaking Christians are leaving Gaza and the West Bank in increasing numbers. According to some estimates, fifty years ago, Arabic speaking Christians comprised 15% of the total population of these two areas. Now they comprise less than 2%. Fifty years ago the town of Bethlehem had a Christian majority. Now they comprise 20% of the population.
Many Palestinian Christian religious leaders will tell you that the reason Christians are leaving Gaza and the West Bank in growing numbers is because of the conflict between Israelis and the Arabs and that they see no hope of a political solution. This is belied by surveys which suggest that up to 48% of Palestinian Christians believe that their leaders are compromised and fear to publicly admit that there has been growing and almost systematic persecution of Palestinian Christians in the West Bank by the predominantly Muslim authorities in the PA.
In fact, Smietana
We can safely assume then, that Smietana's lengthy exposure to anti-Zionism and anti-Christian Zionism in particular, combined to give expression in his attack on the anti-jihad cause. In this context, we use the word jihad as the struggle to advance the cause of Islam by both peaceful and violent means. Anti-anti-jihad is much like the anti-anti-communism of the last century; the sentiments espoused are not necessarily pro-jihad yet their actions do more to advance the cause of Islamic expansion than Muslims themselves could possibly do through their own propaganda efforts. Simply put, Bob Smietana has made The Tennessean a party to the pro-jihad, Islamic expansionist movement both in the United States and world-wide.
These two biases, anti-Zionism and anti-anti-jihad often appear together in articles written by self-identified members of the far-left like
Afterwards, Mr. Smietana was confronted by Thomas Allen on the fact that The Tennessean was informed, but did not report on the instance where Professor Awadh Binhazim, Muslim Chaplain at Vanderbilt University and a director of the Islamic Center of Tennessee, reiterated the fact that under Islamic law, death is mandated for homosexuals and that he had no choice as a Muslim but to accept Islamic teaching on the matter. However, he stated that there were no countries in the world fully instituting Islamic law (see the
The Tennessean and
Furthermore, Mr. Smietana seemed to take the word of Professor Awadh Binhazim, who when questioned by him at the open house on the 21st, assured Smietana that just like in Leviticus, the Qur'an teaches death for homosexuals, but that that teaching does not apply today. The fact that it definitely live chat about the article. Neither Binhazim nor Smietana would comment further on this conversation for the record and Smietana refused to allow me to quote from his email directly.
here, here and here) when they see it and should let The Tennessean know they will not support a newspaper that sneers so openly at their legitimate concerns, or treats their most cherished beliefs with such disdain.
(A special thanks goes to NER senior editor Jerry Gordon for his invaluable contribution to this article. This article was also sent to Tennessean editor, Mark Silverman prior to publication. He did not respond.)
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Rebecca Bynum contributes regularly to The Iconoclast, our Community Blog. Click here to see all her contributions, on which comments are welcome.