Islamophobia and the Op-Ed Pages - Lester Feder

It’s hard to compete with Colin Powell, especially if you’re a small media watchdog group. But the former Secretary of State did in a few sentences what the progressive group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting has been trying to do for months: push back on anti-Muslim media bias, which they term “Islamophobia.”

In his Sunday appearance on Meet the Press, Powell cited the persistent right-wing “Barack Obama is a secret Muslim” rumors as one of the reasons that he is withholding support for Senator John McCain. “Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country?” Powell asked indignantly, “The answer’s no, that’s not America.”

Maureen Dowd amplified Powell’s comments in her New York Times column today. “It was a tonic to hear someone push back so clearly on ugly innuendo,” she writes. But her praise raises the question—couldn’t someone with a New York Times op-ed column have provided that tonic without Colin Powell’s prodding?

A FAIR report entitled ”’Secret Muslims,’ Open Bigotry” argues that while mainstream press has been quick to contradict rumors of Obama’s faith—he is, in fact, a Christian—reporting has tended to reinforce the anti-Muslim sentiments that make these rumors so politically potent. The report states, “Journalists often accepted the idea that there was something suspicious or bad about being Muslim by referring to the canard as a “smear” (New York Times, 1/17/08; ABC News, 12/5/07), an “unsubstantiated charge” (Washington Post, 6/28/08), or an example of “nasty and false attacks” (New York Times, 1/17/08).”