The New York Times finally waddles in today with an article reporting that Salam Al-Marayati, the executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles, said, "I think we should put the state of Israel on the suspect list" for the September 11 attacks on America. It's about time; the Los Angeles Times reported on the comments on September 22; Smartertimes.com mentioned them on September 28. The New York Times describes Mr. Al-Marayati as "a frequently quoted Muslim leader," without noting that one of the places he is frequently quoted is the news columns of the New York Times.
What's really breathtaking about today's New York Times report on the despicable comments of Mr. Al-Marayati and on the anti-American and anti-Jewish comments of other American Muslim leaders and organizations, however, is not its tardiness but the context in which it is placed by the New York Times. You would think that the fact that there are prominent American Muslim leaders going around calling for the death of the Jews, blaming Israel for the attack on the World Trade Center, and distributing calls to "attack anything and everything American" would be newsworthy in its own right. No. To the Times, this seems to be newsworthy only to the degree that it is hampering interfaith dialogue.
The front-page "refer" about this article says, "Religious Gulf Widens; Since the terror attacks a wide gulf has opened between many Jewish and Muslim leaders in the United States, endangering relationships that took years to build." This is just silly. What are primarily endangered here are not the "relationships" between Jewish and Muslim leaders but the lives of innocent people like the ones that died in the World Trade Center attack. More people will die if the virulent anti-American and anti-Jewish incitement of American Islamic and Arab leaders is not treated as a genuine security threat rather than an obstacle to interfaith dialogue.
Inside the paper, the Times article is illustrated by photos of two rabbis. The headline says, "For Some Jewish Leaders, Partnership With Muslims Is a Casualty of Sept. 11 Attacks." A pullout quote says, "Arguments about the definition of terrorism hamper in interfaith dialogues." Again, this is a failure of news judgement. The news here is the rabidly anti-Israel and anti-American statements by the American Muslims, not the effect on interfaith dialogues oron the consciences of rabbis. If the Times feels compelled to bring Jews into the story, the appropriate question for the rabbis is what on earth they were doing in a "partnership" with these American Muslim troublemakers before September 11.