It’s one thing to be held accountable for every word you actually write when you average writing 1,000 words a day, every day, seven days a week, over a lifetime.
It’s another thing to be maligned publicly, defamed and attacked by those in league with Islamist terrorists who would like to kill me for words they make up and put into my mouth.
That’s what happened to me last weekend when the Minneapolis Star Tribune published a defense of Wahabbist Islam by some character named, if we’re to believe even the byline of this deliberate distortion of reality, Fedwa Wazwaz.
Wazwaz claims that since Sept. 11, 2001, Islam has been attacked as a religion that promotes hatred and violence. Actually, I think if Wazwaz was a little more thorough in his research, he would find Islam has been attacked for those characteristics since its founding by Muhammad.
But specifically, here’s what Wazwaz writes about me: “Joseph Farah, editor of the WorldNetDaily – a Christian, right-wing paper – advocates for each Israeli civilian killed 100 Palestinians should be killed, and for each Israeli child, 1,000 Palestinians.”
Aside from spelling my name correctly and accurately stating my title as editor, everything else in this sentence is a lie.
- WorldNetDaily is not a “Christian, right-wing paper.” In fact, WorldNetDaily publishes many viewpoints including many in stark contrast with Christian beliefs. It is a general-interest news service read and appreciated by people of every faith and no faith, people of every political persuasion and no political persuasion – some 5 million worldwide.
- I have never advocated that 100 Palestinians should be killed for every Israeli civilian death. I have never advocated that for every Israeli child, 1,000 Palestinians should be killed. Never said it. Never wrote it.
The closest I came was commenting on the views offered by another WorldNetDaily columnist, Vox Day, when I wrote: The young commentator suggests the Israeli government announce a unilateral ceasefire, “balanced by the deadly promise that for every Israeli soldier killed, 25 Palestinian police will die. For every civilian, 100 non-combatant Palestinian adults will be slain, and for every child, 1,000 adults.”
Apparently this writer is either not interested in the truth or simply incapable of comprehending the difference between one commentator’s words and another’s. I used my column to explain my differences with Vox Day, suggesting, for instance, that Israel need not and should not target any non-combatant Arabs in its retribution for civilian casualties.
More disturbing, though, than the fact that some unknown Arab commentator would make inflammatory, inciteful remarks about me – an Arab-American who is constantly targeted with death threats from the Muslim world – is the fact that a supposedly responsible American newspaper would publish these deliberate and malicious falsehoods. The writer even cited for editors the supposed source of my comments. They are on the Internet, easy enough for any staffer or fact checker to examine in a matter of moments. Apparently no such process is in place at the Minneapolis Star Tribune. The paper evidently allows unverified, libelous, hateful accusations to be made by contributors with reckless disregard for the truth.
No doubt I will hear suggestions to sue the Star Tribune for this offense. Such a suit would go nowhere, coming, as it does, from a public figure like me and directed at a “never-was” like Wazwaz.
So I’m not going to bother writing a demand letter to the publisher. But I would urge WorldNetDaily readers in Minneapolis to let the paper know your thoughts about this kind of irresponsibility.
