Just another driver

[JerrySeinfeld]

The man charged with nine counts of attempted murder for driving a Jeep through a crowd at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill last Friday told the police that he deliberately rented a four-wheel-drive vehicle so he could 'run over things and keep going.' "

The driver in question was Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar.

Whoa, don't jump to conclusions. The Times certainly didn't. As the report continued:

"According to statements taken by the police, Mr. Taheri-azar, 22, an Iranian-born graduate of the university, felt that the United States government had been 'killing his people across the sea' and that his actions reflected 'an eye for an eye.'"

"His people"? And who exactly would that be? Taheri-azar is admirably upfront about his actions. As he told police, he wanted to "avenge the deaths or murders of Muslims around the world."

And yet the M-word appears nowhere in the Times report. Whether intentionally or not, they seem to be channeling the great Sufi theologian and jurist al-Ghazali, who died a millennium ago but whose first rule on the conduct of dhimmis -- non-Muslims in Muslim society -- seem to have been taken on board by the Western media:

The dhimmi is obliged not to mention Allah or His Apostle. . . .

Are they teaching that at Columbia Journalism School yet?

A fellow called Mohammed mows down a bunch of students? Just one of those things -- like a gran'ma in my neck of the woods a couple of years back who hit the wrong pedal in the parking lot and ploughed through a McDonald's, leaving the place a hideous tangle of crumbled drywall, splattered patties and incendiary hot apple-pie filling. Yet, according to his own statements, Taheri-azar committed an act of ideological domestic terrorism, which he'd planned for two months. He told police he was more disappointed more students in his path weren't struck and that he'd rented the biggest vehicle the agency had in order to do as much damage to as many people as possible. The Persian car pet may have been flooring it, but the media are idling in neutral, if not actively reversing away from the story as fast as they can. Taheri-azar informed the judge he was "thankful for the opportunity to spread the will of Allah," and it was apparently the will of Allah that he get behind the wheel of Allah.

[gerryhatrick]

So what. He's a criminal just like all the white rightwingers who tried to run down or shoot Muslims after 9/11.

Whoa, don't jump to conclusions.

Tell us something Jerry, was your whole family killed by Muslims screaming "God is Great!" when you were a child or something?

[geoffrey]

Lock him up good.

Not because he's Muslim. Because he's a sick freak.

[theloniusfleabag]

http://www.suntimes.com/output/steyn/cst-edt-steyn121.html

Plaigiarism is against forum rules.

[sharkman]

http://www.suntimes.com/output/steyn/cst-edt-steyn121.html

Plaigiarism is against forum rules.

Wow, I'm surprised thelonius, that you read anything from Mark Steyn!! Yes we shouldn't copy another story, but Jerry used quotation marks, and referred to the story he was reading.

Anyway, the point remains, if this guy was wearing a collar(priest) he would have been spashed all over the front pages, since it's another guy with Mohammad in his name, he gets the benefit of the doubt, even though he admits he wanted to hit as many bodies as he could.

[Black Dog]

Waitaminute, waitaminute. First: we're told by the Times that the guy's name is Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar. Then hey tell us he's Iranian-born. And then they tell us he was motivated by the United States government "killing his people across the sea". Now, maybe I'm just a little quicker on the update than ol' Steyner, but my first impression was not to wonder if the guy keeps Shomer Shabbat.

And then there's the fact that the very first NYT article on the subject (which ran the day after the incident, on March 5) states the following:

A recent University of North Carolina graduate was charged with nine counts of attempted murder on Saturday, a day after the authorities said he drove through a popular campus gathering spot in an attempt to avenge Muslim deaths.

Steyn, lazy hack that he is, doesn't mention the date of the article he's quoting, but it would seem to have come at least a week after the incident, arrest and original story. So basically Styen's beef is that the Times excluded important information from an article, even though said information was not only glaringly obvious to anyone with the brains God gave pudding, but also had been previously reported on in the very same publication Steyn is taking to task.

*golf clap* Bra........vo. */golf clap*

Yes we shouldn't copy another story, but Jerry used quotation marks, and referred to the story he was reading.

The quotation marks were in the original story and nowhere does he mention the name of the publication or the authour. That's against forum rules:

When posting copyrighted material, please use the quote feature to highlight the important parts of the article and provide a throughout summary for others. You must also provide sufficient credit to the author and a link to the original article in your post. If the article cannot be found online, then at the end of the post provide an appropriate cite using any of the available citing formats, MLA, APA, etc. Find out more information on Fair Dealing in Canada. http://www.robic.ca/publications/Pdf/032E-LC.pdf

In other words, this is copyright violation and Jerry should be suspen...oh...wait. .

[Michael Hardner]

I'd like to add that the practice of bringing attention to a single crime, committed by a member of a certain group, for the purpose of casting a shadow against that group is conniving, divisive and dishonest.

You could apply that method to any member of any group and it would be wrong to do so in every case.

If you want to show how lawless or bloody a group is, why not give us information about how that group behaves relative to other groups ? National crime statistics and incarceration rates, for example, might tell us something.

If you did that, you'd probably find that African Americans are a group that deserves attention.

1990 incarceration rate for African Americans - 47%

Example - Incarceration Rates in Oklahoma

And in my experiences dealing with people who argue this way, you'd be hard-pressed to find these people have any kind of opinion on African Americans as a 'problem group'. Why is that ? I'm not sure but I'm guessing that these same people find such a tack offensive somehow.

Maybe there's an implicit understanding on their part that there are a number of complex factors at part, so attributing blame to a group isn't appropriate. I say maybe because I'm not sure.

But I don't understand at all why people like Jerry feel it's okay to tar all Muslims with the same brush based on single cases, or other anecdotal proof ( television coverage of protests overseas etc. ) when they seem to recognize that social problems related to other groups are complex.

[sharkman]

I'd like to add that the practice of bringing attention to a single crime, committed by a member of a certain group, for the purpose of casting a shadow against that group is conniving, divisive and dishonest.

You could apply that method to any member of any group and it would be wrong to do so in every case.

If you want to show how lawless or bloody a group is, why not give us information about how that group behaves relative to other groups ? National crime statistics and incarceration rates, for example, might tell us something.

If you did that, you'd probably find that African Americans are a group that deserves attention.

1990 incarceration rate for African Americans - 47%

Example - Incarceration Rates in Oklahoma

And in my experiences dealing with people who argue this way, you'd be hard-pressed to find these people have any kind of opinion on African Americans as a 'problem group'. Why is that ? I'm not sure but I'm guessing that these same people find such a tack offensive somehow.

Maybe there's an implicit understanding on their part that there are a number of complex factors at part, so attributing blame to a group isn't appropriate. I say maybe because I'm not sure.

But I don't understand at all why people like Jerry feel it's okay to tar all Muslims with the same brush based on single cases, or other anecdotal proof ( television coverage of protests overseas etc. ) when they seem to recognize that social problems related to other groups are complex.

Your point misses the elephant in the room. There is a group of people who are being stereotypically treated. Whenever one of their number is in the news, the media treats them the same way. Muslims get treated with kid gloves WHEN THEY COMMIT CRIMES OF TERROR ALL THE TIME. This driver got very little coverage on his Muslim terrorist comments since he had a Mohammad in his name. As well in North America the media censored themselves from showing in any form the Mohammad cartoons, even France showed them. This practice of hiding and covering up terrorist activities by media groups is "conniving, divisive and dishonest."

Jerry is not tarring all Muslims so much as he is tarring all Muslim extremists. Anyone who tries to incite terror deserves justice if you ask me, no matter their skin colour.

As far as African Americans, they are a crime problem, but it's not based on their religious beliefs to kill infidels, it's much mor complicated than that.

[Black Dog]

Whenever one of their number is in the news, the media treats them the same way. Muslims get treated with kid gloves WHEN THEY COMMIT CRIMES OF TERROR ALL THE TIME

Yeah...you never hear about Islamic terrorism at all.

[Michael Hardner]

Yeah...you never hear about Islamic terrorism at all. rolleyes.gif

They missed mentioning that the suspect was Muslim, when everything else in the article points to that. That doesn't warrant concern. I'll be there are many imbalanced people committing crimes for some cause or other - and I'm sure only the Muslims get reported.

[Black Dog]

They missed mentioning that the suspect was Muslim, when everything else in the article points to that. That doesn't warrant concern. I'll be there are many imbalanced people committing crimes for some cause or other - and I'm sure only the Muslims get reported.

Except they didn't miss it at all: it was explicitly mentioned by the NYT the day after the incident occurred.