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NPR sacks Juan Williams over Muslim comments
NPR has terminated its contract with Juan Williams, one of its senior news analysts, after he made comments about Muslims on the Fox News Channel.
NPR said in a statement that it gave Mr. Williams notice of his termination on Wednesday night.
The move came after Mr. Williams, who is also a Fox News political analyst, appeared on the “The O’Reilly Factor” on Monday. On the show, the host, Bill O’Reilly, asked him to respond to the notion that the United States was facing a “Muslim dilemma.” Mr. O’Reilly said, “The cold truth is that in the world today jihad, aided and abetted by some Muslim nations, is the biggest threat on the planet.”
Mr. Williams said he concurred with Mr. O’Reilly.
He continued: “I mean, look, Bill, I’m not a bigot. You know the kind of books I’ve written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.”
Mr. Williams also made reference to the Pakistani immigrant who pleaded guilty this month to trying to plant a car bomb in Times Square. “He said the war with Muslims, America’s war is just beginning, first drop of blood. I don’t think there’s any way to get away from these facts,” Mr. Williams said.
NPR said in its statement that the remarks “were inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR.”
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9 comments:
Islam presents the multicult with its denouement: the liberal society must inevitably succumb to the illiberal Other.
Anti-Gnostic= Shades of Camp of the Saints.
Exactly what is "Muslim garb"?
Muslim garb might possibly be the head-to-toe, slightly darker area at the eyes covering a woman (I assume!) was wearing on a plane some years ago when I flew across the Atlantic in 1992. She(?) was with a little boy and a man. Of course, she might have been a Lutheran.
Exactly what is "Muslim garb"?
Who cares? We are long past the stage of debating whether Mr. Williams' trepidation is justified. The salient point is that to raise the question is itself prohibited; a thoughtcrime, in other words.
Thus the liberal society must inevitably turn and consume itself, enacting speech and behavioral codes to accomodate even (and especially) its enemies.
If Mr Williams did indeed say the comments mentioned in this post then it was right to dismiss him. Absolutely. The remark about Muslims on a 'plane is not simply narrowminded but idiotic. As for the 'logic'of the statement it's up there with those who classify all Catholic priests as molestors of children.
Besides, a (Muslim) terrorist on a 'plane is hardly likely to want to attract attention.
There is much work to be done to bring mainstream Muslims to the realisation that the West is not out to destroy Islam and that Christians in Muslim countries deserve greater freedom of worship. Comments such as those made by Williams are not only false but incendiary and may end up costing lives.
Chris, your last sentence says it all. Speak ill of Muslims and people may die. Until that small inconvenience is off the table there is no dialogue possible.
I used to love Talk of the Nation when Ray Suarez was host. Then they replaced him with Williams. I then hated the program with every fiber of my being - Williams' voice, his rhetorical mannerisms, and his tone struck me as adolescent and grating. NPR got rid of him in that position pretty quickly and replaced him with that Neil whatever his name is bore who hosts Talk of the Nation now. I wish Suarez would come back to it, his talents are wasted on PBS. As for Williams, I wished they had fired him ages ago. Perhaps they were just looking for an excuse and he gave them one.
I would be inclined to believe that NPR has wanted to fire Williams for a while. He's said some un-PC things before on other shows, but I think NPR was afraid of firing an African-American for fear that he would portray the firing as race based. With the Muslim comments, the "race card" was taken off the table. NPR pulled the plug while they had the higher PC trump card in their hand.
"Chris, your last sentence says it all. Speak ill of Christians and people may die. Until that small inconvenience is off the table there is no dialogue possible."
I believe that this statement is just as accurate as the first if certain "Christians" are to be believed.
As regards "Muslim garb", I believe that people in the Middle East at the beginnings of Christianity wore similar clothing and that there are depictions of well-known Christians wearing such "garb".
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