I have dropped the domain historiesmysteriesandstrangeness.com and reverted back to the original domain of histmyst.blogspot.com. However, you will also be able to reach the site via historiesmysteriesandstrangeness.guvna.net or just simply hms.guvna.net.

Saturday, September 11, 2010

A Florida Pastor, the News Media, and the journey of two Muslims

You've probably seen the headlines recently about Terry Jones, the Florida pastor who threatened to burn Korans on Saturday September 11th, 2010.  Protests have been reported in Afganistan.  I think the news media probably deserves more blame for the protests than the pastor though.  The pastor only has a congregation of around 50 people.  Whether you're offended by the pastor's threat, support it, or are just angered by the potential threat to American soldiers in Afganistan that could result from it, if the news media had ignored his threats, most people wouldn't even know about what he intended to do.  People wouldn't be protesting it if they didn't know about it.  The news media, as well as Barack Obama, Hilary Clinton, and Robert Gates are responsible for turning the proposed event into an international news sensation.

However, in contrast to those headlines, CNN reported on the story of two Muslims who went on a journey across America.  Here is the headline:

  2 Muslims travel 13,000 miles across America, find an embracing nation

The story reports that the two Muslims were "embraced nearly everywhere they went, from a Confederate souvenir shop in Georgia to the streets of Las Vegas, Nevada, to the hills of North Dakota where the nation's first mosque was built in 1929."

I think that article is a more accurate representation of most of the population of America.  That's the article that should be the international media sensation, not the articles about a Florida pastor for a 50 member congregation.

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