NPR‘s Morning Edition (3/15/19) turned for commentary on the Christchurch massacre to a source who couldn’t remember people ever being murdered in a mosque before. (cc photo of Jonathan Greenblatt by JD Lasica)
On NPR‘s Morning Edition (3/15/19), Jonathan Greenblatt, the director of the Anti-Defamation League, was interviewed by host David Greene about the mass murder of 49 people at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. Asked by Greene “how common” it is for online hate speech to turn into a “mass shooting this terrible,” Greenblatt responded:
Well, I think this act of violence really doesn’t have a precedent as far as we know, murdering people in a mosque like this, and the social media dimension is something new. However, hate speech online is an increasing problem.
Greene didn’t react on the air to Greenblatt’s claim that there’s never been a mass murder in a mosque before. But of course, this is far from the first Islamophobic murder to take place in a mosque.
A little more than two years ago, on January 29, 2017, six people were killed by a gunman at the Islamic Cultural Centre of Quebec City in Canada. Last year, covering the sentencing of murderer Alexandre Bissonnette, the New York Times (5/5/18) reported that
more than a year after the Jan. 29, 2017, rampage, Canada is still grappling with Mr. Bissonnette’s crime. It shocked the nation and underlined the perils of Islamophobia and the far right in a country that prides itself on its multiculturalism and tolerance.
Similar to accounts of the Australian immigrant charged in the Christchurch murders, the Quebec City shooter was described by the Times as “drawn to far-right ideas, fueled by the election of Mr. Trump and fanned by fears that immigrants threatened Quebec’s identity.”
A year after a mass shooting at a Quebec City mosque, the New York Times (5/5/18) reported on how Quebec’s identity was shaken.
Another famous mosque attack—as Mondoweiss (3/15/19) pointed out in a post on the NPR interview—occurred in Hebron in the Occupied West Bank on February 25, 1994, in the Cave of the Patriarchs (Extra!, 5–6/94). Baruch Goldstein, a member of the Israeli army reserves, entered the site sacred to both Judaism and Islam and opened fire while Muslims were praying there, killing 29 before he himself was killed. This act of terrorism still casts a shadow over Israeli politics, as Haaretz (2/26/19) recently reported in an article about a Knesset debate over Goldstein’s burial place:
The killer’s grave has become over the years a pilgrimage site for extremist Jews who support him, and a shrine to his memory was set up next to his tomb.
Perhaps the biggest mosque-related mass murder occurred in the Philippines on September 24, 1974, when some 1,500 members of the Moro people were rounded up by the Philippine army and killed in a mosque in the village of Malisbong.
Other anti-Muslim mosque attacks include the 25 worshipers killed on October 11, 2017, at a mosque in Kembe, Central African Republic; the 20 people slaughtered at the Han Tha mosque in Taungoo, Myanmar, in May 2001; and the 147 victims of the Kattankudy mosque massacre in Sri Lanka on August 3, 1990.
Mosques have also been frequent targets of Islamic extremists, particularly Salafist militants such as ISIS attacking Shia and Sufi religious centers. The deadliest terrorist attack in Egyptian history took place on November 24, 2017, at the al-Rawda mosque in the Sinai Peninsula, when some 40 attackers, suspected of being affiliated with ISIS, killed 311 Sufi worshipers (New York Times, 12/1/17).
That none of this was recalled, either by the host of Morning Edition or the director of a group that presents itself as a “global leader in exposing extremism” with a mission “to secure justice and fair treatment for all,” is a testament to the failure of our information systems to give due weight to violence against Muslims—and the consequent dangerous impoverishment of our collective memory.
You can contact NPR ombud Elizabeth Jensen via NPR’s contact form or via Twitter: @EJensenNYC. Please remember that respectful communication is the most effective.
Featured image: Cave of the Patriarchs (cc photo: Djampa/Wikimedia)
I was surprised that there were none in the USA yet. If he had qualified his statement with “… In the USA”, he would not be wrong.
Can think, a lot of the examples did not involve social media, are not by white nationalists, are in foreign countries.. But, New Sealand is not the US either, and thinking “similar” the Charleston Church shooting or synagogue shooting counts too. That the head of the Anti-Defamation League would answer assuming such a specific question is strange, and bad.
I guess it did not occur to Mr. Naureckas that the quoted passage meant something other than he thought it meant. Maybe he should have looked at the context. The comment was in response to this question:
GREENE: How common is this? – to see hate speech, you know, in an – online and social media platforms used and all of this turned into an actual, you know, mass shooting this terrible.
Soooo, maybe the quoted passage was an answer to that question from Green. Green was asking about a mass shooting placed by the shooter into social media. And, yes, that IS unprecedented. By taking the quote out of its context, are you doing honest reporting Jim?
Read the response to the question closely – it says “Well, I think this act of violence really doesn’t have a precedent as far as we know, murdering people in a mosque like this, and the social media dimension is something new.“. The main part of the sentence is up to the second comma, and the last phrase is more of an afterthought, so FAIR’s criticism is valid.
In defense of David Greene, he is not an expert on mass murders of any kind, and probably didn’t know if the guest’s statement was true or not. The so-called expert should have known.
But I’ll bet Greenblatt knows the name age and collar size of every Israeli who ever got with half a mile of a rock throwing Palestinian teenager.
Selective memory
Defective morality
Thank you for your response.
Somewhere along the way I learned that a business will advertise or claim what they are not.
Case in point: NPR’s rigorous reporting and unsurpassed storytelling connect with millions of Americans everyday—on the air, online, and in person. NPR strives to create a more informed public—one challenged and invigorated by a deeper understanding and appreciation of events, ideas, and cultures.
NPR and PBS are the worst!
The FAIR link to the ombudsman Elizabeth Jensen doesn’t work.
Perhaps I am mis-remembering: I thought perpetrator of the Hebron massacre just got a light sentence from the Israeli justice system. Perhaps I am confusing that with another atrocity. There have been many.
Your report concerning the recent mosque shooting and critique of NPR host David Greene’s interview of Jonathan Greenblat is/seems to leave out an important detail. Mr. Greenblat was asked about recollection of any mosque shootings resulting from hate speech posted on social media. In short, he said that specific angle was something new. Your critique however seems to say that Mr. Greenblat couldn’t recall there ever having been a mass shooting in a mosque.
I crave fairness in reporting, to make informed decisions. FAIR has appeared on many ‘best, most accurate, unbiased’ lists. Please keep it accurate…thanks
The NPR story makes me think of the Borowitz Report (New Yorker) — cheeky ignorance.
I believe the Quebec City murderer was on social media extensively.
That NPR chose to request commentary on the New Zealand massacre from the director of an organization that zealously advocates throwing the native people of Palestine out of their homes, killing them when they protest, and replacing them with a Nazi-style “master race” helps explain why the initials stand for Nazi Propaganda Radio.