NBC whitewashes Shafia honor killing: no mention of Islam in story of girls killed because they "betrayed Islam"

Mohammmad Shafia murdered his daughters and his first wife and then ragedabout his daughters: "God's curse on them for generations....There can be no treachery, no violation more than this. They committed treason from beginning to end. They betrayed humankind. They betrayed Islam."

Midday Monday I got this email, with the subject line "URGENT: NBC Nightly News Request":

Message: Hi there—
My name is Shannon Urtnowski and I work with NBC Nightly News. We are working on a spot for tonight about honor killings, and I understand this is on the rise in American, among other countries. We were hoping to speak with an expert who can tell us more about this today. IF you can please reach out to me just as soon as possible, I would
appreciate it.
Many thanks--
Shannon Urtnowski
NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams

I emailed her back, and she responded: "We'd like to try to see if we might be able to set up a camera interview with you in a bit." We spoke on the phone, and I explained to her the information that you can find here: that Islamic law stipulates no penalty for a parent who kills his child, and several Muslim countries have relaxed penalties for honor killings, with Islamic clerics resisting attempts to stiffen those penalties. I also gave her information on other Islamic honor killings in the U.S. and Canada: Noor Almaleki, the Said sisters, Aqsa Parvez, Jessica Mokdad, etc.

Urtnowski took it all in and told me she would set up studio time for me to be interviewed on this. She even asked me for contact information for a nearby studio, which I gave her. But shortly thereafter, Urtnowski called me back and said that NBC had decided to go with an expert closer to the correspondent's Chicago location, and so I wouldn't be appearing after all.

I was not at all surprised by that, of course. Nor was I surprised when NBC's story aired and it contained no mention of Islam, despite Mohammad Shafia's own words, but instead spoke about "patriarchal societies" and the Shafias' "strict religious family," religion unspecified. See the Newsbusters report here.

There was nothing surprising in NBC's coverage of the Shafia murders at all. It was just another example of how the mainstream media routinely whitewashes Islamic violence, and essentially lies to the public about the nature, extent and magnitude of that violence. It is no wonder that the public is thereby rendered largely clueless and complacent, and that Islamic honor killings are occurring with increasing frequency in the West, with no one daring to challenge the Muslim community to work against the beliefs that give rise to them.

Posted by Robert on February 1, 2012 7:13 AM