“The Sept. 11 attacks, the Iraq war and suicide bombings worldwide have changed not only the way we live but the way we look at those around us, especially Muslims. "Islamophobia" has entered the American vernacular, and the anti-Muslim attitudes and prejudice it describes remain common.” – ABC News, Ann Sorkowitz & Julie N. Hays

In an appalling piece of news staging and misrepresentation, ABC has produced a Primetime segment right out of the ideological playbook of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). In the segment entitled – “Witness to Discrimination: What Would You Do?” – with the byline “Bystanders Turn Away When Muslim Actor Hired By 'Primetime' Encounters Hostility” – ABC blatantly manipulates public perceptions with falsehood.

The segment features paid actors staging an encounter between a bakery clerk and a Hijab-wearing Muslim woman. The clerk refuses service to the woman using insulting language: “Get back on the camel and go back to wherever you came from” and “You got your towel on your head. I don’t know what’s under your dress.” The show focuses on the bystanders to this encounter, picking those that best present the message that Americans are Islamophobic. One man supports the clerk, another ignores the female actor when she asks for assistance, while several others speak up against the false clerk’s actions.

In fact, the few people who tacitly or openly supported the actors discriminatory actions were outnumbered, yet the segment spins a perception of Islamophobia, insinuating those that did not openly react somehow supported the clerk, whether they had heard the encounter or not. We have no idea how many encounters ABC staged before it got an example of the behavior they were looking for, but their intended message was clear: Americans are Islamophobic, small-minded, discriminatory and insulting to minorities, religious or otherwise. This is not just a fabrication; it is designed to feed any anti-American sentiments a viewer might have.

A young Muslim woman named Nohayia Javed was present in the news van and is quoted on their news site:

"I was shocked because when these things happen to me in real life & I never see what happens after I walk out of that store," she said. "I would try to justify that they probably didn't hear it when I watched it, I realized, no, they hear it and they see it and they're okay with it." For Javed, tears of fear were mixed with tears of thanks for those she saw come forward to support Sabina. "In my lifetime, I've never ever had anybody stand up for me," Javed said.

Nohayia Javed, a Pakistani-American Muslim was a senior at Baylor University in 2006 when she claimed she was attacked by a man in his 30s with a strong Southern accent and wearing cowboy boots. According to Nohayia, he kicked and hit her while shouting anti-Muslim epithets. There were no witnesses and the crime was not reported until late the next day. We do not have the forensic proofs of her injuries we normally have, her doctor was her betrothed’s father, a Muslim doctor, so her injuries are anecdotal. CAIR put up a $5000 reward for information on the perpetrator and asked the FBI to investigate it as a hate crime. To date no one has been arrested for the attack despite Nohayia’s detailed description of her stereotypical cowboy attacker.  

I cannot prove her attack was staged, but I do know Nohayia is lying on ABC when she says, “In my lifetime, I’ve never had anybody stand up for me.” Many people stood up for her. After the purported attack, the local community, the college, area interfaith groups, all offered their support. Many people stood up for Nohayia Javed. There was a tremendous outpouring of sympathy and support, true to the generous and kind nature of most Americans. The student newspaper describes an event after the alleged attack:

“With solemn faces, hundreds of Baylor students crowded in front of the Bill Daniel Student Center on Thursday night to show support for Nohayia Javed, a Muslim student who was physically attacked on campus because of her faith.

Despite the violent nature of the act, the incident revealed the warmth and compassion of Baylor's student body through e-mails sent to the Lariat, indignant conversations taking place in classrooms and a candlelight ceremony on Diadeloso.” – The Lariat, April 11, 2006

A candlelight vigil with hundreds of students, and she has the nerve to say, "In my lifetime, I've never ever had anybody stand up for me.” She even thanked the campus community for their kindness. Why would she claim otherwise? And why would ABC enable the lie? Something is very fishy indeed.

ABC also misrepresents hate crimes figures.

Of the 1,750 victims of an anti-religion hate crime in 2006:

▪ 65.4 percent were victims of an anti-Jewish bias.

▪ 11.9 percent were victims of an anti-Islamic bias.

▪ 4.9 percent were victims of an anti-Catholic bias.

▪ 3.7 percent were victims of an anti-Protestant bias.

▪ 0.5 percent were victims of an anti-Atheist/Agnostic bias.

▪ 8.4 percent were victims of a bias against other religions (anti-other religion).

▪ 5.3 percent were victims of a bias against groups of individuals of varying religions (anti-multiple religions, group).

Anti-Jewish hate crimes are far more common, with 967 incidents, outnumbering any anti-Muslim events. At a mere 156, Islam appears to be quite safe here in the United States. In a country of over 300 million, ABC spins 156 hate crimes as significant, unfortunate as each one is, it hardly qualifies as a frequent occurrence. In fact, the numbers reveal it is quite rare, one incident for every 1,923,076.9 citizens, and mostly against property. There is almost as much anti-Christian hate crime (124), in an overwhelmingly Christian nation! This debunks ABC’s nonsensical claim that the described Islamophobic “anti-Muslim attitudes and prejudice remain common.” It also raises the question of why they have invested so much effort to perpetrate a fraud?

Part of the answer lies with the all too common politically correct stupidity of our press, the mission of CAIR and Islam itself. Nohayia is merely an actor for CAIR. ABC published an article recently entitled, Common Misunderstandings About Muslims, which uses primarily CAIR data. The article attempts to present Muslims in general as against Jihad, and Jihad as a misunderstood concept meaning actually, to “strive, struggle, and exert effort.” Fair enough as far as semantics goes, though the Koran and Hadith do not agree in application. They are very clear what Jihad means, and address it some 164 times in the Koran alone, by my count.

Qur’an 8:7 “Allah wished to confirm the truth by His words: ‘Wipe the infidels out to the last.’”

Qur’an 8:12 “I shall terrorize the infidels. So wound their bodies and incapacitate them because they oppose Allah and His Apostle.”

Qur’an 8:39 “So, fight them till all opposition ends and the only religion is Islam.”

Bukhari:V1B2N25 “Allah’s Apostle was asked, ‘What is the best deed?’ He replied, ‘To believe in Allah and His Apostle Muhammad.’ The questioner then asked, ‘What is the next best in goodness?’ He replied, ‘To participate in Jihad, religious fighting in Allah's

Cause.’

Admittedly anyone can cherry pick verses, as Islamist apologists often do with Deuteronomy when making the morally equivalent argument that Christians are just as violent as Muslims. But the evidence of Islamic violence in the world is abundantly and horrifically obvious. While not all Muslims are violent, many are, and many more support them. What we face in the war with Islamic Jihad are those adherents that take their holy writ literally, such as the Saudi Wahhabis, who underwrite CAIR and Mosques across America.

What CAIR tries to do is manage the discussion and confuse the debate. They take advantage of our politically correct cultural lockstep to feed a perception of a gentle and sophisticated Islam, misunderstood and discriminated against, humble and long-suffering. By concocting anti-Muslim violence, they feed that perception to establish a special status, a protected and preeminent position where the goal of Islam, the place where “all opposition ends and the only religion is Islam” is furthered. By means both fair and foul, that is the goal, those who claim otherwise are simply lying. In a tolerant and accepting America, it is difficult to find fuel for the images of persecution they wish to ignite.

There is no epidemic of Islamophobia in America, so ABC helped CAIR fabricate one.

This craven and deceitful Primetime claptrap has consequences. The images and words they use to confuse and confound discussion about Islamic issues confronting this nation are in very short order broadcast throughout the world. They will influence the heavily propagandized and misinformed population of Muslims in the Middle East and Asia, infuriating and reinforcing the call to righteous Jihad in defense of believers and deepening the contempt for unbelievers, already ingrained in Islam. That will translate into violence and people will die. ABC is guilty of disinformation and fraud, and they are guilty of inciting religious violence with lies.