\n\nBraver than his accusers<\/div>\n <\/p><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n In the aftermath of one of the most visible examples of a political hatchet job against American Muslims \u2013 the allegations made against the (now former) Muslim\/Arab liaison for the Barack Obama campaign, Mazen Asbahi \u2013 one aspect of it all is the hypocrisy exhibited by the Wall Street Journal.<\/p>\n The Journal went out of its way to discredit this politically active volunteer-citizen by putting his name and picture front and center of its online edition (the second page of its print edition), laying bare portions of Asbahi\u2019s resume, and questioning his affiliations as un-patriotic and terroristic. Journal readers must have been comforted to know that the Journal showed all the subtlety of a lynch mob in taking to task one of the most sensitive, peaceful and politically moderate members of the Muslim American community.<\/p>\n The kicker? The Wall Street Journal did so by quoting Washington insiders, who were so powerful and brave that they were given a veil of secrecy. Sure, don\u2019t hesitate to scrutinize every blemish on the professional record of Asbahi, and blow up his picture large enough to show whether a hair is misplaced on his head. But for the people who brought this to light, let\u2019s leave them nameless and faceless to lurk in the shadows, lest some other radically moderate Muslim get some crazy fundamentalist aspiration of actually participating in this democracy of ours.<\/p>\n Bear in mind that anonymity has its place in a democracy, for example, protecting the families of our fearless undercover law enforcement officers in the field. But in the context of volunteering for a political campaign, a newspaper should employ more scrutiny toward its sources. And barring some law enforcement public policy consideration, the newspaper should provide a better explanation than just the position that \u201csomeone said so on the internet\u201d.<\/p>\n The heavy-handed Rupert Murdoch-owned Journal did its damage by citing the \u201cGlobal Muslim Brotherhood Report\u201d, which \u201cbroke\u201d this \u201cstory\u201d for the security of our nation. The Journal doesn\u2019t say much else about the \u201cGlobal Muslim Brotherhood Report\u201d, other than that they \u201craised last week\u201d the \u201cconnection\u201d between Asbahi and an individual who served on the board of a trust. The \u201caffiliation\u201d, if you can call it that, lasted 3 weeks. It took place eight years ago.<\/p>\n Who are the individuals behind the \u201cGlobal Muslim Brotherhood Report\u201d? The Journal tells us they are \u201ca Washington think tank.\u201d For being the people who aspire to shape our national policy, this think tank sure is secretive. A Google search showed nothing of substance about the individuals or groups behind \u201cGlobal Muslim Brotherhood Report\u201d. The group\u2019s website? Log-in only, with nothing more to say about the group.<\/p>\n The discriminating reader may think to himself: If we start to scrutinize the individuals behind the \u201cGlobal Muslim Brotherhood Report\u201d, wouldn\u2019t we be taking a step toward ad-hominem attacks? Yet this is exactly what the people behind \u201cGlobal Muslim Brotherhood Report\u201d did to Mazen.<\/p>\n We\u2019re a nation of laws, not a nation of prejudices. Similarly, our journalism should be based on fact and careful investigation. That means going beyond innuendo and guilt by association and the attendant judgment by the public. A newspaper should hold itself to higher standards than quoting demagogues at face value. <\/p>\n But there\u2019s something even more troubling about the modus operandi<\/i> of the Journal. Once they received the tip-off from the nameless and faceless \u201cGlobal Muslim Brotherhood Report\u201d, they became the primary actor this smear campaign. They pushed the issue with the Obama campaign, they published the innuendo, painted a number of mainstream Islamic American institutions with the fundamentalist-terrorist brush, they forced Asbahi\u2019s resignation, and they published the scoop. The Journal didn\u2019t merely report the news. The Journal was the news.<\/p>\n Today we must ask ourselves whether America is safer because the Journal outed and exposed to the world an honest patriot volunteering for a cause he believes in and partaking of democracy which is his right as a concerned citizen. The result was that political participation was extinguished.<\/p>\n As for the sources of the Journal\u2019s hit job, they get to hide behind their cryptic description as \u201ca Washington think tank\u201d and behind a log-in only website, keeping to a great western tradition. After all, the executioners of the Inquisition wore masks, too.<\/p>\n A. Arain is a Chicago professional and freelance writer.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Today we must ask ourselves whether America is safer because the Wall Street Journal outed and exposed to the world an honest patriot volunteering for a cause he believes in and partaking of democracy which is his right as a concerned citizen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary"],"yoast_head":"\n Activist Mazen Asbahi: Cowards and patriots<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Today we must ask ourselves whether America is safer because the Wall Street Journal outed and exposed to the world an honest patriot volunteering for a cause he believes in and partaking of democracy 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