New York Times Plays Down ISIS Tie to Brutal Murder of French Priest : Fred Fleitz
Earlier today, 84-year old Catholic priest Father Jacques Hamel was murdered his when one of two assailants who allegedly yelled “Allahu Akbar” and said they were from “Daesh” (ISIS) burst into his French church and slit his throat. Father Hamel was killed around 9 AM while celebrating mass in St. Étienne Church in the village of Saint-Etienne-du Rouvray in northern France.
Father Hamel, two Catholic nuns, and two parishioners were taken hostage by the assailants. One of the hostages was critically injured. The two terrorists were shot dead by French security forces as they left the church.
UK newspapers The Telegraph and The Daily Mail called the assailants “Islamic gunman” and said the killers claimed they were from Daesh. French President Françoise Hollande said
Saint-Etienne-du Rouvray was “horribly affected by the cowardly murder of the parish priest by two terrorists who claimed to be from Daesh.”
The first story by the New York Times on this incident referred to the killers only as “attackers” and did not mention ISIS, Daesh or the words “Islamic” or “Islamist.” However, after Hollande said Daesh was behind the attack, a sentence was added to the article was altered to note this. However, the Times did not mention that the killers said they were from Daesh or that they reportedly
yelled “Allahu Akbar”
According to the London Guardian, one of the killers was a local man who tried to travel to Syria, presumably to fight for ISIS, but was turned back at the Turkish border. The Guardian reported that this man was ordered by a French judge to wear an electronic bracelet in March 2016. The New York Times did not mention this.
According to the Daily Mail article, Father Hamel’s church was on an ISIS places of worship “hit list” that was discovered in April. The New York Times story does not mention this. A later version of the Times story only noted that “the country has been concerned about the threat against churches for some time” but did not say what group or individuals were the source of this threat.
The New York Times article said France has had three major terrorists attacks in the last 19 months but did not mention that these were attacks were inspired by ISIS and radical Islam. Like the Obama administration and Hillary Clinton, the New York Times is in denial that radical Islam is at war with Europe, America, and modern society. As a result, the Times treats terrorist attacks like Orlando, Nice, Istanbul, Paris, San Bernardino, Brussels, and now Saint-Etienne-du Rouvray as unrelated acts of “violent extremism” and repeatedly ignores clear indications they were motivated by radical Islam.
As long as U.S. leaders refuse to recognize the true nature of Islamist atrocities like the murder of Father Hamel, there will be more attacks like this in the United States.
Fred Fleitz writes for the Center for Security Policy.
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