NATIONAL POST'S "TABLOID JOURNALISM" PROMOTES ISLAMOPHOBIA

Canadian newspaper uses disinformation and distortions to smear popular Islamic website

(Ottawa, Canada - 8/28/2001) - CAIR's Canadian office (CAIR CAN) is calling on Muslims to protest a series of three articles in The National Post that used distortions and disinformation to create anti-Muslim hysteria by suggesting that an Islamic website in Canada is recruiting terrorists. (According to Islamway.com representatives, the site was never actually based in Canada; a fact that could have been determined by a simple phone call.)

The articles were written by National Post reporter, Stewart Bell, in response to complaints from the B'nai B'rith Canada about the website, Islamway.com.

Based on a private posting on Islamway.com, the initial article stated that Islamway.com was a "Montreal website used to recruit Islamic terrorists," and that the posting "is the latest suggestion that Canadian-based Islamic militants are being recruited for terrorist training in Afghanistan." The article concluded its alarmist tone by highlighting that Ahmed Ressam, who intended to detonate a bomb at Los Angeles International Airport, received his training in Afghan camps.

Subsequent articles in the Post continued to smear the website and restated the sensationalist innuendo linking Islamway.com to terrorist recruitment. The articles also raised the spectre of cyber-terrorism in Canada and concluded by quoting alleged hostile emails from Muslims threatening the life of Stewart Bell and his family. The Post did not say whether the emails quoted were representative of the responses received. Only negative responses were selected and printed.

To view the articles, go to www.nationalpost.com, and type "Stewart Bell" in the search box.

"We have come to expect anti-Muslim and anti-Arab bias from the National Post, but this string of inflammatory and distorted articles is unconscionable. Using sensationalistic language and decontextualizing key facts, the articles smear an Islamic website and create an alarming atmosphere of Islamophobia in Canada," said CAIR CAN Executive Director Riad Saloojee.

ACTION REQUESTED (Be FIRM yet POLITE. As noted above, hostile comments WILL be used to harm the image of the Muslim community.)

Contact the following to protest the use of the National Post's "tabloid journalism" to smear Islamway.com and create an atmosphere of Islamophobia. Ask for an investigation as to how the misinformation and distortions came about and request that editors at the National Post meet with a delegation of Canadian Muslims.

CONTACT:

Mr. Ken Whyte
Editor-in-chief
The National Post
300 - 1450 Don Mills Road,
Don Mills, Ontario
Canada, M3B 3R5

Tel: 416-383-2301
Fax: 416-442-2209
E-mail: kwhyte@nationalpost.com

COPY TO:

nhassan@nationalpost.com, rmackinnon@nationalpost.com, mnewland@nationalpost.com, auncles@nationalpost.com, sbell@nationalpost.com, Canada@cair-net.org

Focus on the following TALKING POINTS:

* Innuendo and distortions should not substitute for objective reporting.

* Is the National Post going to hold itself to the same standard that it used on Islamway.com, by accepting responsibility from posts by private individuals? By this standard, the National Post could logically be called an anti-Muslim newspaper as posts on its own forum page have called Islam a 'psychotic religion,' argued '[A]nd what have the Muslims ever given us, Nothing,' and, stated, 'If you believe they are interested in peace, you are truly naive. Islam is a religion of holy war, not peace.'

* Why did the National Post rely exclusively on information given by a partisan lobby group for a foreign state?

* Why did the Post selectively cite emails that were hostile and not those that provided a voice to the justifiable outrage felt by Canadian Muslims?