Ann Coulter

November 1, 2002

Media Muslim Makeovers!

After all the speculation about the sniper terrorizing Maryland and Virginia, at last we have some cold hard facts. He is a Muslim. He converted to Islam 17 years ago. He changed his name to John Muhammad. He belonged to Louis Farrakhan's Nation of Islam. He cheered the terrorist attack of Sept. 11. He registered his getaway vehicle with the DMV on the anniversary of Sept. 11 -- writing down the time of registration as 8:52 a.m.

Naturally, therefore, the mainstream media have decided the crucial, salient fact about sniper John Muhammad is that he is a Gulf War veteran. Thus, The New York times described the snipers as: "John Allen Muhammad, 41, a Gulf War veteran, and John Lee Malvo, 17, a Jamaican."

They are now hot on the trail of whether Osama bin Laden ever served with the U.S. military in the Gulf War.

To review recent events, last year, 19 Muslims slaughtered thousands of Americans on U.S. soil. Since then, one Muslim tried to blow up a U.S. commercial jet with a shoe bomb and another Muslim shot up Los Angeles airport. The Religion of Peace has also been active abroad, decapitating an American journalist and blowing up a French tanker. In the last few weeks alone, Muslims bombed a nightclub in Bali and were narrowly prevented from slaughtering hundreds of theater-goers in Moscow.

Inasmuch as the nation is at war with Islamic terrorists, you might think it would be of passing interest that the sniper is a Muslim. But you need a New York Times decoder ring to figure out that GULF WAR VETERAN John Muhammad is a Muslim. The main clue is the Times' repeated insistence that Islam had absolutely nothing to do with the shootings.

Wrestling with the freakish development that a practitioner of the Religion of Peace is a killer, the Times has even rushed to print with the completely unsubstantiated speculation that John Muhammad had recently rejected Islam. Experts explained that a "rapid and bizarre change in religious beliefs" is common among "serial killers." One doctor said a change in religious beliefs before committing violent crimes is "a fairly well-known phenomenon in clinical psychiatry," adding that he "was not diagnosing Mr. Muhammad's condition."

His condition? He's a Muslim. That's his condition and his diagnosis. It may be time to update the DSM-IV by adding "Jihad Impulse-Control Disorder" to its index of official diagnoses.

In addition to copious articles intimating that John Muhammad was practically not even a Muslim, the media have universally concluded that there is "no evidence" connecting him to al-Qaida. Of course, it will be difficult to find any evidence, having instantly pronounced the case closed.

In one hard-hitting investigative piece on Muhammad, for example, the Times produced amazing details from his life, including conversations with relatives, neighbors, friends and ex-girlfriends. The article droned on about how he met one ex-girlfriend -- her job, her hobbies, her hopes and dreams. But when she said, "We stopped talking after he asked me about religion," the Times dropped the subject and moved on to the next topic.

After weeks of blithe theorizing that the sniper was an "angry white male" -- based on invidious and offensive stereotypes -- aren't we entitled to a little theorizing about Muhammad's terrorist ties? There is surely more evidence that he was a member of al-Qaida than that he abandoned Islam before carrying out the sniper attacks.

Emerging as al-Qaida's leading spokesman in America, the Times has also blacked out the information that the terrorists who seized a Moscow theater last week were practitioners of the Religion of Peace.

I note again: America is at war with Islamic fanatics. But in a prolix front-page article about the "hostage siege" in Russia, the Times referred to the Islamic fanatics who stormed the theater exclusively as the "captors," the "separatists" and the "guerrillas." One searches in vain for a clear statement that the Moscow hostage crisis was yet another enterprise of the Religion of Peace.

The only hint that the "captors" were even Muslims was the Times' dismissive description of Russian President Vladimir Putin's reaction to the terrorists' demands. Instead of acquiescing, Putin "cho(se) to cast the rebels as international Islamic terrorists." The Times knows a cheap political ploy when it sees one.

In one of the oddest attempts to soften depictions of Islam -- the one religion the media respects -- the Times has apparently banned the word "burka" from its pages. (Burkas have gotten such a bad name recently!) Instead, one reads only about the "burka-style gowns" of the Islamic terrorists in Moscow or the "burka-like robes" of women in Bahrain. (How about: The swastika-like adornment on the skinhead's forearm.)

Not to be outdone by the Times, CNN has valiantly insisted on calling John Muhammad by his Christian name. The night the snipers' names were first released, CNN's Jeanne Meserve repeatedly called Muhammad two names he does not answer to: "Here are the names. John Allen Williams, aka Muhammad Williams, and also a John Lee Malvo." Williams isn't his name. It's not even "Muhammad Williams." It is John Allen Muhammad.

After assuring viewers "we will deal with this carefully," Aaron Brown summed up Meserve's report, saying, "We will say again that these two men, John Allen Williams and John Malvo -- and I'm not clear on the spelling on Malvo ..." While telling whoppers about Muhammad's name, he's fretting about spelling issues.

The next night Brown slipped and mistakenly called Muhammad by his actual name. He was quickly corrected by Kelli Arena:

BROWN: "And then it was sometime later that they got the second name, Muhammad or Williams, I guess."

ARENA: "Right, Williams."

Perhaps CNN should go whole hog and start describing Muhammad as a member of the "religious right" whose name is "Jerry Falwell."

Larry Elder

October 31, 2002

John Allen Muhammad: hating America

When a Ukrainian immigrant murdered Ennis Cosby, the son of Bill and Camille Cosby, Ms. Cosby blamed America. She wrote, "I believe America taught our son's killer to hate African-Americans." Reeling from the pain of her loss, Cosby's lashing-out deserves understanding and empathy, but this does not make what she wrote any less wrong. The shooter killed Ennis. That's why prosecutors charged him, convicted him and threw him in jail.

Cosby's piece suggests that white racism toward blacks thwarts black American progress. Nonsense. Polls show white acceptance of blacks at an all-time high. In 1958, for example, only 35 percent of Americans would vote for a black person for president. As of 1997, the figure rose to 93 percent.

So let's apply the Cosby blame game to the apparent Beltway sniper lead triggerman -- John Allen Muhammad. What about John Allen Muhammad's apparent mindset of anti-Americanism and religious intolerance? Muhammad, 41, fit the sniper profile of a loser. Two failed marriages, child custody battles, one wife obtained a permanent protective order against him, a possible brief imprisonment for a traffic violation, two court-martials and possibly -- though unconfirmed -- a dishonorable discharge from the military as well as more than one failed business.

But add this to the mix: He belonged to Louis Farrakhan's Nation of Islam, an angry, virulent strain of Islam. According to The Seattle Times, Muhammad openly expressed sympathy for the terrorists who committed the Sept. 11 atrocities. He passed out pro-Islamic literature and spoke openly about his desire to commit violent acts in and against America.

The Nation of Islam's Farrakhan called Judaism a "gutter religion," referred to Adolf Hitler as a great man, and in a book called, "The Secret Relationship of Blacks and Jews," Farrakhan exaggerates the role of Jews in slavery, while minimizing the substantial role of Arab slavers. Farrakhan met with Libya's Moammar Gadhafi, Iraq's Saddam Hussein and Iran's Mohammad Khatami; nations on America's official list of states that sponsor terrorism. Farrakhan condemned Los Angeles-area Korean storeowners as "bloodsuckers."

When Malcolm X defected from the Nation of Islam, Farrakhan wrote, "The die is set and Malcolm shall not escape . . . Such a man is worthy of death." Over 30 years later, Farrakhan apologized to Malcolm X's daughter, admitting that his words "helped create the atmosphere" that led to Malcolm's assassination. But decades later, Farrakhan issued another Fatwa-like condemnation of black Washington Post reporter Milton Coleman, who reported Rev. Jesse Jackson's use of "Hymie" and "Hymie Town." About Coleman, Farrakhan said, "We're going to make an example of Milton Coleman. . . . I'm going to try to get every church in Washington, D.C., to put him out . . . whenever he hits the door tell him he's not wanted. If he brings his wife she can come in if she leaves him. But if she won't leave him, then you can go to hell with your husband. If he is a traitor and you love to sleep in the bed with a traitor of your people then the same punishment that's due that no-good filthy traitor you'll get it yourself as his wife. One day soon we will punish you with death."

Hargeet Singh, a friend of Muhammad's, said, "In his mind, even black people were no good if they stood with whites or Christians." Authorities now connect Muhammad with the shooting that took place at the only synagogue in Tacoma, Wash.

Did Muhammad convert to Islam out of a sincere, spiritual conversion and awakening? Or, did he convert, as some do, to say, "Screw you," to America, the West and to non-Muslims, thus providing a scapegoat for his failed life?

According to some estimates, blacks comprise nearly half of America's estimated 5 million to 8 million Muslims (although others put the figure much lower). Of that number, according to Sulayman Nyang, with the African Studies department at Howard University, nearly one of 10 Muslims converted in prison. Ziauddin Sardar, described by Time magazine as a "British scholar of Islam," says, "Islam is a sort of natural religion for underdogs." Seized al Qaeda documents suggest American prisons as a source for recruitment of potential terrorists. For most prison inmates, Islam provides structure, a motive, clean life and spiritual salvation. But for some, it serves as a ticket to explain away a failed life, while providing a justification for hatred of non-Muslims, of America, and of Western culture and civilization.

Black "blame America" anger does a number on the black psyche. A Los Angeles Times poll asked blacks earning $50,000 or more a year if everyone has the power to succeed. They answered more pessimistically than did lower-income whites!

Aristotle once said, "Anyone can become angry -- that is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way -- that is not easy."