Being who he is (an inveterate liar and Muslim-hater), WorldNetDaily editor Joseph Farah just can’t be good with a solid, uncontroversial denunciation of anti-Semitism. See how, in his Nov. 18 column, Farah takes things in another direction:
Jewish people were the victims of more reported hate crimes than any other religious minority in 2016, according to the most recent year of FBI statistics. In fact, those incidents were higher than the rest of religiously motivated hate crimes combined.
Last year, anti-Semitic incidents rose almost 60 percent, the largest single-year increase on record. The ADL found 1,986 cases of harassment, vandalism or physical assaults against Jewish people or institutions in 2017. It found 1,267 in 2016.
Does anyone ask why this should be?
No, not really. In fact, the numbers parallel the trends in Europe where immigration trends run high among Muslims, as they do in the U.S. There are now 3.45 million Muslims living in the U.S., up more than 1 million in the last decade.
Yet we look not at who is committing these crimes. In fact, let’s face it. Every time there is a terrorist attack in America, the news media starts the game of pin the tail on the gun-toting, Christian white guy. It is considered “racist” to examine demographic changes in communities and immigration trends as a contributing cause – just as it is now to consider the threat posed by MS-13 gangs throughout the country. It is also considered inappropriate to look at the changing ways we educate our children about matters of faith, morality, justice, equality under the law.
Farah seems not to understand that the reason white men are looked at as perpetrators of mass shootings is because that’s statistically likely — more than half of mass shootings in the past 30-plus years have been committed by white men. And the worst act of violence against Jews in America — the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting that took place just a few weeks before Farah’s column was published — was perpetrated not by a Muslim but, rather, by a white man.
Indeed, by complaining that “demographic changes in communities and immigration trends” are not being examined as a “contributing cause” to mass violence, Farah seems to be justifying the Pittsburgh massacre. The shooter targeted the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society for its work in bringing refugees into the U.S. — an agency Farah’s own WND has demonized for bringing too many Muslims into the country (which is to say, bringing any Muslims, period). So it’s entirely possible that WND helped inspire the shooter, something WND has had a problem with over the years.
But Farah doesn’t want to talk about that — there are brown people to fearmonger about.
Farah is also a pro-Trump sycophant, so his column turns to the president as well:
How does Donald Trump get sandbagged with that smear – the father of a Jewish convert, the father-in-law of a Jewish man, a New York developer who has worked lifelong in the city with a population of 2.2 million Jews. Never before he ran for president was there even a single allegation of antisemitism or racism toward him or anyone close to him. It would have been considered preposterous. It should be considered just as preposterous and irresponsible today.
Can we stop the dangerous labeling of Trump and his supporters as anti-Semites and racists? Indeed, it is dangerous and inflammatory, and not just for the president and his supporters. It is also is an excuse for not examining the real symptoms, the real perpetrators, the real hatred and the forceful violent solutions to which they so readily resort.
Well, Joe, one gets tagged as having anti-Semitic when one rants that one’s political opponent “meets in secret with international banks to plot the destruction of U.S. sovereignty,” is slow to disavow the support of white supremacist David Duke, tells Republican Jews he doesn’t want their money, and inspires anti-Semitic attacks on his Jewish critics, among other things. It’s not preposterous at all, which Farah would know if he had done the slightest bit of research before writing his column.
Farah concludes his column by declaring: “Never again. No more racism. No more bigotry. No more phony blame-gaming slanders. No more fake hate-baiting.” That’s an odd declaration from a man whose website was built on bigotry and slander (against Obama) and a lot of fake hate-baiting (of Muslims).
You want the hate to stop, Joe? You first.