New York Times accused of framing Muslims as true victims of 9/11 in anniversary coverage
The New York Times on Friday was accused of treating Muslims as the true victims of the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2021, but the paper insists any criticism is a "disingenuous" attempt to stoke outrage.
"The Times can't remember 9/11 without bemoaning a ‘wave of hate’ and ‘anti-Muslim prejudice," NewsBusters executive editor Tim Graham told Fox News Digital.
The Times’ published a story, "After 9/11, Islamophobia Shaped a Generation of Muslim New Yorkers," that said the "attacks unleashed a wave of hate, but the years since have seen Muslim Americans’ political and cultural influence grow."
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Times reporters Liam Stack and Maya King wrote about "once-friendly neighbors" allegedly keeping their distance from American Muslims on the heels of the terror attacks, suggesting that many "have faced a quarter-century of suspicion and hostility."
"In New York, a generation of Muslim New Yorkers responded to the Islamophobia by organizing their communities: Mosques hosted makeshift legal clinics. Small businesses became hubs in a citywide civil rights network. Muslims of different racial, ethnic and linguistic backgrounds formed alliances the city had not seen before," Stack and King wrote.
"Their political organizing helped, years later, to elect the city’s first Muslim mayor, Zohran Mamdani," they continued. "But anti-Muslim prejudice still endures, echoing the Islamophobia that arose in the earliest days after Sept. 11."
The Times’ story, published hours before the somber anniversary of the attacks that killed 2,977 people at the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon and aboard United Flight 93 near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, said the attacks also "left many Muslim American communities scarred by heavy-handed law enforcement tactics and the suspicion, if not outright hostility, of classmates, co-workers, elected officials and cable news commentators who blamed all Muslims for the terrorism they, too, had experienced that day."
The Times then spoke with Afaf Nasher, the executive director of the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, who said that Muslim Americans were "pushed against the wall" and were faced with the decision to "run in fear" or push back.
"Political empowerment was certainly one way that we are pushing back," Nasher told the Gray Lady.
Stack and King noted that the ascendance of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani "has turned New York into perhaps the most prominent example of American Muslim success in the post-9/11 world" before suggesting Muslims in the United States continue to face many challenges.
"Those include a history of police surveillance, backlash faced by high-profile Muslims in politics or the arts and attacks on Islamic religious expression, including the construction of mosques and the wearing of religious clothing like hijabs. Those biases have also affected followers of other faiths, in particular observant Sikh men, whose turbans are often mistaken for a form of Islamic dress," Stack and King wrote.
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"After Sept. 11, many Muslims in New York found themselves under covert police surveillance," they continued.
The report evoked a Pew Research Center survey that found some American adults believe Muslims are less patriotic than other Americans, and they often cite the Sept. 11 attacks as the reason.
"By some measures, the survey showed that public attitudes toward Islam were more negative now than they were immediately after the attacks," Stack and King wrote.
Graham, who has put a spotlight on bias in the media for decades, said that "any surveillance of Muslims or mosques is treated as prejudice despite the obvious point that some mosques and their leaders support Islamist terrorism."
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"’Islamophobia’ is always an oppressive problem that America needs to overcome, and increasing political and cultural influence of Muslim leftists like Zohran Mamdani was treated like signs of progress. For people who claim to oppose organized hate, they can't seem to find any in Muslim circles," Graham said.
Overall, you're only presented with pro-Muslim gush," Graham continued. "There is no opposing point of view, just a citation of hatred and prejudice from Trump and the Republicans."
Graham and other critics pointed out that the Times published a second story on Islamophobia on Friday, with the other one headlined, "Facing Islamophobia, Mamdani Keeps Focus on 9/11 Victims."
Conservative critics took to social media to blast the Times.
The Times stood by its reporting.
"This misleading statement is nothing more than a disingenuous attempt to seek attention and stoke outrage by misrepresenting The New York Times's journalism covering the anniversary and commemoration of the Sept. 11 attacks," a New York Times spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
"In the 25 years since that day, we have led the way on reporting on the event, its human toll, and resulting societal shifts. Audiences can see for themselves The Times's coverage now, which features a deep and diverse set of journalism reflecting on a globally significant event."