When Al Smith ran for president in 1928, opponents used his Roman Catholic faith against him. His enemies distributed a photo of Smith at the opening of the Holland Tunnel between New York City and New Jersey and claimed he was building a tunnel to the Vatican. After Smith lost, a joke went around that he reacted to the defeat by sending a one-word telegram to the pope: “Unpack.”
But religious bigotry is not at all funny.
Hatred toward Catholics was still so widespread in 1960 that John F. Kennedy feared it would ruin his chances of becoming president. His pollster went so far as to ask West Virginia voters: “Is there a tunnel being dug from Rome so that the pope can have a secret entrance to the White House if Kennedy wins?” The results were never announced, and Kennedy was alarmed that the pollster had even asked the question, fearing it would spread a damaging rumor.
Today, Muslims occupy a similar place in our politics. The Republican Party is stoking anti-Muslim hatred as it embraces Christian nationalism, conducts an illegal war against a Muslim country, and reacts to a few election victories by Muslim Democrats, including Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan.
Among the slimy statements:
Donald Trump: “We have jihadists being elected all over the place.”
Rep. Nancy Mace: “Every single Muslim holding public office in America is a trojan horse, and a threat to both national security and our republic.”
Rep. Andy Ogles: “Muslims don’t belong in American society.”
Sen. Tommy Tuberville: “Islam is not a religion. It’s a cult. Islamists aren’t here to assimilate. They’re here to conquer ... We’ve got to SEND THEM HOME NOW or we’ll become the United Caliphate of America.”
Rep. Brandon Gill: “No more Muslims immigrating to America.”
Rep. Randy Fine: “We need more Islamophobia, not less.”
Trump and his fascist party have been particularly vicious toward the 260,000 people of Somali ethnicity in the United States, the vast majority of whom are both Muslim and American citizens. He says they’re “not smart, they have no aptitude, they have nothing going,” and they’re “garbage.” History tells us this kind of rhetoric can lead to a wave of atrocities.
Obviously, every American of good will needs to denounce it.
But the news media have a particular responsibility. What should they do?
Here are five action points:
Do not let anti-Muslim smears by prominent people go unreported. Do not normalize them. The New York Times published a strong overview of the problem this week, “With El-Sayed’s Victory Comes a Wave of Islamophobia” (gift link). NPR’s “All Things Considered” broadcast a sharp segment in March on Republican leaders’ shoulder-shrugging response to their party’s religious intolerance. News outlets need to treat this with the importance it deserves.
Use words like “bigotry” and “hatred” to describe what’s happening. It’s not slanted or unprofessional to describe hate speech against Muslims in starkly negative terms. It’s just being a good human being.
Note that right-wing terrorist attacks and plots have far outnumbered those by Islamic jihadists in the United States in recent years. Republicans keep talking as if it’s Sept. 11, 2001, but that was a quarter of a century ago.
Tell the real stories of Minnesota’s Somali community – the success stories – as the right wing exploits a fraud scandal to claim that “they’re all crooks,” as Trump put it.
Run fact-filled stories about how Muslims have made America great, featuring people like boxing champ Muhammad Ali and structural engineer Fazlur Rahman Khan, whose genius helped create Chicago’s Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower). Remind people that President Barack Obama’s 2016 speech at the Islamic Society of Baltimore quoted Thomas Jefferson as saying specifically that religious freedom applied to everyone, including Muslims.
To anyone who might think that writing Muslim-positive stories is ”not news,” I must push back. The central goal of journalism is to equip the public with the facts that will inspire them to be good citizens in a just society. This means combatting smears and disinformation.
When the people in power conduct a holy war against a religious group, the news media need to put themselves squarely on the side of tolerance and decency.
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