The Joseph Farah-CAIR dispute continues: as my previous two blog entries noted, Farah has been complaining that CAIR has incorrectly attributed to him the idea that pigs blood should be air-dropped over Afghanistan, and that such a false statement is defamatory and dangerous. CAIR has now corrected its statement, pointing out that in fact it was referring to a WND column by another author, Paul Sperry, which advocated dropping leaflets over Kabul threatening to put pig’s blood in the water supply.
Farah responds to CAIR’s lawyer:
I continued: “Perhaps a second or third reading of Paul Sperry’s column by Hooper and you will help you realize what anyone should be able to comprehend in the context of the complete column – that it was satire…”
Yes, it’s the old “it was only a joke” defence, as used for years by bullies and bigots when challenged over their behaviour. Farah also points out that Sperry’s column was written shortly after 9/11.
Of course, spotting satire on WND is rather difficult when you have to wade through columns and reports arguing that the Holocaust was caused by Darwinism, that child abuse in the Roman Catholic church is down to subliminal occult imagery in artwork, and that the pyramids were built by the Nephilim – not to mention the never-ending farrago of nonsense from WND columnists such as Hal Lindsey.
Farah also complains that:
It’s not true that WND is an “an extremist hate site” that “promotes hate every day”…Knowing the kind of people who listen to Hooper, it is very dangerous to be mislabeled as an anti-Muslim extremist.
This comes as Farah headlines his dispute with CAIR as “US Muslims spewing bile”. For a long time WND also promoted Robert Spencer’s book The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) under the banner “Shock a Muslim – With the Truth!”, the “Truth” being that
When PC propagandists assure us that jihadist terror doesn’t reflect “true,” “peaceful” Islam, they’re not only wrong, they’re dangerous — because they lull America and the West into letting their guard down against their mortal enemy. And not only do self-appointed “experts” lie elaborately and persistently about Islam — they have also replaced the truth about Christian Europe and the Crusades with an all-pervasive historical fantasy that is designed to make you ashamed of your own culture and heritage — and thus less determined to defend it.
Many more examples can be dredged up, although perhaps not literally for “every day”, and there’s also his continued advocacy for the anti-Muslim demagogue Michael Savage. And let’s not forget more general observations on WND, such as this one from Jack Wheeler:
…neither the adoption of Islam nor all the intervening centuries since has decreased the addiction Arab men have to pederasty…
Farah wants us to believe that Hooper has put him danger because WND has just published a book of ex-Muslim testimonies (with an Islamic portrait of Muhammad on the cover for good measure), and he is desperate to concoct a controversy around it. His target readers, however, will be perplexed as to why Farah is now trying to distance himself from the anti-Muslim views which he has been feeding them for years.
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[…] UPDATE: More today. […]
[…] (in fact, Sperry had advocated threatening to put blood in Afghanistan’s water supply, which Farah dismissed as merely “satire”). Farah also encouraged readers to donate to Michael Savage’s […]
[…] enlisted Afghani moles to contaminate their water supplies with pig’s blood”. Farah later announced that the column had been […]