The Washington Post (and other media) have reported the arrest of a US citizen "with ties to al Qaeda" for plotting to set off a dirty bomb in America. Probably most blog readers know more about this story than I do since I have been in conferences all day. But this sentence from the Post's story made me blink:
Jose Padilla, 31, who now goes by the name of Abdullah al Muhajir, was in the custody of the U.S. military and was being treated as an enemy combatant, Attorney General John D. Ashcroft said.
Even though the Post points out that this fellow converted to Islam 11 years ago and changed his name then, for the rest of the story the Post refers to Mr. al Muhajir as "Mr. Padilla." Now, look here. The Post does not call Mohammed Ali, "Cassius Clay." The Post does not call Kareem Abdul Jabbar, "Lew Alcindor."
Why the double standard? Could it be, dare I say it, political correctness? Could the Post be using al Muhajir's former name rather than his present name because to use his self-chosen Arabic name might imply that (can it be?) our enemies are Arabs? (And yes, I know that by far most Arabs are not our enemies.)
This usage is no aberration. They also did the same thing with Abdul Hamid, whom you probably know as Johnny Walker Lindh.
No comments:
Post a Comment