David Warren isn't the only fightin' keyboarder with dripping contempt for the recently-released Fox News journalists who were kidnapped in Gaza.
Not all the wingnuts are as forthright as David Warren, who says flat out that the two men are cowards for faking a conversion to save their lives.
The more "sophisticated" factions in the right wing blogosphere put it a little more delicately. They imply that correspondent Steve Centanni and photographer Olaf Wiig are forever tainted by their brush with Islamic terrorists.
According to the leading lights of the right wing blogosphere, these two Fox News journalists must have been asking for it somehow. Or that, maybe, they were only spared because they were soft on terror all along. Either that, or they're hysterical and it's safe to discount whatever they say because they're suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. (For extensive examples, see John's post, linked to above.)
"Once a Muslim, always a Muslim?" asks Debbie Schlussel.
In some societies, women are severely punished by their own communities if they get raped. Their very survival is considered proof of their debasement. It is assumed that a truly virtuous woman would have fought to the death to preserve her honor, and by extension, the honor of the community. The victim is often blamed for the attack itself. There will even be suspicion that she enjoyed it. When she tries to resume a normal life, she's dismissed as dirty, damaged goods...
The kidnapped Fox News reporters are getting similar abuse from the right wing.
Schlussel thinks that these guys are never going to regain their lost purity. After all they said the magic words:
They converted to Islam, so according to Islam they are considered Muslims forever. Even though they were forced to do so at gunpoint, the rule in Islam is not the circumstances of the conversion, but the fact that it took place. Once a Muslim, always a Muslim . . . or certain death. That's a core tenet of Islam.
That they apparently said the Shehadah, the oath to Islam (also known as the oath of Martyrdom) means that if they ever publicly denounce or renounce Islam--as they appear to have done--that is a mortal sin. And they're subject to a death sentence for it. Muslims can never leave the faith, no matter how they joined it. Good luck to them. Hope they have good security.
She also wonders whether journalists deserved it. She notes that Centanni was "very pro-Palestinian" before the kidnapping. So, in her estimation, ol' Steve was practically asking for it. (I didn't realize Fox was a hotbed of pro-Palestinean sentiment.)
The fact that he and his cameraman weren't slaughtered proves that they were traitors all along:
It needs to be repeated that so many Americans captured by Muslims--including Arab and Muslim Americans in Iraq--have met slaughter and beheading. And yet apparently pro-Islamist journalists, like Jill Carroll and reportedly Steve Centanni, are released to freedom. It's troubling that if you have a certain point of view AND job (ie., reporter) that will help support that point of view, only you get to live. The rest meet certain slaughter.
Schlussel also wonders whether the journalists are suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. Suggesting that they have this condition is just a medicalized way of insinuating that they side with the terrorists. Note that Schlussel has also claimed that the journalists got kidnapped for being pro-Palestinian and survived because they were terrorist sympathizers. The hallmark of Stockholm Syndrome is a prisoner's loyalties shift dramatically and inexplicably towards his captors.
So, which is it? If these guys were soft on terror all along, it doesn't make sense to cry Stockholm. If they did an about-face in captivity because of overwhelming duress, it's despicable to deride injured men for political gain.
The Stockholm allegation is an insurance policy for the right wing. It's a way to discount whatever the victims might have to say about their experiences, or about the Middle East at large.
Schlussel says, "Keep an eye on Centanni's reporting from the region from hereon."
Attacking these liberated journalists is the moral equivalent of spitting on veterans.
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