A Professor of the Binghamton University, New York, has been stabbed to death by a student to death. But none of America’s mainstream news organizations would pick the story. Why?
 Professor Richard T. Antoun |
The victim in this case is a Jew. And before I shed light on attacker's background, let us consider couple of possibilities:
1. Suppose a Jewish or black professor gets stabbed to death by a white Christian student.
No doubt the story would get into the frontpage of many newspapers; some even might suggest Christian/white extremism or racism behind the horrid act.
2. How about a case, in which a Muslim professor gets stabbed by a white Christian or Jewish student at the same university?
The story would undoubtedly make the frontpage news for almost every newspaper, combined, probably, with vociferous condemnation of American/Christian/Jewish extremism, racism, and Islamophobia, not only in America, but also all over the world.
In the present case, the attacker is a Muslim. While it is hard to get any information about the case, because of its lack of coverage by the media, some bloggers are reporting that the attacker, named Abdulsalam Al-Zahrani, 46, a graduate student of Cultural Anthropology at the university, is either from Egypt or Saudi Arabia.
 Abdulsalam Al-Zahrani, attacker of Prof. Richard T. Antoun |
While it can well be a freak criminal incident, but information coming out suggests that, for two reasons, it might well turn out to be a case of Jihad assassination as well.
First, the victim, Professor Emeritus Richard T. Antoun, 77, was a Professor of Anthropolgy, specialized in Middle Eastern and Fundamentalist studies.
Importantly, Antoun is a published author of several books on Islam, including “Understanding Fundamentalism: Christian, Islamic, and Jewish Movements”. It is possible that the attacker al-Zahrani did not like the Islamic part of his research.
Secondly, unconfirmed report claims that Professor Antoun was likely a convert to Judaism, from none other than the ‘religion of peace’, Islam. His grandfather was a Muslim.
Apostasy from Islam, we all know, is publishable by death, which the Saudis observe with strict enforcement.
These factors, individually or combined, can motivate a true Muslim, especially one from Saudi Arabia, to commit the crime for her/his religious conviction. But, for now, we have wait and see for information on the attacker's motive to come out, if at all.
Any how, stabbing of a university professor by his/her student in America is a once is lifetime incident of shocking proportion and deserve to get wide coverage in the media. Media's complete blacking out the news is a disgrace to journalistic ethics, and certainly because, the offender is a Muslim.
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