It's not easy living with a death Fatwā that displays your photograph. That's the Islamic extremist version of an Old West "Wanted" poster that promises eternal salvation to the person who carries out the death sentence. British novelist Sir Salman Rushdie earned a death Fatwā in 1989, compliments of Iranian Ayatollah Khomeini. Rushdie published a book entitled "The Satanic Verses" which the Ayatollah deemed blasphemous. Afterward, Rushdie spent years in seclusion and required a round-the-clock security detail. Danish writer, Kåre Bluitgen acquired a death Fatwā in 2005 when cartoons from his book, "Illustration of Muslim Prophets" were published in a Denmark newspaper. The cartoons offended the entire Muslim world and extremist clerics wasted no time in ordering his death. Danish police were subsequently posted outside Bluitgen's home and place of business to protect against the thousands of death threats he received. Given the abundance of Islamic extremists willing to carry out death Fatwās for a shot at eternal notoriety and the company of 72 virgins in Heaven, it's understandable why those with death Fatwās hanging over their heads will spend the rest of their lives with one eye looking over their shoulders. A death Fatwā triggers a lifetime of worry!
I raise the subject of death Fatwās because another notable one was issued last week, and the main accomplice in the issuance was none other than America's own right-wing propaganda machine, FOX News.
A retired member of Navy SEAL Team 6, the special operations unit credited with raiding Osama bin Laden's compound last year in Pakistan, is set to publish a memoir of the operation in a book titled, "NO EASY DAY: The Firsthand Account of the Mission that Killed Bin Laden." While publication is scheduled for this coming September 11th by Penguin Group book publishers, the memoir is set to be released under the pseudonym "Mark Owens" to protect its author from reprisals by Islamic extremists seeking revenge over Bin Laden's death. That precaution is now worthless because FOX news and its writer, Justin Fishel – yeah, the same network and writer who constantly criticize the Obama Administration for allegedly endangering military personnel by leaking classified information, revealed author Mark Owens' true identity (military classified information) to the world on August 23rd, and sure enough, a death Fatwā in Owens' true name shortly followed. Thanks to FOX news, he and his family will spend the rest of their lifetime looking over their shoulders too!
At first blush, it would appear out of character for FOX news to go out of its way to endanger a member of the military family, but propaganda machines by nature are not the face they present to the public, and FOX news is no exception. FOX is the mouthpiece of America's right-wing, neo-conservative zealots and the Navy SEAL's book, which reportedly paints a favorable picture of the Obama Administration's role in ordering the raid on bin Laden's compound, does not support the right-wing's narrative that President Obama is a weak commander-in-chief who lacks commitment to fight global terrorism. So FOX news jumped into action and solicited an Islamic death Fatwā to silence a voice that does not conform to the desires of its right-wing masters. That's not 'fair and balanced', the mantra FOX news likes to claim for itself. That's despicable!
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