John Stemberger, who represented Rifqa Bary in her Florida dependency case, has been given space in the Orlando Sentinel to complain that the paper never took any of his wild allegations seriously, saying the paper’s coverage was “consistently biased and disingenuous” and accusing the paper of having a “religious-like commitment to protect Islam from any and all examination or criticism.”
Of course, one reason for the Sentinel’s failure to take Stemberger’s allegations seriously might have something to do with the fact there was essentialy no evidence to support any thing he said. But Stemberger doesn’t see it that way:
[T]he Sentinel never quoted directly from the Koran or other Muslim holy books, stating what Islam clearly teaches about punishment of apostate believers, or that the United Nations reports 5,000 Islamic honor killings each year. The Sentinel also ignored the Facebook page with Rifqa’s photo that included 120 members from Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia and Columbus and listed its purpose as: “We need to kill her.”
There are millions of Muslims in the U.S. who are peaceful and law-abiding citizens who should be fully embraced as fellow Americans. However, there is a growing minority of Muslims in our country who are radical and dangerous. We need to protect the former and expose the later. The Sentinel, in caving to political correctness, has refused to make this critical distinction.
“Political correctness”? That sure does seem to be the word of the day when it comes to right-wingers complaining about Islam.
You know what else the Sentinel never reported? This:
An attorney suing Dollar Rent-A-Car has apologized for filing a lawsuit that characterized the Irish as hopelessly tethered to pubs and pints and unfit to drive the highways of America.
John Stemberger admitted he made a mistake and promised Wednesday to rewrite the negligence lawsuit he filed in March.
The suit was filed on behalf of the family of Carmel Elizabeth Cunningham, an Irish woman who was killed last year when her boyfriend, Sean McGrath, crashed their rental car. He is also Irish.
Prosecutors say McGrath, 33, was drunk at the time of the crash and have charged him with manslaughter. A warrant has been issued for his arrest.
In the suit, Stemberger claimed Dollar “knew or should have known about the unique cultural and ethnic customs existing in Ireland which involve the regular consumption of alcohol at `Pubs’ as a major component to Irish social life.”
He went on to charge that Dollar “knew or should have known that Sean McGrath would have a high propensity to drink alcohol.”
All I can conclude from this is that the Sentinel’s commitment to protect Stemberger “from any and all examination or criticism has compromised its ability to objectively understand and report the news in this case.”
