Your special report on Feb. 8 about the Bridgeview mosque disturbed me, both as a former journalist and as a Catholic seminarian studying Christian-Islamic relations. Your special report presented the mosque and those who worship there as radicals who hate the U.S. The report will only fan hatred toward the mosque and Muslims as a group, rather than foster understanding.
But for two brief quotes, you fail to present anyone who will defend the mosque leaders or explain why they attend the mosque regularly. Do the leaders you paint as extremists help anyone? Is the mosque doing anything positive in the neighborhood?
Your story implies that people only attend the mosque because it preaches hatred toward America, which I find hard to believe–especially since the membership is made up of Palestinian immigrants who have built homes for themselves here.
You repeatedly mention how mosque leaders preach against American values. Your story implies that they are preaching hatred toward America. But many Catholic priests and protestant ministers preach repeatedly against many of the values we celebrate in this nation–values like individualism, consumerism and sexual promiscuity.
While you report that women are asked to cover their heads, you never report on the value of this religious custom from the perspective of women who choose to cover their heads.
You make several connections between mosque leaders and the Muslim Brotherhood, and many connections between members of the Muslim Brotherhood and terrorism. By implication, your story argues that the people who attend the mosque are supportive of the violence perpetuated in the name of the brotherhood.
Your special report refers several times to federal investigations into Muslim leaders or societies that have led to no criminal charges. This unfairly taints the people and groups that have been investigated.
