The Bay Ridge Courier is an anti-Muslim newspaper. It may not be what they’re aiming for, but it’s the end result—its only material coverage of the sizable Muslim community in Bay Ridge has been a near-weekly forum for hate-speech.
The problem starts on the editorial page.
The latest article from The Race-Baiting Shavana Abruzzo has arguably provoked a stronger counter-reaction than much of her other waste, but I cannot arguably say it is more bigoted and ignorant than the rest of her body of work. It’s not even the first hate-article of hers that the Courier has published this month.
In case you’re new to the dystopian alternate reality of the Courier’s anti-Muslim columnist, here’s a short primer:
- She has a column called “A Britisher’s View” that appears in the weekly Bay Ridge Courier newspaper, its sister publications in the Courier Life network (Bay News, etc), and BrooklynDaily.com.
- She’s really, really obsessed with the Muslims that are here to kill and/or impose their oppressive way of life on the rest of us.
- Which is all Muslims, obviously. There’s really no effort to hide the fact that in her view, Muslims are either terrorists or terrorist-sympathizers, but probably terrorists. Whether you’re the leader of ISIS or a woman walking a stroller down the street, its all the same to The Race-Baiting Shavana Abruzzo.
- She goes out of her way to twist the very names of Islam into demeaning insults, which include “Franken-Muslims,” “Islamo-scum,” “Islamo-lunacy,” and Huma Abedin’s “icky Islamo-resume,” to name a few just from this past summer alone. (Sidebar: if these are the ones that made it to print, what did her editor say “No” to?)
- Courier Life has been giving her this platform for years.
I imagine she’s the type of person that wears her key card for the basket of deplorables like a badge of honor. On one level, that’s her lifestyle choice—I say, go on being a paranoid white supremacist on 4Chan, or on lunatic-fringe Facebook groups where that sort of thing is tolerated and encouraged.
But I have two questions for Les and Jennifer Goodstein, the owners of the Community Newspaper Group, which publishes the Bay Ridge Courier, along with the Brooklyn Paper, Brooklyn Family magazine, and others:
- Why do you make room in several of your advertiser-supported newspapers for a weekly hate-speech column, and
- Assuming you mean the Bay Ridge Courier to be representative of the entire Bay Ridge community, why is there almost no other coverage of the Muslim and Arab portions of that community?
News coverage about Muslims rarely appears in the Courier.
Such articles aren’t nonexistent, but they are very rare. I had to go all the way back to July—more than two months—to find a non-bilious article about a Muslim in Bay Ridge on the BrooklynDaily.com web site. This one is about Sherihan Moustafa, a woman born in Egypt and raised in Bensonhurst who started a fashion company that caters to Muslim women. It’s the sort of story about a mom-and-pop-style independent business that should be in the Courier’s wheelhouse.
But when it comes to Muslims and Arabs in our community, such stories are very few and far between.
And to make matters worse, the links to “similar stories” suggest four more hate-speech articles:
- Never forget 9/11, which was Muslims’ fault
- Community Board 18 says no to booze, because Muslims
- Never forget the attacks on Paris, which was Muslims’ fault
- Muslims will kill us all before catastrophic climate change
Yeah—the similarities to the entrepreneurship of Sherihan Moustafa are striking.
The Courier’s hostility to Muslims in the Bay Ridge community needs to come to an end.
Most importantly, the people who run the newsroom need to stop treating Bay Ridge Muslims like they’re invisible, or a threat, or both. Every time I walk out my front door, I see Muslim neighbors that are a valued part of my community. When I pick up the local paper, I need to start seeing them in local news coverage. Radio-silence is no longer acceptable from the Courier—and hate-speech certainly isn’t, either.
As far as The Race-Baiting Shavana Abruzzo, I honestly don’t care whether she keeps her job or not. In fact, it would be unethical for her bosses to fire her for doing exactly the job they’ve asked her to do for all of these years. But its difficult to see how the editors and publishers can continue to offer her their platform as means to vilify a portion of their audience on a weekly basis.
Thank you, Brian, for exposing this “news”paper for precisely what it is!
Shavana was right in all respects. If Americans keep refusing to tie the knots and draw the right conclusions, they are going to face big problems in the future. The fact that a notorious radical immediately launched a campaign on facebook to smear Shavana, get her banned from her job and thus attacking the freedom of speech, says it all. The fact that the same person campaigned against a revealing video about women’s rights in the ME of Nonie Darwish says it all. Double standards are rife in those circles.
Whenever someone complains about PC, I check their comment history for nuggets like this:
https://disqus.com/home/discussion/infolib/rep_steve_king_labeled_white_supremacist_for_pointing_out_european_contributions_to_civilization/#comment-2795176406
“yeah? Is telling the truth racism these days? Then name and list up all
the inventions made by blacks, Asians, others. We’ll gladly admit our
defeat if you can prove your point.”
Anyhow, back to your original comment.
I’m struggling to come to the conclusion you want me to. Can you be more specific? Who has an agenda and who doesn’t? Who isn’t a law abiding patriot? People need to know!
well, if you live with an open mind you might have noticed that white guilt, or white bashing is the new dada of multicultural societies these days, and I refuse to be part of that mea culpa game. I think there is nothing wrong with being proud of your achievements, especially not when they are degraded with certain political goals. As for your question. do some research, since you’re so good at it, and the truth will reveal itself
speaking about restricting free speech! PC at its worst
NY.-Based Egyptian-American Activist Ayat Oraby Calls for Economic Boycott of Copts: The Crescent Must Always Be on Top of the Cross.
http://www.memri.org/clip/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/5691.htm
Worth noting that this organization – MEMRI – has received many accusations of partiality. That, of course, does not automatically mean that this article is inaccurate but it does suggest that broader research might be useful.
of course, it is a handicap when you don’t speak the language, but the video is widely spread in the media, also in media that have a reputation of meticulous fact checking
Information but.. unrelated to Bay Bridge. She’s talking about the political climate in Egypt.. the undemocratic rise and coup that Sisi has come to power on.. and she does not support a breaking away from the Egyptian government and country of a Coptic separatist state.. And she says life in America is good and filled with Freedoms. It sounds rational and a sound view to have. People who are informed about Egypt may disagree with her view however. It’s not SO alarming.
Information but.. unrelated to Bay Bridge. She’s talking about the political climate in Egypt.. the undemocratic rise and coup that Sisi has come to power on.. and she does not support a breaking away from the Egyptian government and country of a Coptic separatist state.. And she says life in America is good and filled with Freedoms. It sounds rational and a sound view to have. People who are informed about Egypt may disagree with her view however. It’s not SO alarming. . .
I have no problem with this coverage, I have lived here for my entire life and I am unhappy with the way the neighborhood is changing.
Ron, I’ve been here for many years as well. Maybe it’s time for you to move on.
Great article. Glad someone finally wrote something. Her articles are horrible.
Well I’m glad Shavana Abruzzo is no longer writing for Courier-Life.
I find her diatribes, distortions and hate-filled viewpoints hypocritical and repulsive. Instead of bringing diverse people together, she chose to vilify the many for the horrid actions of the few. Hate is part of the problem, and her article, “Council’s declaration not worth a penny,” demonstrates another example of the disease of hate infecting her.