During the cold war intelligence analysts paid close attention to Soviet ideology and rhetoric, attempting to view the West through Soviet eyes. We were helped by Soviet studies in the universities and by journalists.
Today it seems that the journalistic community, fearing political incorrectness, is unwilling to report the militant Islamic point of view as it really is. For example, check this posting from GetReligion:
I have not read a full translation of the 48-minute video, but apparently it’s a long encouragement — aided by the threat of force, sure — for Americans to renounce Christianity and convert to Islam. It’s almost as if al-Qaeda is trying to tell Americans something. It’s almost like they think this a religious war. It’s almost like the pattern of forced conversions or threats of violence add up to something.
Let’s see what the mainstream media do in the wake of this latest religious missive. Hmm, that’s a curious headline from the Associated Press’ Salah Nasrawi — “Latest al-Qaida message seen as PR bid”:
The new al-Qaida video featuring an American calling for his countrymen to convert to Islam raised fears it signaled an imminent attack, but experts in the region said Sunday it is more likely a bid to soften the terror group’s image.
Toward the end of the cold war we had two generations of scholars, journalists, intelligence analysts and a few politicians who understood the Soviet point of view. As Mollie, at GetReligion, points out, we’re not getting much help from the MSM. This is one of my reasons for reading GetReligion faithfully. The MSM, not understanding religion, mis-reports much of the news.
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