Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily columnist Michael Brown is on a reasonableness kick again.
In his June 16 column, Brown surprisingly holds both sides to account for extreme political rhetoric, concluding: "It’s time we speak with greater responsibility, measuring our words carefully, considering the implications of our accusations and pushing people to constructive, rather than destructive, action." And his his June 30 column, Brown argued against the right-wing urge to defend every utterance President Trump makes, particularly his vile slurs of Mika Brzezinski, stating that "for us to defend his every tweet is to make ourselves into stooges more than supporters, helping no one in the end."
Which is all very well and good -- the world needs more commentators who don't play favorites when the chips are down. Problem is, Brown can't bring himself to do that consistently.
Brown's rhetoric is much less responsible when it comes to LGBT-related issues -- he did, after all, write an anti-gay book called "A Queer Thing Happened to America" -- engaging in lazy stereotyping, inflammatory rhetoric ("Transanity!") and pushing falsehoods.
Brown's rhetoris is also less than responsible when it comes to the subject of Islam. He huffed in a May 24 column:
And we need to call on Muslim leaders across the world to denounce Islamic terror and to combat it, without caveat or qualification. That means that if a Muslim suicide bomber blows up people in Israel or England or France, the action must be condemned unequivocally.
Islamic theologians and political leaders must unite and say, “That is not Islam, and that is a hell-bound murderer, not a martyr.”
While some Muslim leaders have done this with consistency (although, more rarely when it comes to attacks against Israelis) all too many others have not.
[...]
Only Muslim leaders can end this debate. If Islam is not, by nature, a violent religion, then the top Muslim voices across the world must denounce it and combat it. And they must help the West combat it. Is this too much to ask?
Nope. But apparently it's too much to ask for Brown to do some basic research before making such a claim. A Muslim college student has compiled a 712-page list of Muslim leaders denouncing acts of terrorism (posted online here).
Responsible rhetoric is a good thing. Brown just needs to walk the walk a lot more than he does before he starts lecturing the rest of us about it.
