On Day 7 of the pro-Palestinian protests on the Columbia University campus, Osama Abuirshaid stopped by the student encampment.

The executive director of American Muslims for Palestine walked through the tent city, then made a fiery speech to the gathered crowd.

“This is not only a genocide that is being committed in Gaza,” Abuirshaid said. “This is also a war on us here in America.”

Forty-eight hours later, Abuirshaid appeared at another campus — George Washington University in Washington, D.C., where he delivered another speech.

  • DolphinMathOP
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    24 days ago

    From the article.

    From 2002 to 2004, Abuirshaid ran the internal newspaper for a pro-Palestinian media organization called Islamic Association for Palestine. The group’s sister fundraising organization, the Holy Land Foundation was designated a terror group in 2001, investigated by the FBI and indicted by the Department of Justice. Ultimately, the foundation’s leaders went to prison for supporting terrorists, and a federal judge later found both groups responsible for funding Hamas.

    Running the newspaper for a group funding Hamas. Sounds like he’s connected to me.

    • SwingingTheLamp@midwest.social
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      24 days ago

      “Connected.” Another weasel word. A genealogy web site that I use can tell me how I’m “connected” to King Charles. (At least 32 degrees of separation, including through many marriages.) What are the specific allegations here?

      • DolphinMathOP
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        24 days ago

        Ran the internal newspaper for a group who funded Hamas.

        • SwingingTheLamp@midwest.social
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          24 days ago

          And Charles was the Prince of Wales before he took the throne. Is that just an interesting factoid, or are we supposed to infer something from it?

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                23 days ago

                Definitely can’t write things where the reader might infer things. That would be outrageous and uncouth!

                • SwingingTheLamp@midwest.social
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                  23 days ago

                  Correct. If journalists know something as a fact, they should state it, and share the source of that fact. If they don’t know something, but have a guess, they can say that it’s their own inference.

                  But to use weasel words to lead the reader to infer things that are not factually supported is, well, not a good look.