BlogWonks

The lamestream media told you:

Chinese paramilitary police kicked and beat journalists who were covering a deadly assault by “Muslim separatists” on police that left 16 dead in a remote area of the vast nation.

Writing for the McClatchy news syndicate, reporter Tim Johnson says, “A top Communist Party leader in this gas-rich region, meanwhile, said assailants had left literature at the scene of an attack a day earlier pledging ‘holy war’ in China.”

The Uninvited Ombudsman notes however that:

It is unclear whether “holy war,” published in quotes, was actually “jihad,” a commonly used Muslim word the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) officially recommends not using in news reports.

According to knowledgeable Muslim sympathizers, “jihad” simply means “struggle,” and is a good word. The meaning gets confused however, because radical Muslim Islamofascists waging war on western civilization use the word as part of a campaign where women, men and children wrap themselves in nails and explosives and blow themselves up on public streets, killing innocent people, as part of their “struggle.” The actions give a bad name to Muslims, Islamofascism, and the word “jihad,” and SPJ seeks to avoid creating unfair stereotypes.

(From SPJ: “Avoid using terms such as ‘jihad’ unless you are certain of their precise meaning and include the context when they are used in quotations. The basic meaning of “jihad” is to exert oneself for the good of Islam and to better oneself.”)

The Turkic-speaking Uighur Muslims near the Pakistan/Russia frontier are distinct from the rest of Communist China in most respects.

In the interest of fairness, openness and clarifying any potential conflicts of interest, the Uninvited Ombudsman notes that he is a 20-year member of SPJ, which did not approve of this memo.