NEW YORK, NY, Sept. 11 (DPI) — More than 1,600 reader comments trailed a CNN.com column today which declared “American Muslims Live in Fear. ” The anecdotal column by a Muslim-American woman was prominently posted on the news site for much of the day — the anniversary of the September 11 attacks — and next to a breaking news report that protesters in Egypt had overrun the American embassy there.
CNN barely filters its comment boards, and the responses show it. Nearly all of the comments broadly fell into three categories: 1) Personal back-and-forths between readers on the virtues and shortcomings of various religions, especially Islam 2) If the columnist and her Muslim colleagues are afraid in the US, “perhaps they should move back to the Middle East.” 3) CNN is a the house organ of terrorism apologists; more than a few of these posters cited the irony of the US Embassy takeover in Cairo on the same day.
For a sampling: