The Daily Mail

The Daily Mail is a British tabloid. One of their later articles talks about the construction of a mosque near ‘Ground Zero’ in New York. They portray the building of the mosque as something along the lines of insensitive, plastering the page with the WTC being blown up on 9/11, an event which took place nearly 9 years ago. What’s more annoying is that the mosque is being built 2 blocks away from ground zero, which, in my eyes, should negate any inkling cause for a backlash. This wasn’t the case however, and those narrow-minded Americans started waving protest signs around, pointing out how stupid they are.

Articles of this nature should not be allowed to be commented on – but this is The Daily Mail, and the degree to which they can further poison their own articles with fogged and twisted opinion is limited. So what do they do? They allow readers of the site to post their own, tainting the article with the general consensus of the target audience, and the opinion of those at The Daily Mail. Let’s read the most ‘popular’ comments:

“This is bad. No-one said they couldn’t build their mosque – but to allow them to build it so close to Ground Zero AND then to plan an opening on the anniversary of the attack is beyond belief.”

As comments of this particular nature go, this reader’s post is fairly tame. Nevertheless, the narrow-mindedness seeps through as the reader describes building a mosque and opening it on the anniversary of 9/11 as being ‘beyond belief’. Supposing the 9/11 attacks were even orchestrated by Muslim’s, the attack is not representative of the majority of the millions of Muslims living in America and around the world.

“Whoever came up with this idea ought to be…..sent to space. ONE WAY TICKET.”

As the second most upvoted comment on this article, it’s pretty shallow. Without being blasphemous and downright racist towards Muslims, this comment gives you an idea of the sorts of people who read this Daily Mail monstrosity. Opinionated, narrow-minded, ignorant, self-righteous, and stupid comes to mind. And this is the second most read paper in the United Kingdom.

P.S. Here are some of the worst rated comments. Comments carrying opinion which I’d expect any sane person to hold.

“Oh gosh, how Islamaphobic can alot of these comments be! This mosque is not going to be built on Ground Zero – it’s a few blocks away. Islam was NOT to blame for 9/11 – instead it was the wardped ideology of whoever did it. Nothing about what happened on that day was from the correct teachings of Islam or Islamic in any way.”

“So, the very fact that people are offended by the idea of a ‘mosque’ (which is not even on the site!) is offensive to EVERY single Muslim on this planet. Get a grip people, WAKE UP! Many Muslims died on 9/11 too.”

“Good, it’s about time people realised the 9/11 attackers no more represent Islam than the IRA represent christianity. Freedom of religion, freedom of speech and standing up to the bigotry, intolerance and borderline racism of the opponents.

Well done Obama, a victory for common sense.”