It’s hard to believe the Islamic holy month of Ramadan is over.
Muslims all over the world are celebrating with feasts and gatherings. But for many Muslims in America, it’s hard to celebrate in the midst of tragic news that the world has turned a blind eye to. I implore media to let go of their bias and report on the huge news story that has been swept under the rug — despite the story having multiple elements of newsworthiness.The incident happened in Dayton, Ohio, when a chemical irritant was sprayed into a mosque causing worshipers to panic and children to cry from fear. “According to fire dispatch communications, a child reported seeing two men with a white can spraying something into a window. That child was brought to the supervising firefighter at the scene,” Dayton Daily News reported. That’s about the only thing the Dayton Daily News reported. The Daily Kos, a political news blog which public figures like President Jimmy Carter and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi have used to voice their views, gave a much more detailed account of the incident.A woman who witnessed the incident told The Daily Kos, “The gas was sprayed into the room where the babies and children were being kept while their mothers prayed together their Ramadan prayers. Panicked mothers ran for their babies, crying for their children so they could flee from the gas that was burning their eyes and throats and lungs.”A paramedic at the scene tried to give oxygen to one child who couldn’t stop crying from shock. The woman said that her children slept with her sobbing all through the night. She was afraid to go back to the mosque. Days earlier, the anti-Muslim, fear-mongering DVD created by Fox News, “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War on the West” had been circulating inside of newspapers and US mail in Ohio and other swing states as part of a political stunt by none other than John McCain supporters.In fact, 28 million copies of the DVD were distributed as a scare tactic to get people to vote for John McCain, The Huffington Post reported. “70 newspapers in swing states have been paid to distribute Obsession this weekend and next, which means not all the DVDs have been delivered yet.”Talk about dirty politics.And so I ask the media, where are you? If you are more interested in covering politics, this story has politics written all over it. If you’re looking for hard news stories filled with investigations, why not investigate if there was an obvious link between the DVDs and the hate crime?This news story is timely, has prominence, is pertinent, has conflict, and in has many human interest stories waiting to be told.There is no reason why this story should remain under the rug, unless the media chooses to knowingly embrace its bias.If this incident had happened in a church or synagogue, would the response have been different? Children were attacked. How then, can we turn a blind eye?Shirien Elamawymass communication senior