Bob Beckel, the liberal fifth to Fox News’ “The Five” political panel, used his airtime this week to decry Muslims who want to rage in offense against musician Katy Perry for a perceived slight in her new video — yet say nothing about the Islamic militants who are slaughtering school kids in Nigeria.
In the video, “Dark Horse,” an Allah pendant worn by one of the characters is seen disappearing in fire. Ms. Perry said she meant no disrespect. But a petition launched on Change.org calling for the video-streaming company to remove the offending image garnered tens of thousands of signatures — and within hours, YouTube quietly announced had edited out the offensive portion of the video.
Shazad Iqbal, 22, who created the petition, issued a victory statement shortly after the edit went through, the Jerusalem Post reported.
He said: “I’m thrilled to let you all know the name of Allah has been removed from the ’Dark Horse’ video. We couldn’t have done it without everyone’s support so I thank each and every one of you deeply, our voices have been heard! God bless you all,” the Jerusalem Post said.
The edit was slight; the pendant symbol that was at the center of the controversy was actually removed.
To Mr. Beckel, however, the whole argument was a debacle.
He said, during his Fox News appearance on Wednesday night, of the Muslim community’s outrage at the video: “What they’re not petitioning worldwide to do is to protest the fact that 59 Christian kids were killed in their sleep by a bunch of Islamic cowards, and once again, not one of you — not one head of state of a Muslim country or cleric or imam has said anything. I’m not even going to question it anymore, you’re a bunch of cowards,” Mediaite reported.
Mr. Beckel also faulted the Obama administration for remaining similarly silent on the same issue.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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