AP: Public relations for the mullahs

In case we needed any more evidence that mainstream media in the west are engaged in a deliberate campaign to obscure the nature of Islam, tonight we have the Associated Press giving us an article with this headline:

Iranian leader urges more papal protests

Here's the article's lede:

CAIRO, Egypt - Al-Qaida in Iraq warned Pope Benedict XVI on Monday that its war against Christianity and the West will go on until Islam takes over the world, and Iran's supreme leader called for more protests over the pontiff's remarks on Islam.

Now, I appreciate the way AP Writer Lee Keath puts the jihadis' dream of a worldwide caliphate front and center--it's about time that vision got some scrutiny. It's more prevalent than most casual observers of the clash of civilizations realize, mainly because so many western reporters turn off the mics whenever Muslim leaders start mumbling about how a totally green planet wouldn't be such a bad thing (and they don't mean it in the Al Gore sense). But Al Qaida in Iraq is not what this article is supposedly about, if we're to believe the headline. Plus, what Zarqawi's understudies are spouting should probably take a back seat to the pronouncements of the bearded ones leading the "Death to America" chants while their subterranean minions spin enriched uranium for the purposes of the Religion of Peace. (And while Iran's president is about to treat the U.N. to another earful of mendacity and Persian chest-thumping in the hope that he can just string things along until Bush is out of office.)

Don't hold your breath waiting to find out what exactly "Iran's supreme leader" said, because the writer goes on for another seven hundred words without mentioning him. Perhaps the editor who wrote the headline didn't read the entire article--it's been known to happen. But enough misguided benefit-of-the-doubt. Whether by an editor or by a writer or by an entire staff of fifth-column, Islamist shills, we are being fed pap in place of facts.

Let's jump down to the nineteenth and twentieth paragraphs of the article, where we discover that ...

In Iran, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei used the comments to call for protests against the United States.

Sorry to interrupt, but it is worth noting here that we are once again told that the most significant thing about Khamenei's speech is that he called for "protests." Read on:

He argued that while the pope may have been deceived into making his remarks [Ed. -- I have no clue what this bit of conspiracy theory is about, and the article offers nothing to clarify it. I can only presume that Khamenei is talking about Satan.], the words give the West an "excuse for suppressing Muslims" by depicting them as terrorists.

"Those who benefit from the pope's comments and drive their own arrogant policies should be targeted with attacks and protests," he said, referring to the United States.

We are to be "targeted with attacks and protests"? Oh. Well, nevermind the attacks, tell me more about the protest part.

Let's try a new headline for the AP, and see if they pick it up:

Iranian leader urges more attacks against the West

There, fixed that for ya'.