NPR’s All Things Considered had an interesting segment yesterday on the 9 slain Turkish “activists” from the Mavi Marmara. There are new details in here about their backgrounds, and it’s almost comical to listen as reporter Julia Rooke keeps trying throughout the segment to avoid drawing the obvious conclusion that all of these activists belonged to radical Islamic sects. She characterizes them as “very religious,” “very conservative,” etc. She describes the scene at the funerals, with children calling their fathers “martyrs,” and vowing to become martyrs themselves, without giving any sense that this might be a little … odd.

Finally Robert Siegel asks Rooke if she thinks it would be fair to describe them as extremely religious, and she manages to say the word “radical” at the end of the discussion.

It took a real effort, but even NPR now admits that the passengers who rioted and attacked IDF soldiers might just possibly sorta kinda maybe be called “radical Islamists.” Ya think?

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