HOLTON: John Stewart Is A Major-League Hypocrite

Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart, who unfortunately is evidently a news source for all too many younger Americans, has had a lot to say in the wake of the Paris terror attacks.

We haven’t disagreed with everything that Stewart has said, but we do feel compelled to point out Stewart’s glaring hypocrisy.

First of all, Stewart gave a tribute to the victims and lamented the attack in a monologue delivered at the outset of his show:

Certainly nothing wrong here.

Other than the fact that, like just about everyone else in the US high-brow media, we can’t help but notice that Stewart declined to show any of the cartoons that made the Charlie Hebdo courageous in the first place.

And, just like the Obama administration, Stewart carefully avoided making any reference whatsoever to Islamic Jihad, which is, of course the underlying doctrine behind the attacks. There has been no shortage of others in the media with the honesty and courage to point that out.

But not Jon Stewart.

Stewart was not through though.

In a completely distasteful and inappropriate piece, Stewart correctly lambasted the Obama administration for not sending a high-ranking official to attend the Paris rally in the wake of the attacks. It is almost certain that all President Obama was doing on Sunday was watching the NFL playoffs and we know that Vice President Biden was at home in Delaware.

It’s unfortunate that Stewart felt compelled to lampoon the French with tired, old bigoted stereotypes in the process of commenting on this.

It seems to us that Stewart would have been much better served to have used his sarcastic wit against the Jihadists and their supporters in the Islamic world.

But we all know why Stewart didn’t “go there.”

This harkens back to perhaps the most disturbing aspect of Jon Stewart’s gross hypocrisy in this whole affair and the subject of Islamic Jihad over the long-term.

Back in 1988, an author named Salman Rushdie wrote a book named The Satanic Verses. Many in the Islamic world believed that the book blasphemed the prophet Mohammed.

The leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa calling on Muslims to kill Rushdie for writing the book. That fatwa is still in force and Rushdie has essentially had to go into hiding and have round-the-clock heavy security ever since. Doubtless, Rushdie will have to live in fear for the rest of his life.

One of the people who echoed the Ayatollah Khomeini’s fatwa on Salman Rushdie was a man named Yusuf Islam. Yusuf Islam used to be known as Cat Stevens until he converted to Islam decades ago:

In 2010, Jon Stewart held a rally in Washington, DC, the so-called “Restore Sanity” rally. One of the headliner entertainers for the rally was none other than Yusuf Islam/Cat Stevens.

Salman Rushdie himself talked to Stewart, asked him not to have Yusuf Islam take part in the rally. Stewart ignored him. Rushdie claims that Stewart later admitted it was probably a mistake to have Yusuf Islam at the rally, but Stewart certainly never admitted that publicly and never apologized.

We’ll say one thing for Jon Stewart: he certainly has a lot of gall.

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