Table of Contents
The Shite Mourning ceremony is an annual ceremony in which the Moslem faithful congregate to commemorate the death of the son to the Prophet Mohamed by mourning. This year's event had attracted many "mourners" especially since they were marking the seventh century since the departure of Prophet Mohamed's son. The ceremony however resulted in real mourning for the faithful that had gathered at the mosque of Imam Hussein in the Chahbahar city of Southeast Iran following the attack by two suicide bombers on faithful as they progressed with the ceremony. I will review the reports of Yahoo news, The Telegraph, The Jerusalem Post and The Haaretz
The Jerusalem Post titled their report "Double suicide bombings kill at least thirty eight in Iran" The report starts with a short summary in which the journalist points out from the very onset that the worshippers were attacked while they were in the mosque. One of the bombers reportedly blew him self from outside of the mosque while the other suicide bomber blew him self from within the mosque. The reporter is keen on getting empathy from the readers and that is why he puts emphasis on the fact that the bombers hit on the unsuspecting worshippers at the mosque.
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The Telegraph chooses the title "Suicide bombers kill thirty eight during Iran Shiite mourning ceremony" Right from the heading of one can tell the emphasis of the Telegraph's report is on timing of the bombing. The bombing happened just a day before the faithful commemorated the seventh century anniversary of the death of Prophet Mohamed's son. It brings the irony that faithful had gathered to mourn the death of their prophet's son and the mourning "celebration" turned out to be a real mourning for them.
Darein Ali Akbar, who is the reporter that put the Yahoo story together, tilted his report, "Suicide bombers kill at least thirty eight in southeast Iran" The title suggests that there is a possibility of more deaths that had not been recorded and so the journalist uses the official tally as a lower boundary measure by saying that there was at least thirty eight days.
The Haaretz chooses the title "Suicide bombers kill at least thirty eight near mosque in southeast Iran" The heading is almost similar to the one that Darein used for the yahoo report. The Haaretz report also concentrates on the timing of the attack just like the yahoo report. The report does not directly blame the "soldiers of God" like the Yahoo but it indirectly points to the fact that the group is the most probable protagonists of the attack. The report gives some similar attacks that have been done in the recent years some in the same manner that are all related to the "soldiers of God" militia group.
There is one main bias by all the articles; all of the reports seem to agree to the fact that the "soldiers of God" was the terrorist group responsible for this attack. This is in spite of the fact that the group had not claimed responsibility of the twin bombing. There is little or actually no hard evidence that the group was to blame as the only proof to the assertion is that the group had carried out other attacks before. The most believable report of the four reports is the one done by Darein Ali Akbar for Yahoo. Darein does not just make the assertion that two suicide bombers killed thirty eight worshippers but he goes into the fine details of explaining why the number is thought to be thirty eight. The reporter quotes from reliable sources like when he says the official report of the government was released via the national television.
Rhetorical Fallacies
Two wrongs
The perpetrators of the attack not only bombed innocent people but they did in their houses of worship. The bombers had neither respect for the sanctity of life nor respect for the house of God. (Noah).
Slippery slope
The bombers had no respect for worship. They had previously targeted public places but now their morals have degraded to the point of staging an attack on worshippers in God's house (Quincey).
Red herrings
The fact that the soldiers of God movement had been linked with previous attacks does not mean that they are responsible for this attack. (Acker)
Poisoning the Well
There is little or actually no hard evidence that the group was to blame as the only proof to the assertion is that the group had carried out other attacks before. The reporters seem to be poisoning the well since none of them considers the suspect's side of the story (Acker ).
Popularity and Common Practice
The terrorist group believes that by participating in suicide bombings, they would be benefit themselves by a reward from God. Their actions reveal the fallacy of popularity and common practice (Browne).
Stacked Evidence
All the reporters of seem to concentrate only on the fact that the bombers were targeting the worshippers while none of them gets the other side of the story to either confirm or deny the notion (Acker ).
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Faulty analogy
The yahoo report seems to be seeking an analogy in the mosque bombing with other bombings. The reporter lets the reader know that there had been in fact other incidents of suicide bombings that could not be treated in isolation from this attack .Darein Ali Akbar observes that although there was no group that claimed responsibility for the attack, he believes that the "soldiers of God" extremist group was probably to blame as they had launched similar attacks before.
(Acker ).
Post Hoc
The Jerusalem Post explains that a police officer shot at the suspect before the bomb went off. it is not clear whether the shooting could be the catapult to the bombing or whether the bombing went just as planned by the suicide bombers irrespective of the police shooting.