The Slandering of NY Jet Oday Aboushi
July 16, 2013 10:57 AM   Subscribe

In the fifth round of the NFL Draft, the NY Jets selected a guard/tackle from the University of Virginia. His name is Oday Aboushi. While not a first round pick, Aboushi has garnered a lot of media attention. Why? Oday Aboushi is a Muslim Palestinian. MLB.com's New Media Coordinator Jonathan Mael compared Aboushi to Aaron Hernandez,the former New England Patriots tight end charged with murder.

On Yahoo! Sports, a writer accused Aboushi of “anti-Semitic activism” and compared Aboushi with those who traffic in “anti-gay, anti-black, anti-immigrant, sexist [speech]” and asks, “Does the NFL want its image associated with prejudice, violence or fundamentalism on any level?”

David Horowitz' FrontPage Magazine initiated this story after Aboushi spoke at the El-Bireh Palestine Society annual convention.

Aboushi has responded:

"It is upsetting to see people try and tarnish my reputation without even knowing me," he said in a statement issued by the team. "But I appreciate all the support I have been getting from people of all backgrounds across the city and country."

more:
The online defamation of Oday Aboushi.
posted by MisantropicPainforest (45 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
Hopefully it will soon be MLB.com's former New Media Coordinator Jonathan Mael, considering how little of an understanding of new media he actually seems to possess.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 11:02 AM on July 16, 2013 [5 favorites]


American-Arab group calls on MLB to fire Jonathan Mael for smearing Jets’ Oday Aboushi

Of course, by being a New Media Coordinator who goes to Twitter to say:

"The @nyjets are a disgrace of an organization. The Patriots have Aaron Hernandez, the Jets have Oday Aboushi."

They may not have to work very hard to get him fired.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 11:03 AM on July 16, 2013 [13 favorites]


Ugh. Ugh ugh ugh.
posted by Sticherbeast at 11:04 AM on July 16, 2013


A Muslim in professional sports? That'll never work! Just ask Lew Alcindor and Cassius Clay.
posted by Atom Eyes at 11:06 AM on July 16, 2013 [15 favorites]


One tweet and an article from a far-right website? That's the smear campaign?
posted by gwint at 11:06 AM on July 16, 2013 [2 favorites]


Is there a site somewhere collecting terrible apologies? From the 'compared' link: "I apologize to the @nyjets organization and to (Oday) Aboushi for my insensitive and offensive tweet... The comparison was beyond inappropriate and did not reflect my true beliefs."

It did not reflect your true beliefs, huh. Then why did you say it? That's only a half step up from "Mistakes were made" and "I'm sorry that you were offended."
posted by troika at 11:08 AM on July 16, 2013 [4 favorites]


I just can't get my head around the fact that people like Horowitz and Mael actually exist, and aren't just the occasional creepy crawly hiding under a rock, but are seemingly normal people, walking around and getting hired for jobs like "New Media Coordinator."

Seriously, I assumed inbreeding or brain damage was necessary to be like that, but apparently it can happen to anybody.
posted by Ickster at 11:08 AM on July 16, 2013 [2 favorites]


Do we really want someone in professional football that will drop zero-day exploits?

(oh, wait, it's the letter O, not the number 0? nevermind then)
posted by el io at 11:08 AM on July 16, 2013 [2 favorites]


Does the NFL want its image associated with prejudice, violence or fundamentalism on any level?

Where does one even start?
posted by DU at 11:09 AM on July 16, 2013 [26 favorites]


There are already plenty of muslim football players so why start with this random guy? Oh, yeah, I forgot there was nothing between your jerking knee and mouth.
posted by selfnoise at 11:10 AM on July 16, 2013


Because first you let there be a Palestinian-American normal guy who plays football, then comes people believing Palestinians are normal human beings. and it's all downhill from there.

Can't have that. Not in America.

There's a narrative to maintain and foreign policy at stake.
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 11:10 AM on July 16, 2013 [9 favorites]


I've long considered David Horowitz to be someone to be intentionally ignored. He says ridiculous inflammatory things and should not be given any of the attention he craves. Beyond that, this whole kerfuffle does not extend much beyond just another example of an asshole saying stupid things on Twitter. Mael should be terminated.

That seems to be where this story should end. As far as I can tell, two unacceptable public statements were made about Oday and his team and the ADL effectively countered such ignorant statements.

I have not seen any substantial or even noticeable anti-Oday Aboushi sentiments in the general NFL fanbase or elsewhere. I'd hate for this story to be made into anything more than what it is because Oday, who seems to be a pleasant person in the interviews I have heard, should not be the "Muslim" guy. He should be respected for his play on the field.
posted by dios at 11:11 AM on July 16, 2013 [5 favorites]


Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey: what on Earth are you talking about? How do you get that from this story? Don't make this into something it is not.
posted by dios at 11:13 AM on July 16, 2013


Atom Eyes: Or the more recent Nazem Kadri and Nail Yakupov.
posted by cmfletcher at 11:25 AM on July 16, 2013


Well, it's not just one tweet and a winger. The story is making it's way through the more popular conservative publications such as Commentary and blogs such as Powerline, which means it's likely to become a big deal within conservative circles. Sure, it's fever swamp stuff, but the fever swamp runs the show on the right now. I would not be entirely surprised if one of the modern-day loonies in Congress (say, Ted Cruz) put in his 2 cents.
posted by zombieflanders at 11:29 AM on July 16, 2013 [1 favorite]


zombieflanders, did you read those two pieces you link to? They both basically say "There's not much to this story"
posted by gwint at 11:46 AM on July 16, 2013


One tweet and an article from a far-right website? That's the smear campaign?

I know it is a lot to ask to read all the links in a FPP before commenting, so I won't ask it.

I will ask you to, however, read the FPP, not just the title and initial blurb, before making erroneous statements.
posted by MisantropicPainforest at 11:47 AM on July 16, 2013 [1 favorite]


Why, it's the Jonathan Mael who was the president of the Yeshiva University Political Awareness Club.

The Club's involved in student trips to Washington for the "annual Yeshiva University Political
Action Committee lobbying mission to Washington, DC.

Organized by the YUPAC board and by AIPAC...."

"After a long day of lobbying on the Hill, students’ enthusiasm was palpable as they returned to AIPAC headquarters for dinner."

posted by ambient2 at 12:02 PM on July 16, 2013 [3 favorites]


And here's a link to that editorial that seems to 404:

http://admin2.collegepublisher.com/preview/mobile/2.2469/2.2483/1.855183
posted by slater at 12:10 PM on July 16, 2013


And so, the NFL, its media, and its fanbase continue to be a microcosm for America's broken soul.
posted by dry white toast at 12:23 PM on July 16, 2013 [2 favorites]


I'd call this is a tempest in a teapot but I can't find a teapot small enough.
posted by gwint at 12:27 PM on July 16, 2013 [1 favorite]


And so, the NFL, its media, and its fanbase continue to be a microcosm for America's broken soul.

They all seem only peripherally involved in this story.
posted by yoink at 12:35 PM on July 16, 2013 [3 favorites]


Yeah, I mean, if you want to get all "sportsball is the worst!!1," at least get the right sportsball. This guy works for MLB.
posted by troika at 12:36 PM on July 16, 2013 [3 favorites]


One tweet and an article from a far-right website? That's the smear campaign?

No, the Tweet alone would have been enough.
posted by Frayed Knot at 12:42 PM on July 16, 2013


Why the hell was a MLB media guy opining on football. I mean, I know the All Star Break's a little slow, but gees...
posted by maryr at 1:04 PM on July 16, 2013 [3 favorites]


Whole Foods?
posted by maryr at 1:25 PM on July 16, 2013


I still confuse David Talbot and David Horowitz because of Horowitz' bewildering run as a columnist for Salon.com through the early aughts, before that site became a silly caricature of itself. Dude has always been a toolbox full of loose screws. Color me unsurprised he's libeling Palestinian Americans.
posted by echocollate at 1:29 PM on July 16, 2013


I've long considered David Horowitz to be someone to be intentionally ignored.

A few years back, Horowitz helped this piece of shit launch her career as a right-wing "journalist" by running a smear campaign against a locally beloved Peace Studies professor, alleging him to be the a leader of a violent terrorist organization. Horowitz actively reaches out and does evil in the world. Fuck him.
posted by Pope Guilty at 3:42 PM on July 16, 2013 [2 favorites]


dios: Read up on Horowitz. This is his noxious stock in trade.
posted by NoxAeternum at 4:14 PM on July 16, 2013 [1 favorite]


"Horowitz actively reaches out and does evil in the world. Fuck him."

Horowitz is less influential than he once was, thank god, but I still hate him with a passion unequaled by that which I feel about very few other public figures. I hate him for all the more obvious reasons, but if it were just those, he'd be in a lesser category with people like Coulter.

No, what elevates my hatred to superlative levels is that he is, at his core, a radical, someone for whom intense opposition is his raison d'être. He was a youthful radical socialist, now he's an old radical conservative. And that could change! People like him are prone to conversion experiences, to finding a different set of black-and-white answers to all of life's questions if the new cast of heroes and villains hit all the right psychological notes — probably notes of a song that's been echoing in his head since childhood.

He's not just wrong in his beliefs, he's wrong about how he believes. He is, to me, wrongness personified.

So I take particular delight in being quite certain that "Charles Duluth" on The Americans — a former communist who's become a noted conservative journalist but who secretly remained a communist and is now a Soviet spy asset — is both a send-up of Horowitz and a poke in his eye. I imagine him watching the show and fuming at the implication that he might actually be feigning his conversion to capitalism and that he's a threat to America. Because I think he's a threat to America.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 6:07 PM on July 16, 2013 [5 favorites]


A Muslim in professional sports? That'll never work! Just ask Lew Alcindor and Cassius Clay.

Why even reference two Americans who converted to Islam as if it's just his religion that matters- it's that he's also Palestinian. Come on. Also, if you want to make light of how Muslim professional athletes will "work," you might have mentioned the hundreds of professional Muslim cricketers from South Asia- never mind every other sport (team and otherwise) in the Muslim world.
posted by ethnomethodologist at 8:57 PM on July 16, 2013 [1 favorite]


Horowitz's article is quite interesting, in a horrible way. I've never seen anyone go to so much effort to smear by association: Aboushi's sister is a lawyer for the Arab American Association of New York, and she was once cited in the same article as Muneer Awad, an Executive Director of a branch of CAIR, whose founders included two guys who were officers of the Islamic Association of Palestine, which was allegedly "intimately tied to the most senior Hamas leadership."

So basically, Aboushi's sister works for Hamas and he probably takes after her.
posted by Joe in Australia at 9:05 PM on July 16, 2013


Ah, David Horowitz. I used to be a Salon subscriber and then one of his columns came out and made me so horrified that I wrote in the comments of that column and said, basically, "I understand the right to an opinion, but that's not an opinion, it's libelous". Horowitz wrote me directly and said that if I said that again in public he'd sue me for slander.

I forwarded it to their customer support department and demanded the pro rated return of my subscription.

The man is a master of the art of dishing without taking, as is AIPAC, and Pamela Geller, and all of their ilk. (Has Geller and her bunch of attack chihuahuas gotten this in their teeth yet?) Listening to Themis as useful as headphones of pink noise.
posted by mephron at 12:17 AM on July 17, 2013


Why the hell was a MLB media guy opining on football.

Because making sure a Palestinian-American guy isn't seen in a positive light, but is instead associated with terrorism, is the primary mission. Baseball is just a job.

Horowitz and Mael are part of a much larger machine who purpose is to keep the "Israel is good and good for American interests" narrative unquestioned, and unquestionable, here.

This is why a 5th round draft pick matters.
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 8:13 AM on July 17, 2013


Because making sure a Palestinian-American guy isn't seen in a positive light, but is instead associated with terrorism, is the primary mission. Baseball is just a job.

Which is why he should be fired, as he was not hired for a mission, he was hired for a job. Mael and Horowitz may be pro-Israel, but I don't think there's any reason to think Israel is anti-Aboushi.

And given the reaction to Mael's comments, the "unquestionable" bit is certainly back-firing on them. If this situation has anything to do with a pro-Israel lobby, it seems to be that the NFL-following MLB.com-reading public is not blindly associating all Palestinian-Americans with terrorism, at least not when asked to think about it.

I can't say this story doesn't involve Israel at all because obviously any discussion of Palestine has to be a discussion of Israel as well, but this doesn't seem like the place to debate I/P.
posted by maryr at 9:22 AM on July 17, 2013


Debating I/P per se is off topic for this thread.

Discussing I/P & America's relationship to them as the motivating factor for this slander is absolutely on topic.
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 9:43 AM on July 17, 2013


Discussing I/P & America's relationship to them as the motivating factor for this slander is absolutely on topic.
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 11:43 AM on July 17


So wait, this was an official American statement made about Aboushi? No. It was two jackasses who have been roundly criticized.

So please drop the whole JOOS ARE IN CONTROL bullshit and quit making this into something more than it is. It is revolting that you have brought that garbage up twice in this thread. You are taking what is clearly an isolated incident of two people saying stupid things and are using it a pretext to argue some other nonsense that you clearly want to promote.

Don't do that. Don't abuse Aboushi that way. Don't abuse Metafilter that way. Please.
posted by dios at 12:49 PM on July 17, 2013


dios, I call bullshit.

Accusations of anti-semitism as a tool to shut down discussion are old and tired and wearing thin, and I roundly reject them. One big fucking reason is a huge amount of support for the extent and manner of American support for Israel comes not (as you so eloquently put it) from "JOOS", but from evangelical Christians who believe that Israel has to be supported so Jesus can come back and fulfill the whole fire-&-brimstone Book of Revelations ending they want so bad.

Horowitz and Mael are two individuals, but they don't exist in,nor did they emerge from, a vacuum, and they they don't exist absent context.

Theirs is not an "Official American statement". But there absolutely is a machine in place to keep the American public discourse about anything to do with Israel within certain bounds, and to punish/ silence those who step outside thse bounds. Watch the segment in the Dutch document I linked to about the congressman who crossed AIPAC.

The fact that Aboushi is Palestinian is the context. The fact that he is Palestinian is the reason he was smeared.

It is bullshit to say this was an isolated incident caused by two isolated individuals, devoid of any greater context or history. THAT is the attempt to shut down discourse. THAT is how the subject is made unquestionable.

So no, I call bullshit. I cast your assertions of abuse, both of Aboushi & of Metafilter, back at your feet and call bullshit.

Metafilter is mature enough to have an adult conversation about this.
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 3:58 PM on July 17, 2013


If this is a meaningless, isolated incident by two nobodies that affects nothing, why hasnt it been deleted as "Not worthy of being an FPP" yet? If that's all it is, is it really " best of the web?"

My argument is that this exists within a larger context, and that's what makes it worthy of being an FPP.
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 4:13 PM on July 17, 2013


This is now the third time in this thread in which you have attempted to derail this topic into a different one you want to talk about that is some broader claim about some grand conspiracy in this country. I'm not going to get engaged with you about whether some position is anti-Semitic or not because I didn't raise it, you did. Nor am I going to indulge the merits of whatever conspiracy you are trying to cram this into. There's enough places to wedge in whatever garbage you want to whine about in the I/P context. Don't bring it into sports threads and derail this into a politics mess.
posted by dios at 4:14 PM on July 17, 2013


Right.

It's the sports angle that's the thing here. That explains it all.
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 4:16 PM on July 17, 2013


Are you so completely lacking in self-awareness to realize that whatever hobby horse you are riding about AIPAC and this issue is the obverse of what David Horowitz was doing Trying to reach connect to dots in support of whatever conspiracy theory you support? And it's equally as contemptible, so please drop it.
posted by dios at 4:27 PM on July 17, 2013


(Points down)

At your feet, dios. They're down at your feet.
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 5:44 PM on July 17, 2013


Mod note: take it to MeMail or MeTa staring now, guys.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 5:51 PM on July 17, 2013 [2 favorites]


I think "MeTa staring" should probably have been "MeTa glaring"; while "staring" does have the connotation of something that is unnecessarily prolonged, it doesn't sound hostile enough.

I hope this helps.
posted by Joe in Australia at 9:57 PM on July 17, 2013 [1 favorite]


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