Matt Christensen is the editor of the Times-News, a local newspaper in Twin Falls, Idaho, where the Muslim migrant rape case about which I wrote here took place. Christensen wrote a sophomoric rant masquerading as an editorial in last Sunday’s edition, trying to fool readers into thinking the problem in Twin Falls is not Muslim migrant crime and its coverup by local authorities, but “gadflies” trying to portray Twin Falls as a dangerous place. Key question to Mr. Christensen: why would anyone care to do that, if what we are saying weren’t true?
Mr. Christensen smears, name-calls and libels the victim’s family, its supporters, my readers and organization members, and me. His entire piece is all ad hominem attacks. But the real question is this: why hasn’t Mr. Christensen dispatched a team to investigate the alleged rape of a five-year-old girl by a Muslim migrant trio` in his community?
Instead, he seemed preoccupied with finding the “older harlot” mentioned in my article on disintegrating conditions in Twin Falls. Strange priorities.
One might think that the editor of a newspaper would be up to speed on the terrifying consequences of the migrant invasion of Europe. One might think that he would be aware of the mass rapes on New Year’s Eve in Germany and across Europe, the continuing sexual attacks on European girls, the sexual attacks on children by Muslim migrant gangs across the continent, the pool attacks — so bad that public pools must now be segregated. Even if you are a self-righteous leftist, one would think you would be cognizant of these dramatic and ghastly changes in the social fabric of daily life for the ordinary citizen, especially if your small American town was targeted for Muslim migrant/refugee settlement.
And even if you were that myopic and clueless, you would think that the story of a five-year-old who was sexually attacked and urinated upon (and in her mouth) would pique your interest. You would think the editor of the newspaper of that town would take an interest in the case. But you’d be wrong.
Christensen says, “Twin Falls is pretty cool,” but he complains that “high-profile political activist Pamela Geller has been spinning about Twin Falls, fed to her mostly by local gadfly Julie Ruf and her ilk. Thanks to Geller, tens of thousands of her readers now think Twin Falls is a hellhole.”
Why the name-calling? Where are the facts? Where is the journalism? I can tell you from working this case that Julie Ruf has worked tirelessly to insure this family’s safety. What has Mr. Christensen done except whine like a little girl? A real editor would have pursued the story, not squelched it and covered it up. Julie Ruf is one of only a handful of people in Twin Falls who has shown any real concern for this family. For that, she is taking it in the chin. Julie Ruf is the only victim’s advocate this family has. She should send the county a bill.
Christensen tells the official version of the story:
Since earlier this summer, when a 5-year-old was allegedly assaulted at the Fawnbrook Apartments, Ruf has been dishing dirt to Geller, a commentator and blogger with a large following, about how refugees are ruining our city. By now we’ve all heard the story: A handful of twisted folks somehow believe the girl’s assault is clear proof that Muslims are destroying Twin Falls because the boys accused of committing the assault are Muslims or refugees or maybe both. And, oh, yeah, the mainstream media, the entire city council, city staff, the police, the county prosecutor’s office, the city’s major employers, the local community college, several state Republican lawmakers and a federal prosecutor are complicit in a conspiracy to either cover up the details of the assault, asperse the girl’s family or mislead you in an effort to promote a liberal agenda that will allow Muslims to take over our community, commit terrorism, molest our children and institute sharia law.
Or something like that. The accusations grow a little each day, and it’s hard to keep up.
It’d be almost comical if this weren’t also true: Geller and others in the anti-Muslim movement have happily typed up these scary fairy tales, which are being read by thousands of people around the world who believe Twin Falls is no longer in Idaho but sandwiched somewhere in one of Dante’s circles of hell.
“Scary fairy tales”? The girl was raped. Would he have such a glib response to the situation if it were his own family in the middle of it?
Christensen claims:
Sure, rentals are getting harder to find in Twin Falls, but it’s not because of a “sudden crush of refugees.” The College of Southern Idaho’s refugee resettlement center has been relocating about 300 people a year like clockwork for three decades — there’s nothing sudden about that. The rental problem has little to do with refugees and everything to do with our booming economy and the fact we’ve added 5,000 new jobs in the food-manufacturing sector alone and thousands of new residents who’ve moved to the area to fill them.
Again, Christensen doesn’t do any leg work — he just repeats what those with a vested interest in refugee resettlement dictate to him. The fact is that one of the alleged attackers is still living next to the terrified child. The family was forced to move and now has nowhere to live.
Please contribute to their GoFundMe page. We are very concerned that no one will rent to the victim’s family because they are afraid of their property being targeted and vandalized by the Muslim community because of this case. Everyone wants to stay out of this because they are afraid.
I am working on a number of stories of sexual attacks in Twin Falls from victims who are afraid to come forward because of schoolmarms like Christensen. I can assure you that Christensen has no one working on those stories.
Christensen added: “Something terrible happened to that poor girl at the Fawnbrook Apartments. Scores of children in southern Idaho are molested or abused every year, and that’s heartbreaking. But Geller is using this one case to drive a sickening political agenda.”
Here is how out of touch with reality Christensen is. I have had a number of people reach out from Twin Falls with accounts of Muslim migrant sex attacks. The difficulty is having them come forward. Look what happened to this little girl. Her family’s push for justice is called “a sickening political agenda.” Who can withstand such withering attacks on their character? Isn’t the rape enough? When did the media stop siding with the victims and start taking up for the perpetrators?
“See,” Christensen continues, “Geller wants the world to think Twin Falls is being overrun by Muslim perverts who are destroying our city. She’s made a career spreading such nonsense on the backs of communities like ours.”
Yes, Mr. Christensen, you’re right. There is no such thing as jihad and sharia. The millions dead in jihadi wars don’t exist.
Says Christensen: “Do we have problems? Yeah, every community does. But they’re nothing close to the horrors Geller paints.”
What happened to that little girl is the horror, Mr. Christensen.
Christensen crows that I was unable to attend a rally in Twin Falls and says he wishes I had a chance to see the Twin Falls he knows. He needs to get out and see what’s really happening in his city. The rally was for the child. Clearly, circumstances made it impossible to hold that rally and ensure the safety of attendees. But Matt Christensen isn’t interested in reality — just in perpetuating a magical village that exists in his ivory tower.
One of the boys reportedly videotaped the depraved sex attack on the little girl. Has Mr. Christensen made inquiries about the tape? Has his paper even looked into confirming the details of this incident?
Here is the real story that Matt Christensen should be covering: the victim’s family now has nowhere to live. They are living a nomadic life right now. They check into a hotel, then a day or two later, the hotel is booked and they have to change hotels, and on and on. For whatever reason, the hotels have been sold out. They all just want to go home and they have nowhere to go. Last Saturday was the first day the victim’s mother felt calmer in quite awhile – because she finally had a chance to do her laundry! Mountains of laundry. She had a little bit of normalcy and it was a huge thrill for her.
They left their apartment recently, as fast as they could at 11:00 at night. They left because, by their account, the Muslim community knows where they are, points at them and has been watching them and harassing them on and off at their apartment. Not long ago, they say, the mother of the attacker was very upset, very animated, and was seen pointing over and over again to their apartment. This was not a crime, but it was ominous – and for the family, it was the very last straw. Why stick around to see what could happen?
According to the family, the little victim girl has been a super social and very chatty child. She now regularly says that she wants to be alone. She will take her tablet and find a closet or a small and safe space and hang out on her tablet all alone. She is now very quiet. It is blazing hot in Twin Falls right now, but she insists on wearing two t-shirts and two pairs of underwear. She is starting to tell her mother, completely unsolicited, what really happened to her and the details. She talks constantly about “those naughty boys.” She her mother not to tell her father everything that happened because it will upset him. Her mother constantly reassures her that she has done nothing wrong. And so it goes. This is every day.
The mother has been ill as well, no doubt from all the stress. A close friend of the family told me: “I talk to the victim’s mother every day, and most of our conversations are centered around providing comfort and reassurance to her. She is so afraid she is going to be totally abandoned and wants to make sure we don’t bail on her, too. Why? Because, with the exception of only a handful of us, Twin Falls has treated this little family like garbage. That’s just the cold, hard truth.”
Tell that to Mr. Twin Falls, Matt Christensen. Christensen has publicly smeared Julie Ruf, an activist in his community who is working for the community and its most vulnerable people. In his job as editor, he has a responsibility to serve his community.
Boycott his rag of a newspaper. Contact him, politely and courteously, and tell him to stop betraying the victim and her family: on Facebook and on Twitter at @twinfallstn.
Pamela Geller is the President of the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), publisher of PamelaGeller.com and author of The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration’s War on America and Stop the Islamization of America: A Practical Guide to the Resistance. Follow her on Twitter here. Like her on Facebook here.
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