I P1 Debat tirsdag den 27. november gjorde jeg det klart, at jeg var frastødt over og fandt det dybt smagløst at Naser Khader stod i radiostudiet og klappede over indsættelsen af USAs nye Højesteretsdommer Amy Coney Barrett, en ultra kristenkonservativ dommer, der går imod basale menneskerettigheder.
DR Detektor fulgte op på mine påstande og bad Naser Khader forholde sig til sine.
Jeg er DR Detektor taknemmelig for, at de ikke lader folk slynge påstande ud i æteren men følger op og lader folk stå til regnskab for deres udsagn.
Detector: Naser Khader announces facts about American judge as ‘fake news’
It’s a saying, ‘No, I’m not going to listen to you anymore,’ Khader says.
On Tuesday, Naser Khader appeared in P1 Debat, where he accused bloggers for Jyllands-Posten Désirée Ohrbeck of coming up with fake news.
31 OCT 2020
‘Fake news!’ exclaimed the Conservative parliamentary politician Naser Khader when he was in the P1 Debate on Tuesday.
Among other things, Naser Khader protested against a claim that the American Supreme Court judge Amy Coney Barrett once signed that she is an abortion opponent.
– It’s fake news! Documentation is requested. That’s fake news, Naser Khader said.
However, the US Supreme Court judge once signed a newspaper ad against abortion in 2006 and another in 2013.
Detective has contacted Naser Khader, who now explains that his accusation of fake news should not be taken so literally. It’s a ‘way of speaking’, he says:
– It’s my way of marking that I think it was too much.
Should there be something factually wrong before it is fake news in your understanding?
– So it has become a saying. That must also be understood. It has become such a saying where it is said, ‘No, now I do not bother to listen to you anymore’.
‘Documentation requested’
Naser Khader was in the P1 Debate on Tuesday to discuss Trump’s chances for re-election – including the election of Amy Coney Barrett as the new Supreme Court justice.
In addition to Naser Khader, the Danish-American Désirée Ohrbeck also wrote a blog post for Jyllands Posten.
At one point in the program, Désirée Ohrbeck says Amy Coney Barrett is opposed to abortion. That makes Naser Khader ask where the newly appointed Supreme Court judge has said it.
– She has signed that she is a strong opponent of abortion. Plus she has sat on a school board where she has denied children who had gay parents being able to attend that school, Désirée Ohrbeck replies.
Then Naser Khader breaks in and says:
– It’s fake news! Documentation is requested. That’s fake news.
Detector has asked Désirée Ohrbeck what she bases the two allegations on.
Signed abortion resistance
To the left is the 2006 newspaper ad, which an anti-abortion group in Michiana, Indiana indented in a local newspaper. To the right is the newspaper ad that Amy Coney Barrett put her name on in 2013.
The first allegation is that Amy Coney Barrett has signed that she is a strong abortion opponent.
Désirée Ohrbeck’s statement is based on an open letter signed by Amy Coney Barrett.
In January 2006, an anti-abortion group in the Michiana region of Indiana placed a full-page ad in the local newspaper.
The ad was an open letter in which several hundred citizens expressed their opposition to abortion. Among them were Amy Coney Barrett and her husband. The Guardian newspaper was the first media outlet to report this.
Amy Coney Barrett was at that time a law professor at the University of Notre Dame.
The text, on which Amy Coney Barrett and many others put their name, read:
“We, the following citizens of Michiana, are opposed to abortion ‘on demand’ and defend the right to life from conception to natural death.”
The ad ends with the words: “Please continue to pray for an end to abortion”.
In 2013, Amy Coney Barrett again put her name on a newspaper ad against abortion. This time side by side with other staff at the university where she worked.
The ad was inserted by the University Faculty of Life at Notre Dame, of which Amy Coney Barrett was a member from 2010 to 2016.
In the ad could, among other things, read that “55 million unborn children have been killed by abortion” during the past 40 years and that the signatories express their continued call for the unborn must be protected by law.
It shows documents that Amy Coney Barrett herself has sent to the Senate prior to the hearings.
Amy Coney Barrett was asked in October for the 2006 newspaper ad.
She replied that she signed the ad on her way out of a church. She also said she signed it as a private individual.
“I regard my personal, moral and religious views as separate from my task of enforcing the law as a judge,” she said.
School board against rainbow families
Naser Khader also asks Désirée Ohrbeck to document that Amy Coney Barrett, as a member of a school board, has refused children with gay parents to go to school.
Amy Coney Barrett was part of the board of Trinity Schools from 2015 onwards.
These are three schools affiliated with the Christian group People of Praise, of which Amy Coney Barrett has long been a member.
The Associated Press news agency has spoken to at least 25 people with knowledge of the schools – either because they have been students or worked there or been a member of the People of Praise.
According to the AP, Trinity’s management communicated anti-LGBTQ policies and attitudes to meetings, one-on-one interviews, enrollment and employment agreements, manuals and written policies – even while Amy Coney Barrett was an active board member.
In addition to interviews with both named and anonymous sources, AP writes that the medium also has a number of documents from the schools.
In 2014 – the year before Amy Coney Barrett became a member of the board – the board decided that only children of single parents or parents who were legally married should be admitted, writes AP.
At the time, gay marriage was not legal in either Indiana or Virginia, where two of the schools are located.
In 2015, gay marriage was legalized throughout the United States, and school formulations were softened a bit, according to the AP.
Several people tell the AP that they have been told directly by staff at the school that they would not enroll children of gay parents.
Naser Khader: ‘She is tired of listening’
“Detector” has asked Naser Khader why he calls the two allegations fake news.
– It’s not just about the two things. I think a lot of what she said was without nuances and I get so tired in my head of it, says Naser Khader.
What was not right?
– Well, a lot of what she said. I do not remember exactly what it is she said in the situation. So she portrays things as if the United States is waging a civil war.
Désirée says Amy has signed off on being a strong opponent of abortion. There is probably no discussion about that. Why do you call it fake news?
– Well, the crucial thing is what she’s been saying here lately. You can also find something I said 20 years ago where I have become wiser.
Naser Khader says his position on Amy Coney Barrett is based on the Senate hearing of her in October, in which she said she had signed the ad against abortion as a private individual. He believes that it is her statements during the hearing that count.
Then there is the second point that comes before you say fake news. It is that she has sat on a school board that has been against having children of gay parents. The Associated Press has told about it.
– She is also asked about this at the hearing. And there she says she has nothing against either gay or mixed gender. I relate to what she says on live TV.
So you do not deny that she has sat on a school board where one has been against having children of gay parents walking?
– My attitude towards her is based on the 12-14 hours she sat and was questioned by senators. There she does not express that she is against homosexuals or that she wants to abolish abortion.
I’m just trying to relate to the factual in these things that you call fake news.
– In relation to the two specific things, I say: Go in and listen to the hearing she was at. There you will find out that she stands for something else.
But you do not want to say that these two things are wrong?
– She does not want to abolish abortion. It is wrong. That’s fake news. I would like documentation that when she becomes a Supreme Court judge, she will take the initiative to abolish free abortion.
Surely no one has claimed that either?
– Yes, yes, when you say she is an abortion opponent, then that is what you implicitly mean. One thing is what she means personally or ideologically. Something else is when she has to deal with things as a judge. She is guaranteed not to go in and say that we are now abolishing free abortion – no matter what she herself thinks and has signed.
But why is it not wrong that she has signed it?
– It is wrong to say that then she is the kind of person who just wants to go in and abolish it.
But has anyone said that?
– Yes, when you say she’s against abortion. She is not an opponent. She is in favor of tightening abortion legislation. It is something else.
Okay – but she’s been an abortion opponent? She has at least signed on to this ad.
– Yes, but it’s one thing what she’s signed. Something else is what she is sitting and saying for hearing in the Senate. It’s my main source.
Do you still think these two allegations are fake news?
– I think most of what Désirée said is fake news.
But you can not just remember something concrete where you think she said something factually wrong?
– Not standing up. Then I’ll go in and hear everything she said. I can’t stand it, I get tired just listening to her.
Do you have a definition of what you mean by fake news?
– Well, when a person talks and talks, and you have to interrupt him, then it is easiest to say: ‘That is fake news’. Had there been more time, I would have said, ‘That is simply not true. Things are so and so connected ‘. It’s my way of marking that I think it was too much.
Should there be something factually wrong before it is fake news in your understanding?
– So it has become a saying. That must also be understood. It has become such a saying where it is said, ‘No, now I do not bother to listen to you anymore’.
(Google translate)
Danish-American Eyes on Society 