The Tennessean newspaper announced on Sunday it is launching an investigation into how an advertisement predicting “Islam” is going to detonate a nuclear device in Nashville on July 18 was able to run online and in print.
The full-page advertisement ran in print Sunday and a second full page ad by the same advertiser ran Wednesday but did not reference Islam.
Critics locally and nationally bashed the ad as bigoted, and Tennessean Vice President and Editor Michael Anastasi said the newspaper is launching a full investigation into how it appeared in print.
Sabina Mohyuddin, executive director of the Tennessee-based American Muslim Advisory Council, lambasted the ad as a setback for the Muslim community. Mohyuddin said she is dubious of the Tennessean’s explanation that it is investigating after the ad ran, and worried that the ad could promote acts of violence against Muslims in Middle Tennessee.
“Obviously this is very dangerous against our community,” Mohyuddin said. “It makes you think that if you want to write an editorial and they won’t publish it, then you can pay to have it published with an ad. If this was a white nationalist organization, the KKK, or making racist remarks, or anti-Semitic remarks, would the Tennessean publish it? They wouldn’t have, that’s the truth.