Washington Post mocked for calling ISIS arch-terrorist ‘austere religious scholar’

“The first version of the Post’s obituary described Baghdadi as the ‘Islamic State’s terrorist-in-chief,’ before it was changed to ‘austere religious scholar.'”

By World Israel News Staff 

The Washington Post has been roundly ridiculed for its obituary headline in which it described ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi as an “austere religious scholar.”

Al-Baghdadi died after U.S. special operators cornered him during a raid in Syria, President Donald Trump said Sunday.

“Last night, the United States brought the world’s No. 1 terrorist leader to justice,” Trump announced at the White House.

“The first version of the Post‘s obituary described Baghdadi as the ‘Islamic State’s terrorist-in-chief,’ before it was changed to ‘austere religious scholar,'” according to the Daily Beast and other news outlets.

“It’s unclear why the newspaper initially changed the headline, but it was changed for a third time to its current headline: ‘Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, extremist leader of Islamic State, dies at 48,'” said the Daily Beast.

“Regarding our al-Baghdadi obituary, the headline should never have read that way and we changed it quickly,” tweeted Kristine Coratti Kelly, Vice President of Communications at The Washington Post.

Among those sharply criticizing the paper was Donald Trump Jr, son of the U.S. president, who tweeted: “With headlines like this and the fact that the @washingtonpost and others in the MSM [mainstream media] have harsher criticism for The President of The United States than they do for the leader of ISIS, a known serial rapist and murderer, you really have to start to wonder!!!”

The president’s son also took aim at Bloomberg, tweeting that the business news outlet was “running neck in neck” with The Post “for the race to who can be the biggest ISIS sympathizers this week.”

Bloomberg had referred to the arch-terrorist as having “transformed himself from a little-known teacher of Koranic recitation into the self-proclaimed ruler of an entity that covered swaths of Syria and Iraq.”

However, the business outlet did refer to ISIS as “a terrorist group that slaughtered thousands during a fearsome rise to power stopped only after an international military coalition was formed to bring it down.”

Lynn Cheney, daughter of former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney, tweeted that The Washington Post was “trying desperately to hold on to #ISIS on-line subscribers.”

“An ‘austere religious scholar’? ‘Dead at 48’? No—he was cornered by the greatest toughest best military heroes on earth!! How about we killed the evil SOB,” tweeted Sean Hannity, a conservative political commentator and Fox News personality.

Abu Bakr al-BaghdadiDonald Trump Jr.ISIS