The Ceeb Does Its Utmost to Make Infidels Sound Bad in a Story About the Ottawa Jihadi Shooter, and a Muslim STILL Complains to the Ceeb's Ombudsman

A Muslim chap complained because he said the Ceeb reported that Michael Zehaf-Bebuf prayed five times a day, thereby implying a close connection between this daily practice and the killer's "extremism." The Ceeb's Ombudsman (who is actually a chick) begged to differ. She points out that, in fact, the complainant hadn't quite remembered the actual words of the report:

I have listened to an archived copy, and the script is actually somewhat different. The story aired about a month after the attack in Ottawa. Reporters were still piecing together information about Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau. After these kinds of violent incidents, there is always a desire to fill in the blanks and to try and understand what motivated a person. The host of World Report, David Common, introduced Evan Dyer’s report this way:

Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, the man who carried out the attack on Parliament, had become radicalized years earlier, back when he worked in British Columbia. More recently he returned to a crack addiction, something obvious to others when he was living in a homeless shelter days before the attack.

What followed were two brief voice clips of people who spoke about his state of mind and his strong desire to get a passport. David Common then went on to set up Mr. Dyer’s piece, saying that CBC had learned new details about Zehaf-Bibeau. He then went into some detail based on information gained from an unnamed friend, who was also the foreman at Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau’s work place at a hydro project in Squamish, B.C. It was at this point there was a reference to prayer:

His foreman, who shared his six-day weeks and 13-hour days, also car-pooled and socialized with him…He says the man he knew as Mike Zehaf was mild mannered and polite most of the time and deeply religious, praying five times a day, much to the annoyance of some co-workers. Zehaf also aggravated other members of his crew by showing videos on his cellphone of Taliban attacks on coalition forces and expressing approval – this at a time when Canadian forces were still in Afghanistan.

As the Ombudschick  rightly points out, the above paragraph was actually a swipe, not at Zehaf-Bebeau, (who was "mild mannered and polite" for the most part) but as his infidel co-workers, who became "annoyed" when "Mike" Zehaf (sounds ever so much friendlier and non-threatening than using his formal, hyphenated name, don't you think?) engaged in his prayer shtick. 

That being so, the complainant should actually have thanked the Ceeb for its pro-Muslim (and pro-shooter) reporting. (That's my conclusion, of course, not the Ombudschick's.)