Imagine if during World War II our news media asked the American public if our soldiers were unfairly bigoted toward Nazis, or if during the Vietnam War they wondered if our warriors had an irrational fear of the misunderstood Viet Cong, who weren't all bad -- it was just a tiny minority of extremists.

Now check out this tweet from NBC News, which poses the outrageous question, "Do Marines Have an Islamophobia Problem?"

The tweet referred to an NBC News article titled, "Shocked by Parris Island Hazing Scandal, Muslim Vets Still Stand by Marines," which explores a Marine Corps hazing ritual scandal centering on the treatment of two Muslim recruits, one who committed suicide after being slapped and yelled at, and another who was burned in a clothes dryer after allegedly being called a terrorist. NBC News says that this controversy raises the question: "Is the corps still a place that welcomes" Muslim recruits?

Oddly, the article itself quotes several inactive Muslim Marines whose experience belies NBC's suggestion that the Marine Corps is bigoted and not inclusive enough.

Tayyib Rashid, a Muslim who served in the Marines from 1997 to 2002, said he didn't experience any bigotry or racism during training at the Recruit Depot in San Diego or for the majority of his active-duty career until after 9/11.

Muslims are a tiny minority in the military (.3% of the 1.2 million active duty members across all four branches) but especially so in the Marines, with 439 Muslims out of 183,370 total active-duty members. Nonetheless, "the Marine Corps, more so than the civilian world, will treat you with respect if it sees how you carry yourself and do your work," said Egypt-born Ahmed Shama, a 2003 recruit at Parris Island. Shama said he was generally hazed as much as anyone else except for an incident in which a commander called him a terrorist and ordered him out. Shama said he was satisfied with the way the situation was handled by higher-ups; he felt reassured that the Marines took such issues seriously.

Another recruit said the recent allegations contrast starkly with his own experience in 2006. He said he experienced no hazing, and in combat he was treated favorably because his fluent Arabic was an asset. "There were absolutely no problems whatsoever," Hashi said.

Mansoor Shams, who trained at Parris Island in 2000, said he didn't experience discrimination until after 9/11, mostly in the form of jokes about his being a terrorist.

So apart from some post-9/11 jokes and the recent hazing incidents, which are currently being investigated, there doesn't seem to be any validity to NBC News' Islamophobia hysteria, any more than there is any substance to the media's predictable warning of anti-Muslim bigotry backlash after each new jihad attack.

Perhaps the problem is NBC News' Islamophilia and its disgusting attempt to cast the pall of bigotry over our Marines, who are still risking their lives at war with Islamic fundamentalists.

Shame on our news media.