Very shortly after the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris, which targeted the editorial leadership of that (obnoxious) satirical magazine, an associate of those two Islamist murderers assaulted a kosher deli in the suburbs of the city, killing several customers there and holding others hostage until he himself was killed by police.
Mr. Obama’s allusion to that second attack, during remarks on Tuesday, as a case in which people “randomly shoot a bunch of folks in a deli in Paris” illustrates pretty neatly his ongoing refusal to acknowledge the true character of Islamist terrorism.
It was a kosher deli, for crying out loud! A Jewish deli! Random chance? Come on.
Until the leadership of the United States accurately, adequately, and honestly recognizes reality — which will likely not happen until that leadership is changed — American foreign policy will be deformed, unserious, and, to that degree, ineffective.
And here’s an otherwise unrelated item about a vocal North Carolina atheist’s fatal shooting of three young Muslim university students on Tuesday evening, supposedly over a “parking dispute”:
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/02/11/north-carolina-man-charged-in-shooting-death-three-people/
They were — certainly the women were — fairly obviously Muslim. It’s possible, I suppose (though I find it very, very difficult to believe), that their being Muslim played no role in his actions, and that carefully shooting three people in the head was simply a random act of sudden impatience on his part.
But it seems to me most likely that regarding this as merely a routine parking dispute that went bad, and to which the victims’ obvious “Muslimness” was irrelevant, is just another case where reality isn’t being accurately, adequately, and honestly recognized.
A Facebook page has been established for the three victims in North Carolina: https://www.facebook.com/ourthreewinners
And see this: “Calls for donations in honour of Muslim victims who volunteered for homeless and refugee charities”
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