Sunday, March 17, 2019

Chelsea Clinton, Ilhan Omar and New Zealand

This article first appeared in New English Review.




As we grapple with the shock over the evil deed perpetrated two days ago in Christchurch, New Zealand, we must also grapple with the predictably absurd reactions coming from the media and the left around the world. Much of the media has been quick to pounce on the Australian shooter's "support" for President Trump based on an ambiguous statement attributed to him which contained words of praise mixed with words of criticism of the American president.

Even more absurd was the reaction Chelsea Clinton received while attending a vigil for the victims at New York University, where some students blamed her for the massacre because she had dared to criticize Ilhan Omar for her recent anti-Semitic comments.

I am no fan of Chelsea Clinton, but let's be fair here. When she spoke out against Omar, she was 100% correct, and it is beyond a stretch to suggest that her words had anything to do with what happened in New Zealand. Instead of her weak response to the brainwashed students of NYU, she should have told them they were idiots.

There are many other factors that went into this man's thinking and led him to do what he did, but this is not the time or place to discuss them. What he did was wrong, evil, and must be punished to the full extent of New Zealand's law, which I suppose doesn't include the death penalty-unfortunately.

Two nights ago, when this news was breaking, someone sent me the 16-minute  live-screen footage of the massacre. As a retired DEA agent, I've seen my share, both in video and live. I have been in an actual shoot-out, and it is a scary experience. What I saw in that video was so graphic that no responsible person should disseminate it. Bodies piled in a corner and sprayed with more gunfire to make sure they were all dead; a woman lying wounded on the sidewalk pleading for help and being finished off with three more shots. It was inhuman.

Talking about the long and never-ending list of Islamic horrors does not justify going out and murdering 49 innocent Muslims. I will continue to point the finger at individual terrorists, hate-mongering imams, jihadists, groups like CAIR, and people like Ilhan Omar- not to justify what happened in Christchurch, but to point out the dangers that political, militant Islam poses to us. Our responsibility, however, is not to incite others to violence against the innocent.

On March 23, Omar will be speaking at CAIR's annual dinner in the Los Angeles area. I am sure there will be some protesters present, and I may well be there myself. If I do go, it will be to protest specifically against Omar's anti-Semitic statements and CAIR's implied endorsement of them. Not even the incident in New Zealand should silence us on that.

We seem to be heading toward a civilizational war, and I have no idea how to stop it.


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