Is the Man in Black an Innocent Child?

Michael L.

There comes a point where a daily blogger, such as myself, comes to believe that there is simply nothing left to say.

When I look at the image of a British-born Muslim Jihadi on the verge of head chopping an American journalist, James Foley, I am left speechless.

I have not written on this since it happened, because what can there possible be to say?  One could, as some leftists do... and as I used to do... blame Arab and Muslim barbarity on the history of western imperialism.

I no longer do so, however.  The reason for this is because I refuse to infantalize people of the Islamic faith.

I am sorry, but the standard progressive-left apologetics for savage Muslim violence - that it is primarily the fault of western imperialism - will no longer suffice and it is long past time that we acknowledge an exceedingly serious political movement emerging from the Middle East under the banner of what we once called the "Arab Spring," but what is more accurately known as the Jihad.

When we thought, in 2011, that the Arab Spring was about democracy we were fooling ourselves.  We lied to ourselves and we lied to one another.  In truth, it was, on our part, all about wishful thinking.  In the United States and Europe, well-meaning, but ignorant, westerners told one another that the sloughing off of secular dictators like Hosni Mubarak and Muammar Gaddafi would mean the rise of a democratic Middle East.

So much for that silly notion.

The main reason that we deluded ourselves, however, was because we spent the previous three decades, since the Iranian revolution, ignoring the rise of political Islam throughout that part of the world.  We were afraid to speak out against al-Sharia because we did not know much about it and because the western political zeitgeist had moved ironically, since 9/11, in a pro-Arab, pro-Muslim direction.  Counter-Jihadis are thus considered "racist" and anyone who speaks in opposition to head-chopping or, say, the stoning of women to death for the crime of getting raped, are considered insensitive knuckle-draggers, if not worse.

No one wants to be spit at as a racist and, so, people watched Islamist barbarity, but kept their mouths shut.  They were not afraid of violent Jihadi retribution nearly so much as they were afraid (and are afraid) of social retribution by their fellow left-wing ideologues.

Until such a time that we treat the Arab and Muslim world with the normal respect that we have for other adults, we will always condescend to them and make excuses for their worst behavior.  When Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton blamed Muslim violence and the murder of American diplomats and staff in Benghazi, Libya, on some ridiculous video, they showed true contempt not only for the intelligence of the American people, but for Arabs and Muslims throughout the world.

Barack Obama is not the most pro-Muslim president that the United States has ever had.

On the contrary, Barack Obama is probably the least pro-Muslim president in United States history because unlike all previous American presidents, he treats the great Arab-Muslim nation as little children in need of succor and a warm glass of milk before night-night.

Despite Obama's hostility toward the Jewish State of Israel, at least he usually treats Jews like adults.