The mainstream media and the politicians never cease to amaze me.
In virtually every terrorist attack that we have in the United States, or the West, more generally, there has been a great reluctance to use the term "terrorism" much less "radical Islamic terrorism."
Fort Hood, an obvious terror attack, was dubbed "work place violence" by Ostrich-in-Chief, Barack Obama.
When Omar Mateen shot up the Gay nightclub in Orlando he admitted to a 911 officer over the phone that he was a follower of ISIS big shot, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, which means, pretty much by definition, that Orlando was a Jihadi attack. Nonetheless, people blamed a sort-of generalized American homophobic bigotry or some nefarious "gun culture" promoted by the NRA or, you know... Republicans.
And, yet, in the hours directly after the horrific Nice attack, yesterday, everybody was using the term "terrorism" to describe this attack. The great irony is that this may be the one that actually is NOT a terror attack.
It might very well be, but we do not know that yet.
For Nice to be considered terrorism there must be an ideological basis, religious or otherwise, for Mohamed Lagouaiej Bouhlel's aggression. It is not enough that 84 people were needless run down by this crazed maniac behind the wheel of a big white truck. For this to be considered terrorism it must be shown that Bouhlel did it for ideological and/or religious and/or political reasons and, so far, we do not have that information.
It may be forthcoming as I write, but all we know at this point is that the killer was French-Tunisian with a criminal record. He was very likely of Muslim descent, but that does not meet the standard for determining terrorism.
It might also be that he was simply stone cold crazy and this might have nothing whatsoever to do with the Jihad... but I still would not bet on it.
Below is a brief audio file of me discussing the horror above.
Mass murder of innocent people by a guy called Mohammed. What could be his motive? One thing we know for sure, it has NOTHING to do with Islam.
ReplyDeleteWhat we need is evidence to suggest that he was interested in the Jihad. Without it there is no case.
DeleteMy guess, tho, is that sitting somewhere within the guy's laptop is all the information that we need.
I just do not want to leap to a conclusion.
The act itself is the evidence. He followed precisely the advice of the Jihadists as outlined in their Inspire magazine several years ago and which led to vehicular attacks not only in Israel but in Canada and Beijing and within minutes of the attack Isis claimed it as their own. Reports are that he gave the Jihadist war cry “ALLAHU AKBAR” when he jumped from the truck and started firing.
DeleteThis walks and quacks like a Jihad duck.
Technical note:
ReplyDeletethe regulars around these joint have noticed that we had some difficulties with the recent comments widget and I replaced it with one that functioned, but that did not go to the exact place within the comments that the link should have.
I believe that I have fixed this.
You should be able to click on the name of any person in the "recent comments" sidebar and have it go directly to that comment.
Works for me!
DeleteEric Hoffer in "The True Believer" said it was the extremism of the movement that attracted the fanatic. I think it is the fanaticism itself in which the fanatic finds solace. If Islam didn't exist, if Black Lives Matter didn't exist, those lunatics would have found another movement to follow. Whether that fanaticism is something that is innate or learned is something that we really need to study.
ReplyDeleteJoseph,
Deletethe fanaticism is learned.
It is taught.
It is slowly and haphazardly indoctrinated into a percentage of the population via the natural spread of ideas within the academe which is then transmitted to the larger culture.
For example, the students at NYU who joined BLM with the anti-Zionism did not invent ths notion themselves.
It was conjured through the almost mystical ability of academics in the humanities to connect anything to virtually anything else, according to their political desires and emotional needs, and then send them into the world like ideological golems.
Aleister Crowley would be impressed.
It may be that the pleasure of fanaticism that is somehow learned. The specific extremist movement is irrelevant to the fanatic. If Black Lives Matter didn't exist, they would join PETA or something else.
DeleteWhat ideological abomination could possibly be behind this attack?
ReplyDeleteI've racked my brain trying to figure it out. Nope. I've got nothing.
Damn trucks. There should be a law against them.
ReplyDeleteI'm tempted to blame France's gun laws. Apparently they found a whole bunch of guns and grenades in the back of the damn truck trying to get their hands on people.
ReplyDeleteFireworks. The authorities have been warning against them for years. They can drive trucks and guns mad.
ReplyDeleteWe need to be very clear about this.
ReplyDeleteThe ideology that is doing it's very best to inspire "lone wolf" attacks makes a huge effort to reach anyone it can including the weak minded and mentally unstable.
If it can it will send any madman it can into groups of harmless innocent people to murder as many as possible. It doesn't care about the state of mind of the about to be deceased lump of flesh it is using. Women facing an honour killing have attempted or carried out what are stupidly called "lone wolf " attacks.
This is important. Of course the background of the dead killer walking should be examined to better attack the enemy that finally someone has had the guts to say we must declare war on.
The enemy. Political Islam. Of course it is insane in exactly the same sense that the Nazis were insane. No amount of Valium or narcotics are going to cure that.
The only thing I know about this particular dead killer walking is that his name is Mohamed and he comes from Yemen or somewhere.That's not callous or profiling a particular ethnic group . Surely we have moved on from that bleeding obvious. It's about targeting the enemy that has been at war with us much longer than the intellectuals in the universities and the Greens style political classes have ever been prepared to admit least of all to themselves.
ReplyDeleteThe best hope for Western academic standards is that one day they will all vaporize in a catastrophic explosion of terminal cognitive dissonance
"As jihadists around the world expressed their joy over Thursday evening’s terror attack in southern France, one ISIS sympathizer hailed Palestinian terrorists for pioneering the use of vehicles to attack civilians, the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) reported on Friday.
ReplyDelete“Killing by ramming using civilian cars and trucks is an idea born from the Maqdisi [Palestinian] mind, which has an innovative nature of thinking up jihad tactics,” read a posting on a pro-ISIS forum online. “Yesterday they taught us [about] the explosive vest, and many plans for street fighting, and today they taught us this tactic. May Allah bless Jerusalem and the environs of Jerusalem, and may Allah bless all of the Levant…Oh Aqsa, we are coming.”
http://www.algemeiner.com/2016/07/15/palestinians-hailed-for-developing-innovative-car-ramming-terror-tactic-used-in-nice-attack/
We are confronted with the biggest pack of lone wolves in history.
ReplyDeleteI've been to Nice. I stayed there over a week.
ReplyDeleteMost of the locals like visitors. Especially those who depend on them for livelihood. You can notice this phenomenon all over the world.
The city itself is amazing . Astonishing to an Australian especially one who grew up in an beachside resort city.
Nice is close to the Italian border and has a history of war occupation and resistance. There are enormous memorials to this.
From memory it was a major centre the Maque armed resistance against the Nazis which was a civil war against collaborators as well.
All civil wars are horrific. They often have atrocities as bad as any. Knowing the other people seems to make things worse.
I've never had so many warnings against pick pockets and muggings as in Nice. Cops seemed to be everywhere but they usually are in Europe come to think of it.
DeleteMike,
ReplyDeleteI couldn't get your audio file to work on my computer.
BTW, I think the guy was French/Tunisian, not Moroccan.
In the meantime their has been an attempted coup in Turkey to oust Islamist and Obama friend Erdogan.
Indeed, Tunisian.
DeleteI was too quick on the draw.
But I cannot believe what is going on in Turkey.
And, yet again, Obama sides with the Islamists.
btw, check the audio again, if you will.
DeleteAnd that goes for the rest of you palookas.
It works fine on my end, but I will definitely check into it.
I'm gettin' nuffem.
DeleteHuh. It works on my system and know that it works on others. You're not operating off of a tablet by any chance?
DeleteMacBook Pro
DeleteI don't know what to tell ya. I'm going to have to look into it.
DeleteI just find it peculiar that so many people were reluctant to call Orlando an Islamist attack, when it was obviously so, but virtually everyone agrees that Nice was a terrorist attack when we have no real evidence to suggest that it is.
ReplyDeleteWhat is peculiar is that there is so much reluctance to call these Islamic terrorist attacks when it is bleeding obvious it is.
DeleteA homophobic hate crime. Some lone wolf attack by a deranged mad man. A strike by lightning. A nasty problem in the truck's gearbox.
It's the Jews fault. Or the Republicans. Donald Trump.
Anything but truth.
.
Perhaps he was dissatisfied with the continental breakfast at the hotel.
DeleteNo eggs and bacon available at the buffet.
I'm on the lookout for the first mention of the Timothy McVeigh truck bombing. That always gets pulled out like a coin in the Xmas pudding.
DeleteThe Islamic State group said Saturday that the attacker was one of its "soldiers," the first claim of responsibility. It didn't name Bouhlel, but the statement, quoting an IS security member, said he was following IS calls to target citizens of the countries fighting the extremists.
DeleteThe veracity of the group's claim couldn't immediately be determined, but French officials didn't dispute it.
What is known publicly about Bouhlel so far suggests a troubled, angry, sometimes violent man with little interest in the group's ultra-puritanical brand of Islam. Neighbors described the father of three as a volatile man, prone to drinking and womanizing, who was in the process of getting a divorce. His own father, in Tunisia, said his son did not pray or fast for Ramadan, the Muslim holy month.
But in a statement to reporters, Cazeneuve hinted that Bouhlel may have had a last-minute adoption of a more extremist worldview.
"It seems he was radicalized very quickly," he said.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_FRANCE_TRUCK_ATTACK?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2016-07-16-07-53-44
Sometimes newest converts are the most extreme.