On Wednesday, Dec. 2, in San Bernardino, California, Syed Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik “donned assault clothing, armed themselves with rifles and stormed a holiday party attended by San Bernardino County employees, killing 14 people and wounding 17 others,” according to news reports.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) wasted no time, calling a news conference that afternoon near Los Angeles. Farhan Khan, the brother-in-law of Farook, announced he was bewildered by the news. “Why would he do that? Why would he do something like this? I have absolutely no idea. I am in shock myself,” Khan said.
Hussam Ayloush, executive director of CAIR in the Los Angeles area, appealed to the public not to jump to conclusions about the suspects’ motives. “Is it work? Is it rage-related? Is it mental illness? Is it extreme ideology?” he said. “We just don’t know.”
But we do know. We know all too well. The facts of the case are still coming out, but it is known that Farook recently returned from Saudi Arabia and that his attack was carefully planned. The carnage occurred at a “holiday” party, and the timing did not likely escape his attention.
The Reuters headline reads: “Couple’s motive in California rampage a mystery for police, family.”
But there is no mystery. None whatsoever, unless one is so blinkered by denial and delusion that Islamic jihad simply does not and cannot register in one’s mind.
The intrepid New York Times editorial board, as if acting according to script, attempted an immediate sharp left turn into Gun Control. On Thursday morning, the top right headline on the Times website read, “The Horror in San Bernardino.” “Yet another mass shooting underlines the need for sensible controls on gun sales across America.” Adjacent was an opinion piece by Nicholas Kristof. “On Guns, We’re Not Even Trying.” The teaser ran: “Firearms take a life every 16 minutes in America, and we’re not even working on remedies.”
For two decades CAIR, Islamic education organizations, and self-appointed Islamic spokesmen have allied themselves with revisionist historians, Middle East specialists, and celebrities whose anti-American and anti-Western views match their own. They have largely succeeded in shifting and controlling acceptable opinion about what is and is not said about Islam in schools and universities, government and philanthropies, in newspaper editorials, and on television and film. Even the military sometimes seems eager to cater to Muslim feelings.
In Nov. 2009, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a U.S.-born Muslim like Farook, bowed his head for several seconds at his Ft. Hood office, suddenly stood up, shouted “Allahu Akbar!” and opened fire, killing 13 soldiers and civilians, and wounding 32 others.
General George Casey, U.S. Army chief of staff, quickly cautioned against jumping to conclusions about whether religious beliefs motivated the accused gunman.
“Our diversity, not only in our Army, but in our country, is a strength,” he added, when asked on NBC’s Meet the Press whether Muslim soldiers might be conflicted in fighting wars in Muslim countries like Afghanistan and Iraq. “And as horrific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that’s worse.”
Last year, when Bill Maher observed on his HBO Real Time television talk show that Islamic countries have some very illiberal policies, actor Ben Affleck crazily attacked Maher and fellow guest Sam Harris as racists. “Affleck hurled the racist charge the way a fundamentalist would shout at evil spirits,” commented journalist and filmmaker Mark Judge.
Islamists make appeals to diversity and tolerance, adopting soft-focus language to disarm Americans emotionally, at least those who want to believe. They seek to suspend all critical thought about Islam, using free speech, so-called, to win the culture wars, with grave implications for national security. The American devotion to religious pluralism gives them a political wedge.
I have been tracking this cultural assault in U.S. elementary and high school textbooks for a decade or more. I remain puzzled and shocked that progressive Americans ardently fail to acknowledge Islam for what it is and what it seeks.
Keep in mind. Many Islamists reject freedom of speech and religion, thinking of non-Muslims as infidels without human rights. They openly subjugate women, excluding them from governance, worship or thought. They think homosexuals should perish. They by and large approve of terror and believe that apostates deserve to die.
Perhaps Islam is the religion of peace, and Ben Affleck and Gen. Casey will certainly assure us of that. Unfortunately, many dolts will listen to them.
But peace means submission to Islamic rule and Islamic law. The absence of sharia law is the absence of peace. With God on its side, Islam wages eternal global war against territories under non-Islamic rule. Until they cease to exist or submit to forces loyal to Allah and his Prophet, the holy struggle will endure. And so will the lethal, ghastly incidents being splashed across the news.
