Denying Terrorism

http://www.netwmd.com/ ^ | February 8, 2005 | Daniel Pipes

[stevejackson]

Editor's note: Readers may also be interested in New Jersey: An Islamic Murder of Coptic Christians?.

Anyone following the investigation into the mid-January slaughter of the Armanious family (husband, wife, two young daughters), Copts living in Jersey City, N.J., knows who the presumptive suspects are: Islamists furious at a Christian Egyptian immigrant who dares engage in Internet polemics against Islam and who attempts to convert Muslims to Christianity.

The authorities, however, have blinded themselves to the extensive circumstantial evidence, insisting that "no facts at this point" substantiate a religious motive for the murders.

Somehow, the prosecutor missed that all four members of this quiet family were savagely executed in the ritualistic Islamist way (multiple knife attacks and near-beheading); that Jersey City has a record of Islamist activism and jihadi violence, and that an Islamist Web site, carried multiple threats against Hossam Armanious with postings such as: "We are going to track you down like a chicken and kill you."

Law enforcement seems more concerned to avoid an anti-Muslim backlash than to find the culprits.

This attitude of denial fits an all-too-common pattern. I previously documented a reluctance in nearby New York City to see as terrorism the 1994 Brooklyn Bridge ("road rage" was the FBI's preferred description) and the 1997 Empire State Building shootings ("many, many enemies in his mind," said Rudolph Giuliani). And the July 2002 LAX murders were initially dismissed as "a work dispute" and the October 2002 rampage of the Beltway snipers went unexplained, leaving the press to ascribe it to such factors as a "stormy [family] relationship."

These instances are part of a yet-larger pattern.

• The 1990 murder of Rabbi Meir Kahane by the Islamist El Sayyid Nosair was initially ascribed by the police to "a prescription drug for or consistent with depression."

• The 1999 crash of EgyptAir 990, killing 217 - by a co-pilot not supposed to be near the aircraft's controls at that time who repeated 11 times "I rely on God" as he wrenched the plane down - went unexplained by the National Transportation Safety Board.

• The 2002 purposeful crash of a small plane into a Tampa high-rise by bin Laden-sympathizer Charles Bishara Bishop went unexplained; the family chimed in by blaming the acne drug Accutane.

• The 2003 murder and near-decapitation in Houston of an Israeli by a former Saudi friend who had newly become an Islamist found the police unable to discern "any evidence" that the crime had anything to do with religion.

Nor is this a problem unique to American authorities.

• The 1993 attack on foreign guests dining at the Semiramis Hotel in Cairo, killing five, accompanied by the Islamist cry "Allahu Akbar," inspired the Egyptian government to dismiss the killer as insane.

• The 2000 attack on a bus of visibly Jewish schoolchildren near Paris by a hammer-wielding North African yelling "You're not in Tel-Aviv!" prompted police to describe the assault as the result of a traffic incident.

• The 2003 fire that gutted the Merkaz HaTorah Jewish secondary school in a Paris suburb, requiring 100 firefighters to douse the flames, was described by the French minister of the interior as being merely of "criminal origin."

• The 2004 murder of a Hasidic Jew with no criminal record as he walked an Antwerp street near a predominantly Muslim area left the Belgian authorities stumped: "There are no signs that racism was involved."

I have cited 13 cases here and provide information on further incidents on my weblog. Why this repeated unease acknowledging Islamist terrorism by the authorities, why the shameful denial?

And for that matter, why a similar unwillingness to face facts about right-wing extremists, as in the 2002 murder by a cursing skinhead of a Hasidic Jew outside a kosher pizzeria in Toronto, which the police did not find to rate as a hate crime? Because terrorism has much greater implications than prescription drugs going awry, road rage, lunatics acting berserk, or freak industrial accidents. Those can be shrugged off. Islamist terrorism, in contrast, requires an analysis of jihadi motives and a focus on Muslims, steps highly unwelcome to authorities.

And so, police, prosecutors, and politicians shy away from stark realities in favor of soothing and inaccurate bromides. This ostrich-like behavior carries heavy costs; those who refuse to recognize the enemy cannot defeat him. To pretend terrorism is not occurring nearly guarantees that it will recur.

http://netwmd.com/articles/article886.html

[jwalburg]

Well, it could be a rejection of terrorism, certainly, or it could be a deliberate plan to deny terrorists the ability to terrorize. If all their acts are portrayed as individual, personal tragedies, they are somewhat frustrated in their attempts to create panic.

[7.62 x 51mm]

Unbelieveable that they're getting away with this, but not unexpected. They can't handle the truth. Meanwhile, it's going to increase around the country. I wonder how many of them they can cover-up before they're exposed in the conspiracy to obstruct.

[Irene Adler]

Daniel Pipes is so often the "voice crying in the wilderness". Hope people start paying attention to this. It's hard to avoid feeling sold out by those in authority on the twin issues of illegal immigration and domestic terrorism.

That poor Coptic Christian family came to this country for freedom of religion and peace. Look what they got. Disgraceful! Makes me very angry.

I have Muslim relatives. If I would mention this vicious murder to them, I am certain they would wave it away as having nothing to do with them. A very scary attitude.

I find this all most alarming for what it portends for the future in this country and the world. Our officials are letting us down grievously by not addressing this issue firmly and consistently.

[stevejackson]

In other words, we'll need another 911 to wake people up. Unfortunately, almost half the country wasn't awoken by the 1st 911. Those ostriches will continue living in denial no matter what happens. I've concluded it is all about fear. The right is afraid, but still willing to act. The left is afraid, but wants to appease. Neville Chamberlain would be proud of European and U.S. leftists.