McVeigh, Moslems, and the Infatuated Left

Some leftists in their present infatuation with Islam continually point to Timothy McVeigh - saying that since he was a Christian terrorist, this somehow proves that there is no particular connection between Islam and terrorism and that those seeing such a connection are simply bigots. Such claims are not made as logical arguments, since whatever McVeigh may have been is quite clearly irrelevant to the other question (claiming such connections in no way asserts that only Moslems can be terrorists), but more in the manner of talking points. Even there they come up short even if we ignore the fact that there is some ambiguity about what McVeigh’s actual religious opinions were and accept that he was the Catholic he sometimes professed to be. There is no evidence or suggestion that he committed his crime because of or in support of his Catholicism. Neither is there a record of his shouting a Catholic prayer or slogan as his bomb went off. He did not belong to an international organization of Catholics dedicated to committing similar acts against heathens and heretics on behalf of their church. His act did not set off wild celebratory riots in Catholic countries. No Catholic government funded or shielded his co-conspirators. There were no influential Catholic clergymen announcing that his crime was justified and his deed glorious martyrdom. The parallels just aren’t there.

This silly business is symptomatic of something that can have serious consequences. Many on the left and in the administration defend Islam with a false dichotomy asserting in effect that one must either believe Islam and terrorism are not connected or join the bigots in deciding all Moslems are terrorists. They then point to the existence of nonviolent Moslems to show that the bigots are wrong and claim that they must be right, ignoring that their two alternatives are far from exhaustive. One can see that there are moderate Moslems, secular, humane Moslems, indifferent Moslems, pacifist Moslems, Moslems who just want to tend their gardens, and various sorts of other nonviolent Moslems, and still also see that on average followers of Islam are far more likely to commit, support or celebrate acts of violence against nonbelievers on behalf of their faith than are followers of any other major religion. No one should deny that there are moderate Moslems. There are also nice-guy Marxists and very intelligent people who believe in astrology. This does not change the fact that Marxism is an inhumane doctrine or that astrology is nonsense. Neither does the fact that millions of Moslems are not interested in jihad change the fact that at the present time Islam is much more a religion of the sword than is Christianity or any other major religion. This does not mean one should hate Moslems, but it is a relevant datum in dealing with the world situation, and denying or ignoring it is dangerous.