WSJ: Islamist Terror, PC and Protecting Innocents
There are too many who can’t differentiate between criminals in the Muslim community and the Muslim community at large.
Dorothy Rabinowitz is correct in “Denying the Obvious About Islamist Terror” (op-ed, Jan. 12). Given the slaughter of 9/11 and other terror attacks by Muslim savages, the American people have, by and large, shown the beauty I know they have by rejecting the calls by some to demonize all Muslims.
The reason that Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney—and I applaud him for it—had to insist that the alleged actions of shooter Edward Archer had nothing to do with Islam or its teachings is because, sadly, there are too many people who cannot differentiate between criminals in the Muslim community and the Muslim community at large.
It is only the Muslim community that has the sins of its tiny number of criminals projected onto the whole community. There were no armed “patriots” standing outside Catholic churches in the wake of the clergy sex-abuse scandals. Everyone knows that all white men aren’t to be blamed for the crimes of the few who commit mass shootings.
When it comes to Muslims, however, this same logic doesn’t apply. Mayor Kenney wasn’t “sermonizing” or patronizing the public, but seeking to remind it that all Muslims should not be blamed for the alleged actions of Edward Archer. He was trying to assure that the Muslim woman in a head scarf buying groceries won’t be cursed with racial slurs, or the mosque won’t be firebombed or the Sikh man wearing a turban—who isn’t even Muslim—won't be attacked and killed.
I think Mayor Kenney should be commended.
Hesham A. Hassaballa, Board Member, CAIR-Chicago
Chicago