Muslim Terrorism and the ‘Terror-Amnesia Industry’
The bodies of the people slain by the Islamist fanatic were barely cold before sections of the media were fretting over how the ‘far right’ might react.
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The journalist Brendan O’Neill notes how after every terrorist attack by Muslims, the European governments and media and assorted talking heads do not focus on the attack itself and on the texts and teachings of Islam that prompted it, but rather, choose to worry about the “reaction” against Muslims as a result of that attack. More on this topsy-turvy moral universe can be found here: “We need more anger about Islamist terrorism, not less,” by Brendan O’Neill, Spiked, August 26, 2024:
The wisdom of the late Norm Macdonald has rarely felt so prescient. ‘What terrifies me’, the Canadian comic once tweeted, ‘is if ISIS were to detonate a nuclear device and kill 50 million Americans. Imagine the backlash against peaceful Muslims.’ It was a perfectly aimed jab at those who fear the public reaction to terrorism more than terrorism itself. At those leftish talking heads and phony liberals who see people in Manchester, Paris or Brussels being blown limb from limb by radical Islamists and instantly think: ‘Oh no, the Islamophobia is going to be terrible.’ These cowards and fainthearts have been out in force once more following the ISIS knife atrocity in Solingen.
A Syrian follower of ISIS in Germany, a phony “refugee” who had been ordered deported but, given the lackadaisical enforcement by the government, remained in the country, decided to kill Christians in Sollingen “to avenge Muslims” in Palestine and “everywhere.” He murdered three by stabbing and wounded eight others, four of them seriously. He was only following the Qur’anic injunction: “when you meet unbelievers, strike at their necks.” (Qur’an 47:4}
The bodies of the people slain by the Islamist fanatic were barely cold before sections of the media were fretting over how the ‘far right’ might react. It was on Friday evening, at a festival celebrating the 650th anniversary of the founding of the west German city, that a man went on a knifing frenzy. Three people were killed and eight wounded, four seriously. The suspect is a 26-year-old from Syria who, according to German prosecutors, shares the ideology of the Islamic State and was acting on those tyrannical extremist beliefs when he wielded his knife. He arrived in Germany as an asylum seeker in 2022, but although his claim was rejected, the authorities failed to deport him. ISIS has claimed responsibility for the slaughter, describing it as an intentional slaying of European Christians ‘to avenge Muslims in Palestine and everywhere’….
The BBC reports that ‘the attack may fuel an already fraught debate about immigration and asylum in Germany’. Shouldn’t it, though? That a foreign national murdered three people on behalf of a fanatical movement should raise questions, surely, about Germany’s asylum policy and security measures. ‘[The] far right is eyeing gains’, the BBC says, almost as if that is the worst thing that’s happened in Germany this past week. The unhinged dread of the post-terror response was best summed up in a surreal discussion on Sky News, where one of the participants said of the stabbing: ‘When you look at something like this, you just really worry about how it could be used by those on the far right to stir up hatred.’
And there it is: the Norm Macdonald tweet made flesh. The fantasy violence of a post-terror backlash seems to rattle some influencers more than the real-world violence of ISIS itself. The truth is, it is ISIS that has stirred up hatred in Germany. It is ISIS that has visited far-right terror on the good people of that nation. It is nothing short of bizarre that people can witness an act of fascistic violence, carried out with the blessing of one of the most intolerant, bigoted and racist movements on Earth, and think to themselves: ‘Oh no, we might see some fascist action now.’ The fascist action has already taken place. And it is not bigoted to feel angry about it. Those who respond to the supremacist slaughter of men, women and children across Europe by saying ‘Everyone needs to calm down’ terrify me far more than those who respond by asking blunt, probing questions. The latter, at least, are clearly shaken by the Islamists’ violent ripping at their civilisation.
Brendan O’Neill is in a well-justified rage at those in political lifeand the media swho greet each new Muslim terror attack in Europe not with anger at the attackers, whose attacks are too soon forgotten, but with anguish about how non-Muslims might “use these attacks” to whip up anti-Muslim sentiment. Don’t worry about how these attacks will lead people to be more anxious about, and angry with, Muslim migrants. That is the right response. Brendan O’Neill says that we should worry if they don’t.
