On Islamic Terrorism, the Administration’s Tone-Deafness Continues

I noted yesterday that the administration’s response to the terrorist attacks in Copenhagen has been weirdly tone-deaf, especially considering how badly President Obama fumbled the Paris attacks a few weeks ago, most notably with his bizarre description of the terrorist in the kosher deli attack “randomly shoot[ing] a bunch of folks in a deli in Paris.” Obama could have retrieved that gaffe, at least partially, by properly taking note of the patently anti-Semitic nature of the attack on the Copenhagen synagogue while a bat mitzvah was in progress.

A day later, the administration still hasn’t commented on the synagogue shooting. President Obama is busy golfing and has been incommunicado. Shortly after the attack on the Copenhagen free speech seminar, but before the synagogue shooting had taken place, National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan issued a statement condemning the free speech shootings. That statement has not been updated to take account of the synagogue murder, nor has anyone else commented on behalf of the White House.

The administration’s strange reluctance to identify correctly the victims of Islamic terrorism continued yesterday, when the White House Press Secretary responded to the simultaneous beheading of 21 Christians in Libya by ISIS. The statement was titled, “Statement by the Press Secretary on the Murder of Egyptian Citizens.” Well, yes, the 21 kidnapped Christians were citizens of Egypt. But ISIS made it clear that the men were murdered solely because they were Christians. Yet, weirdly, the White House statement never mentions the motive for the murders or acknowledges that the victims were Christian. Apparently in the White House’s view, they were just some more “random folks” who mysteriously ran afoul of non-Islamic terrorism.

If you didn’t know better, you might think there is a pattern here.

Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.

Responses