Gleen: Repellant to Say that Yelling 'Allahu Akbar' During a Shooting Rampage Is Suggestive of Terrorism

Patterico is still keeping an eye on the lamest "thinker" of the Left, long after we stopped caring. This one is noteworthy though as a demonstration of how desperately Democrats will cling to their community-based reality, even when the truth is shooting us in the face.

Writes Patterico:

I’m at a loss for words to express how stupid Greenwald’s claim is — and indeed, I needn’t mock it, because it mocks itself. May I remind you: on September 11, 2001, Muslim hijackers aboard Flight 93 yelled that phrase as they piloted the plane into the ground. Coincidence, I’m sure.

If common sense isn’t enough for you — if you really need to rely a lawyerly-sounding definition of “terrorism” — how about the one used by the U.S. Department of Defense: “The calculated use of violence or threat of violence to inculcate fear; intended to coerce or try to intimidate governments or societies in the pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious, or ideological.”

At the risk of explaining the painfully obvious: when you yell “Allahu Akbar” during a shooting rampage, that’s evidence that the shooter had Allah’s greatness on the brain during the time of the murder. That suggests a religious motivation, which suggests terrorism.

When Greenwald characterizes as “repellent” the claim that shouting “Allahu Akbar” suggests terrorism, he is engaging in the same sort of political correctness that caused military brass to turn a blind eye to Hasan’s extremist support of Muslim terrorism.

Which is to say, it’s attitudes like Greenwald’s that helped Nidal Hasan kill 13 people at Fort Hood.

All emphasis in the original. Patterico's right, of course. Hasan wasn't muttering "Allahu Ackbar" in the street before he got gunned down for doing something "suggestive" of terrorism. He was yelling "Allahu Ackbar" while shooting Americans on an Army base.

And even as I'm writing that paragraph, my "no friggin' duh" buzzer is going off. At this point I'd ordinarily delete it because it's so obvious it's painful to read, but I'll leave it this time for any trolls who wander by and because Gleen apparently cannot make the simple connection: VIOLENCE + RELIGIOUS/POLITICAL/IDEOLOGICAL MOTIVE = SUGGESTIVE OF TERRORISM.

More and more as Obama's presidency progresses, I get the feeling when I hear Leftists speak or read their writing that we're not even using the same language anymore. The words sound familiar, but I suspect they're all suffering from some politically-induced aphasia.

posted by Gabriel Malor at 12:42 PM

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