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2012-03-22 Europe
Lather, Rinse, and Repeat
By Mark Steyn

The killer of French schoolchildren and soldiers turns out to be a man called Mohammed Merah. The story can now proceed according to time-honored tradition:

Stage One: The strange compulsion to assure us that the killer is a “right wing conservative extremist,” in the words of NRO commenter ExpatAsia, echoed by Chrisman and Galt’s Bain. Up north, this view was shared by Canada’s most prominent establishment Jew and the Liberal Party attack poodle Warren Kinsella (whom NR readers may recall from my free-speech cover story, which mentioned the groveling apology he was forced to make to “the Chinese community” after an unfortunately sinophobic cat joke). The insistence that the killer was emblematic of an epidemic of right-wing hate sweeping the planet is, regrettably, no longer operative. Instead, the killer isn’t representative of anything at all.

So on to Stage Two: Okay, he may be called Mohammed but he’s a “lone wolf.” Sure, he says he was trained by al-Qaeda, but what does he know? Don’t worry, folks, he’s just a lone wolf like Major Hasan and Faisal Shahzad and all the other card-carrying members of the Amalgamated Union of Lone Wolves. All jihad is local.

On to Stage Three: Okay, even if there are enough lone wolves around to form their own Radio City Rockette line, it’s still nothing to do with Islam. I’m sad to see the usually perceptive Ed West of the London Telegraph planting his flag on this wobbling blancmange.

And then, of course, Stage Four: The backlash that never happens. Because apparently the really bad thing about dead Jews is that it might lead to dead non-Jews: “French Muslims Fear Backlash After Shooting.” Likewise, after Major Hasan’s mountain of dead infidels, “Shooting Raises Fears For Muslims In US Army.” Likewise, after the London Tube slaughter, “British Muslims Fear Repercussions After Tomorrow’s Train Bombing.” Oh, no, wait, that’s a parody, though it’s hard to tell.

Look, pace Ed West, isn’t it just a teensy-weensy little bit to do with Islam? Or at any rate the internal contradictions of one-way multiculturalism? No, it’s not a competition. Most times in today’s Europe, the guys beating, burning and killing Jews will be Muslims. Once in a while, it will be somebody else killing the schoolkids. But is it so hard to acknowledge that rapid, transformative, mass Muslim immigration might not be the most obvious aid to social tranquility? That it might possibly pose challenges that would otherwise not have existed — for uncovered women in Oslo, for gays in Amsterdam, for Jews everywhere? Is it so difficult to wonder if, for these and other groups living in a long-shot social experiment devised by their rulers, the price of putting an Islamic crescent in the diversity quilt might be too high? What’s left of Jewish life in Europe is being extinguished remorselessly, one vandalized cemetery, one subway attack at a time. How many Jewish children will be at that school in Toulouse a decade hence? A society that becomes more Muslim eventually becomes less everything else. What is happening on the Continent is tragic, in part because it was entirely unnecessary.
Posted by tu3031 2012-03-22 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11134 views ]  Top

#1 I recall a spoof headline from the UK some time back.
"Muslim leaders concerned about backlash from next week's bombing."
Posted by Richard Aubrey  2012-03-22 01:09||   2012-03-22 01:09|| Front Page Top

#2 WaPo opines: more discrimination against Muslim communities is hardly the right response.
Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2012-03-22 02:10||   2012-03-22 02:10|| Front Page Top

#3 Lone wolf? His whole family must be lone wolves then.
Posted by gorb 2012-03-22 06:05||   2012-03-22 06:05|| Front Page Top

#4 Don't forget Beslan. There the MSM bent over backwards and even did a few backflips in order to give the followers of Islam cover. Calling them 'gangsters' and 'hostage takers' - anything except Islamists or Muslims.
And when that breaks down they roll out the old 'lone wolves' BS.
Posted by Crazyfool 2012-03-22 08:26||   2012-03-22 08:26|| Front Page Top

#5 CBS News, Nov 10, 2009

Hasan Likely "Lone Wolf," Officials Say
Posted by Besoeker 2012-03-22 08:33||   2012-03-22 08:33|| Front Page Top

#6 How strange that his name was Mohammed (sarc)! I'm seeing a pattern here.
Posted by JohnQC 2012-03-22 09:03||   2012-03-22 09:03|| Front Page Top

#7 See? I told you he was a MOSLEM.
Posted by newc 2012-03-22 10:02||   2012-03-22 10:02|| Front Page Top

#8 Speaking as a fellow right winger and lone wolf -

I'm just glad he didn't shoot the schoolchildren in support of a balanced budget amendment.
Posted by flash91 2012-03-22 11:25||   2012-03-22 11:25|| Front Page Top

#9 Monsieur Merah took himself off to Pakistan to get training in the arts of jihad, which some jihadi group or other gave him...twice. His family was apparently involved in his little escapade. If we define the forward scouts of an invading army as lone wolves because they are not striding forward in the midst of the mass of their fellows, shoulder to shoulder and all that, then Mr Merah and Major Dr. Hasan, PhD are also lone wolves.
Posted by trailing wife 2012-03-22 13:35||   2012-03-22 13:35|| Front Page Top

#10 Wolves are not that stupid and also hate people with their dna with a passion!
Posted by Phaitle Snore6233 2012-03-22 16:01||   2012-03-22 16:01|| Front Page Top

#11 Wolves are not that stupid and also hate people with their dna with a passion!

I must be slow today, Phaitle Snore6233. Would you be so kind as to explain what you mean? Thank you.
Posted by trailing wife 2012-03-22 16:39||   2012-03-22 16:39|| Front Page Top

#12 I think he or she means that wolves hate werewolves.

My aged aunt has to hook herself up to some contraption every night because she suffers from Phaitle Snore syndrome.
Posted by Gabby Cussworth 2012-03-22 17:16||   2012-03-22 17:16|| Front Page Top

#13 *giggle*
Posted by trailing wife 2012-03-22 18:56||   2012-03-22 18:56|| Front Page Top

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