‘Leftist and Islamic groups have been trying for years to silence all criticism … and in the New Zealand massacre they see the best chance…’
(Ben Sellers, Liberty Headlines) In a 74-page manifesto posted by the Australian man charged with killing 50 people Friday in two attacks on New Zealand mosques, the shooter repeatedly said his goal was to foment tension and division.
He now is getting help in that effort from the unlikeliest of sources, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which has capitalized on the tragedy to pursue its own political objectives, including total suppression of Islamic criticism within the U.S.
According to the manifesto, the shooter sought “to create conflict between the two ideologies within the United States on the ownership of firearms in order to further the social, cultural, political and racial divide within the United [S]tates.”
The self-proclaimed white-supremacist’s objectives mirrored, in many ways, those of Middle Eastern jihadis in their bid to undermine alleged U.S. imperialism and global influence.
“[T]his balkanization will also reduce the USA’s ability to project power globally,” wrote the killer.
In a bizarre twist, one of those blamed for helping flame the “Islamophobia” that led to the attack was Chelsea Clinton, who was confronted by Muslim activists at New York University during a candle-light vigil Friday evening.
“This, right here, is a result of a massacre stoked by people like you and the words that you put out into the world,” a student activist told her.
The criticism apparently related to Clinton’s platitudinous condemnation following the series of anti-Semitic comments that Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., had made.
“We should expect all elected officials, regardless of party, and all public figures to not traffic in anti-Semitism,” tweeted Clinton—whose husband, Marc Mezvinsky, is Jewish.
In response to the abuse heaped on Clinton, current First Son Donald Trump Jr. tweeted his solidarity with her.
It’s sickening to see people blame @ChelseaClinton for the NZ attacks because she spoke out against anti-Semitism. We should all be condemning anti-Semitism & all forms of hate. Chelsea should be praised for speaking up. Anyone who doesn’t understand this is part of the problem.
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) March 16, 2019
The hollow effort by Islamic activists to deflect criticism of anti-Semitic positions using claims of “Islamophobia” defied all logic.
But some also worried that Islamist advocacy groups would attempt to use the New Zealand violence to silence other types of criticism by pressuring social media platforms to suppress it.
Jihad Watch Director Robert Spencer, described by the radical leftist Southern Poverty Law Center as “one of the most prolific anti-Muslim figures in the United States,” said he expects platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Google will take the opportunity to de-platform him.
“Leftist and Islamic groups have been trying for years to silence all criticism of jihad terror and Sharia oppression of women and others,” Spencer wrote in a piece published by Frontpage Mag on Monday, “and in the New Zealand massacre they see the best chance in a long time to move in for the kill.”
Spencer said the International Union for Muslim Scholars had called for a ban on Islamophobia at the end of a two-day summit in Istanbul on Friday.
“Since analysis of the motivating ideology behind jihad terror is routinely smeared as ‘hatred of Islam and Muslims,’ this will likely outlaw all such analysis and make opposition to jihad terror effectively impossible,” Spencer said.
Ironically, Saudi Arabia, which received international condemnation over its state-sanctioned dismembering of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, also chimed in on the mosque attack.
Saudi Arabia’s King Salman tweeted that the attack “reaffirms the responsibility of the international community in combating hate speech and terrorism that is not condoned by religions or the values of tolerance.”
But CAIR, which held a press conference on Friday, was perhaps the most egregious in its bid to exploit the shooting.
“CAIR’s press conference was a full-court press for censorship, and it painted, yet again, a large target on our backs for increasingly unhinged and violent Leftists,” Spencer said.
At the press conference, CAIR founder and CEO Nihad Awad cited a sentence from the killer’s own manifesto to delegate blame onto President Donald Trump “as symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose” while somehow missing the many parts where he had discussed Islamic extremism as a motivating factor.
Spencer said the Islamist groups and Leftist allies—all eager to avoid confronting the faith’s anti-Semitic, anti-female, anti-LGBT and pro-violence track record—sought to muddy the waters between reasonable censorship of the New Zealand murderer’s hate-based rhetoric and reasonable criticism of Islamic extremists’ hate-based rhetoric, creating a sort of uneasy alliance between the opposing groups that seek to stoke U.S. tensions.
“They have succeeded in fooling many people into thinking that it is ‘bigotry’ and ‘racism’ to oppose jihad terror, and have made those who discuss the motivating ideology behind jihad terror toxic in the public square,” Spencer said.
“Now Hamas-linked CAIR is attempting to use the New Zealand massacre to achieve total victory: the complete closure of all media platforms to foes of jihad terror and Sharia oppression,” he said.