Freshly minted chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee Richard Burr appeared on This Week to assure Americans who bother to watch that the Muslim extremists worldwide are waging a war on western civilization. They're killing innocent people, folks. And apparently to Burr, they're the only ones on the planet doing that.
But when you look around the world, whether it's in Yemen, whether it's in Syria, whether it's in Iraq, whether it's in Afghanistan or in North Africa with Boko Haram, we've got terrorist elements that are carrying out terrorist acts and if you put that collection together, what you've got is a war on Western civilization. It really doesn't matter which terrorist group we insert into the blank. The commitment is that they're out to kill innocent people. And whether it happens in Paris or London or New York, we've got to collectively do our best to make sure that we thwart those attacks.
Perhaps a war on Western civilization is indeed underway, but it is not only being waged by Muslims. Consider the following statements, but without the reference to Muslims. All were made in the same segment.
- The target is to just go out and kill law enforcement and other officials.
- [T]hese lone wolves or small groups are very, very difficult to detect.
- The biggest thing that law enforcement has been struck by in recent months is the effectiveness of these social media online campaigns by the radicals. They're reaching to young people sitting in their basements in their pajamas.
- They're the masters of creative bomb making.
Those statements could just as easily apply to the militias and "patriots" right here in the United States.
Here are some recent news stories that didn't get the same play as the attack in Paris. In some cases, there is a clear attack on Western civilization. In others, freedom of speech and/or religion is the target. In all cases, those calling for violence are not Muslim at all.
- As Extremist ‘Constitutional Sheriffs’ Meet With Senators, Their Supporters Call For Obama’s Lynching
- Rome, Georgia: Trio arrested for conspiring to obtain bombs with "maximum fragmentation."
- IED explodes outside Colorado Springs NAACP office
- RNC Member Promotes White Supremacist Magazine, Says Muslims Are 'Not To Be Tolerated'
Since many of these threats came from self-proclaimed Christians, I think it's a good time to remind them and Senator Burr of Matthew 7:3-5:
Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.
We mourn the terrible deaths of 17 people abroad, officials shake their fists and vow they will ramp up the war against these brown extremists. But here at home, extremists and those they influence take the lives of hundreds every year, but no war is declared.
Mote and beam.
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