Looking for Islamophobia in all the Wrong Places
http://frontpagemag.com/2010/08/31/the-lefts-culture-of-inquisition/
Consistency is considered a virtue in most cases. But when it comes to jumping to conclusions and accusing the right of being responsible for the actions of mentally unbalanced people who become violent and commit hate crimes, or seem inspired by the far right fringe, the Left has demonstrated an ideological uniformity that turns virtue into embarrassing idiocy.
Call it “premature evisceration,” as the Left on several occasions has risen up in its self-righteous might to smite the right for its perceived “hate speech,” only to tiptoe away later with egg on its face when it was discovered that things were not quite as they seemed at first blush.
The most recent example of the Left’s premature evisceration occurred last week with the stabbing of Ahmed Sharif, a Muslim cab driver by Michael Enright — a 21 year old film student, recently returned from Afghanistan where he was embedded with the Marines to shoot a documentary on the war. Enright, an admitted alcoholic and AA member, got into Sharif’s cab and, after some pleasant conversation according to the cabbie, blurted out the question, “Are you a Muslim?” He then stabbed Sharif nearly killing him, and made his getaway. He was captured within minutes, accusing Mr. Sharif of trying to rob him.
“It’s not even Islamophobia, it’s beyond Islamophobia,” said Daisy Khan, wife of Park 51’s Feisal Abdul Rauf. “It’s hate of all Muslims,” she said in response to the attack.
Not to be outdone in the hysterical denunciation department, Mayor Bloomberg called critics of the development plan “un-American” and accused them of trying “to implicate all of Islam for the 9/11 attacks.”
Left wing blogs were full of denunciations of Park 51 opponents for their “hate speech” that, in their eyes, obviously fueled Enright’s attack. Evidently, as the progressive thinking seems tobe going on this: People opposed to the plan to place a community center and mosque so close to Ground Zero are out to oppress Muslims…or something. And all this talk about moving the development somewhere else was bound to cause some violence against Muslims.
Enright is one very disturbed young man. He had apparently gone on a bender prior to the stabbing incident and was so drunk at the time of his arrest that police couldn’t process him and shipped him off to Bellvue psychiatric hospital. He has since been moved into a psychiatric ward for evaluation. Journals that came to light written by the suspect detailed his 35 days in Afghanistan and authorities say “the notes do not include anti-Muslim rhetoric.”
Friends say he never uttered anti-Muslim statements. One friend and classmate states: “All I’ve ever heard is that he wants things to get better for everyone.”
To that end, the young man volunteered at Intersections International, which, according to the New York Times, is “an initiative of the Collegiate Churches of New York that promotes justice and faith across religions and cultures.” They are also rabid supporters of the community center and mosque.
Now admittedly, we do not know Mr. Enright’s politics or even his position on whether to go ahead with the project near Ground Zero. But the idea that he was motivated by hate — no matter what he screamed at a Muslim cabbie in a mentally confused drunken rage — just doesn’t compute.
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