In Human Events this morning I discuss the case of Mohamed Osman Mohamud, the attempted jihad mass-murderer in Portland:
A Somali Muslim, Mohamed Osman Mohamud, was arrested in Portland, Oregon, as he was trying to explode what he thought was a bomb-filled van at a Christmas tree lighting ceremony. The explosives were fake, supplied to Mohamud by undercover agents; nonetheless, “the threat was very real,” said Arthur Balizan of the FBI in Oregon. “Our investigation,” said Balizan, “shows that Mohamud was absolutely committed to carrying out an attack on a very grand scale.” Yet in response, the mainstream media and Muslims in Portland have followed a drearily familiar script.
Mohamud made it clear that he was hoping to commit mass-murder in the name of Islam. In a video, after invoking Allah he warned Americans that “a dark day is coming your way.” He boasted that “Allah will have soldiers scattered everywhere across the world,” and challenged Muslims in the U.S.: “What has stopped you from fighting in the cause of Allah?” And he predicted that “you will see the victory of Islam.”
Yet despite Mohamud’s avowedly Islamic motivations, the Imam Yosof Wanly of the Salman Al-Farisi Islamic Center in Corvallis, Oregon, followed a predictable and oft-repeated pattern when he downplayed Mohamud’s connection to the local Muslim community and insisted that Mohamud’s plot was “completely, clearly, textually denounced in the Islamic religion.” He offered no texts from the Koran or Hadith to back up that assertion, and no reporter asked Wanly if Mohamud could have been inspired by such texts as “kill the idolaters wherever you find them” (Koran 9:5).
No reporter asked him to explain what was incorrect from an Islamic standpoint about the statements Mohamud had made about the Muslims’ obligation to fight defensive jihad against invading infidels. No reporter asked him what programs he had instituted or planned to institute at the Salman Al-Farisi Islamic Center to make sure that no other members of his community misunderstood the Religion of Peace as spectacularly as did Mohamed Mohamud. No reporter asked him what steps he was taking to cooperate with law enforcement officials to make sure Mohamud had no accomplices or allies within the mosque….