Daily Mail headline:
‘We could have another Timothy McVeigh’: U.S. authorities warned against anti-Islamic terrorism after Norway shooter ‘inspired’ by Robert Spencer and Unabomber
Look at that headline. Named in it are three mass murderers and me.
In my work I have never called for, approved of, endorsed, or advocated violence against anyone, and have denounced attacks on innocent Muslims. If, despite all that, I am responsible for the Norway shootings, then would not the Daily Mail be responsible if someone kills me?
I get death threats all the time, and take them seriously. I don’t speak in public places without guards. The possibility that an Islamic jihadist might take me out is much larger than the possibility that some nut might misread my writings and go kill innocent people — after all, just look at how many jihad attacks there are around the world every day. And now I am more in the bullseye than ever, courtesy the Daily Mail (which should know better, given how much news it prints about the Islamization of Britain).
If I am guilty of incitement, so are they. If I am not, they are not. But they can’t have it both ways, and neither can any of the others who are piling on these days. If writing critically about something constitutes incitement to violence, then any critical writing about anything, including writing that is critical of me and my colleagues, constitutes incitement to violence.
Weren’t the murders of Theo van Gogh and Pim Fortuyn enough to make them end this hateful rhetoric?