Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Sunday: Here’s Where the (Abdulazeez) Story Ends
NB: The Sundays are a band, who, in 1990, released one of my favorite songs, “Here’s Where the Story Ends”
Feel free to hit play, and enjoy it as you read this article.
========================================================================================
I chose that song and title because it’s the first thing I thought of today, on Sunday, as I started to see the end of the MSM’s coverage of Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez, and his murderous rampage in Chattanooga.
We knew it was coming. President Obama, in his remarks after the shooting Thursday, once again wouldn’t use the phrase “Islamic terrorism.” Andrea Mitchell asked one of his classmates “Did He Hunt? Did He Shoot?” Liberals and the MSM have been desperate to avoid linking Abdulazeez to radical Islam, and avoid having to explain why they have done the same after other attacks by jihadists on American soil.
Sunday morning signaled the MSM’s official winding down of their coverage of the latest radical Islamist to strike here at home, with a multitude of articles about Abdulazeez and, are you sitting down, depression. From the AP:
Chattanooga shooter’s family says he suffered from depression
“There are no words to describe our shock, horror, and grief,” said the statement, provided Saturday to the Associated Press by a lawyer representing the family of Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez. “The person who committed this horrible crime was not the son we knew and loved. For many years, our son suffered from depression. It grieves us beyond belief to know that his pain found its expression in this heinous act of violence.”
“We understand there are many legitimate questions that need to be answered,” the statement said. “Having said this, now is the time to reflect on the victims and their families, and we feel it would be inappropriate to say anything more other than that we are truly sorry for their loss.”
…
The president of the Islamic Society of Greater Chattanooga said Abdulazeez’s father told him he felt blindsided and did not see any recent changes in his son.
“He told me that he had never seen it coming, and did not see any signs from his son that he would be that way and do something like that,” Bassam Issa said.
If you read the entire article, and you have been following the story closely, you’ll notice that some very key details have been left out of the story, and of course, the family’s statement.
- Chattanooga Gunman’s Father Put On, Then Removed from Terror Watch List
- Chattanooga Marine killer made mystery seven-month pilgrimage to Jordan
- Chattanooga Shooter’s Sister Self-Described ‘Palestinian Muslim’, Anti-Israel Activist
- Muhammad Abdulazeez reportedly spotted at gun range before deadly attack
- Chattanooga shooting: Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez told Muslims to ‘submit to Allah’ and ‘establish Islam in world’ days before rampage
- Chattanooga shooting suspect sent text containing Islamic verse before attack
Now, I’m not in law enforcement, but I would say that a pattern has been established, and explaining away Abdulazeez’s killing spree by saying it was caused by “depression” is disingenuous at best, and dangerous at worst. We do ourselves no favors when political correctness cows us into not discussing and fighting radical Islam right here in America. Continuing to do so will only serve to kill more people, blissfully ignorant of the dangers around them.
On Friday, I started to take note of the differences in coverage of Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez versus coverage of Charleston killer Dylann Roof.
USA Today tweets about both men:
The New York Times tweets about both men:
Many articles referred to Abdulazeez and an ordinary kid, or someone from an all-American background. With Roof, the MSM, rightly, wasn’t so generous.
After I read the stories today about Abdulazeez and depression, I went back and searched for tweets about Dylann Roof and depression (none of which were written by the MSM), like this one:
Radicalised into racism or just another white kid with depression? #DylannRoof #CharlestonShooting
— Naqui (@naqui_s) June 19, 2015
Oh, the irony.
Published in Domestic Policy, General, Islamist Terrorism
This has been painful to see. As I mentioned to the other editors, I was just gobsmacked to see this sentence in Time: “Little is known about Abdulazeez’s motives and if or when he became radicalized.” “If.” Exactly what else do you have to do to qualify?
In the very same article, they catalogue pretty much every behavior known to be associated with radicalization. In fact, the French public is repeatedly warned that these are “signs of radicalization,” which they ask the public to report to the security services.
Yet, somehow, we’re still fighting over the Confederate flag.
This was excellent, Cameron. I would enjoy the irony more were I not waiting for the rebound.
I don’t think the vast majority of us on Ricochet can read French.
I think it is a good thing that here has been so little sympathy for Dylan Roof and so little interest into what might have led him down the path he took. I think most of us have a similar attitude to Mr Abdulazeez but the media hasn’t figured that out yet. The media was astounded that there weren’t riots in Charleston and I suspect they are disappointed that there are not anti-muslim riots in Chattanooga.
An additional factoid was reported yesterday by the L.A. Times.
This is interesting because the Nashville Islamic Center has already unleashed one terrorist – Carlos Bledsoe AKA Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad – who murdered an American soldier and wounded another at a recruiting center in Little Rock in 2009. Remember that? Same dude also attempted to kill two different Rabbis.
Learn all of the highly, highly relevant details in this excellent 1 hr. documentary:
LOSING OUR SONS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uyxz8vsSdcM
If the man had wrote a note saying it was radical Islam the FBI would still lie about the motive. We exist in a space where truth has no place apparently.
Funny how the media suddenly decides that mental illness is a valid issue.
The hierarchy of political correctness is reinforced once again.
This is a constant in the Obama era. I first noticed it with Major Hassan. In the days following his shoot up of the military, I watched a PBS show in amazement as one panelist said his motive “was not for us to decide”. That was for the jury to decide. I wrote the show pointing out that the jury need not find any facts regarding motive, and in any event, the public is always free to speculate on anything, but I appreciated that they did not want people thinking about domestic Soldiers of Allah.
But the story does not end here just because the MSM wants it to. Everybody, and I mean everybody, knows exactly what happened and why, and is pondering again how to stay alive with Mohammed in the community. They know the government says one thing yet behaves in accordance with what everybody knows.
Remember how people were supposed to alert, were supposed to say something if they saw something? What would you be alert to? How would you report it without being a xenophobe? In the Obama era the MSM and Federal spokesmen just stick to “you never really know what motivated Mohammed to chop heads.”
I love The Sundays. I discovered them while perusing CDs in the Sight & Sound, which was where you bought your music,stereo, and video equipment on post in Germany.
Google translate does a pretty good getting-the-gist job with French, but the point is that Time writes, “Little is known about Abdulazeez’s motives and if or when he became radicalized,” and then rattles off a list of a classic list of signs of radicalization, and pretty much spells out both his motives and the timeline.
I am tech challenged, and didn’t see anyplace to click for translation. Thank you for telling me what it says. That is appreciated.
These are the same people that can call Rachel Dolezal black and Bruce Jenner female with a straight face.
If you go to Google Translate, you can copy and paste the URL — the address of the site, like http://www.ricochet.com — right into the window on the left. It will do its best to translate the whole site for you. The results are often hilarious, but with closely-related languages (like French and English), you can generally get a sense of what’s going on.
Signs like this are common in France, and helpfully — for people who can’t read French – they’ve offered pictograms:
Roughly translated, it says:
To recruit teenagers and young adults, boys and girls, terrorist groups usel techniques for mind control. This strategy resembles recruitment to a form of sectarian indoctrination. These manipulation techniques are designed to convince young people to gradually reject their environment, to isolate them, to put them under the authority of radical rhetoric, and convince them.
These are powerful methods: cases of radicalization over just a few weeks, have been observed.
Families are often bad at identifying signs that may be predictive of radicalization, and thus don’t know how to protect their loved ones. As part of the Government’s preventive approach, you can get help from specialized teams. Please contact the freephone number to be oriented: 0800 00 56 96 (free from a landline).
Jihadist Radicalisation: The First Warning Signs
The more numerous and obvious, the more urgent it is for family and friends to intervene
1) They distrust old friends, whom they now consider “impure.’
2) They reject members of their family.
3) They drastically change their eating habits.
4) They leave school or professional training because the education provided is part of the plot.
5) They stop listening to music because it distracts them from their “mission.”
6) They no longer watch television or go to the movies because they would see images that are forbidden to them there.
7) They stop participating in co-ed sports.
8) They change the way they dress, notably among girls, who wear clothing that hides their bodies.
9) They assiduously visit sites and social networks of a radical or extremist nature.
But they also fold inward, become unsocial, reject all forms of authority or community life.
These behaviors can be a sign of radicalisation in process. But each situation is unique, the identification of one or two signs does not necessarily indicate radicalization.
If you have any doubts or questions, call the hotline.
***
This is of course creepy — who wants a government that encourages families to denounce each other, then puts you under surveillance because you stopped using the co-ed swimming pool? But I’m not sure that it’s creepier than an outright refusal to admit that there’s a problem and that these communities are going to have to keep a careful eye on each other and work closely with the police. If there were no such thing as jihadi terrorism, of course this would be outrageous. But there is, so under the circumstances, it makes perfect sense to have signs like this in schools and mosques.
I’ll see your haunting reference and raise you an aching despair, just as bad for a reflection on where this is all going:
Waiting for someone to say “including Abdulazeez himself.”
Worse, these are the same people who can say that Bruce Jenner is female, but Rachel Dolezal is either a liar or a lunatic with a straight face.
You call that a straight face?
One of my favorite songs. And a reminder that I have been shirking my responsibilities.
Mrs. Doubtfire, white courtesy telephone please!