I’ll Apologize for Robert Dear when Anjem Choudary Apologizes for the Paris Attacks

As of right now, we know virtually nothing about Robert L. Dear, the man involved in the shootout near a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs yesterday. We don’t know his motivations, his political leanings, or even if he was targeting the Planned Parenthood clinic. We know nothing except that three people are dead, tragically including a police officer who responded to the scene.

Of course, none of that matters to left wing commentators, who have already convicted the entire Republican Party of murder. As I have watched the news coverage of this event, virtually every lefty talking head has groused aloud about extremist pro-life rhetoric being a likely cause for Dear’s murderous rampage. The CEO of the National Abortion Federation has already issued a statement directly blaming the damning series of videos about Planned Parenthood’s sale of baby parts for the shootings; even though, for all we know, Dear is like the average Democrat member of Congress who has never watched the videos.

If it does turn out that Dear was an anti-abortion activist who shot up the Planned Parenthood over either angst about abortion or about the sale of aborted baby parts – and that is still a very big “if” at this point – then round two of the public flagellation of the pro-life movement will commence. In this round, pro-life commentators will be dragged on screen and quizzed about the rhetoric of extremist pro-lifers, and about the graphic videos, and whether sites like RedState are in part to blame for Dear’s actions.

Sadly, news producers are likely to find enough cowardly conservatives who crave camera time who will be willing to do this, but I hope this time at least one conservative will realize how this game is played and refuse to go along.

Personally, even if it turns out when they search Robert Dear’s computer that he read RedState every single day, you won’t find me apologizing for his actions until someone in the media sticks a microphone in Anjem Choudary’s face and asks him to apologize for the attacks in Paris.

Don’t know who Anjem Choudary is? Choudary is, by the standards of Muslims, relatively moderate – which means that by the standards of Western Civilization he is only about 200 years behind the times in terms of tolerance of different viewpoints. Until recently, Choudary was a regular fixture on BBC and other Western networks as an expert on Islam. He fell out of favor recently when British authorities arrested him on charges of encouraging support for ISIS. He was released on bail which was recently revoked for meeting with an ISIS radical.

After the attacks on Charlie Hebdo by Muslim terrorists in late 2014, instead of condemning the attackers, Choudary declared on Twitter that free speech could not include insulting the prophet Mohammed. When Charlie Hebdo responded to the attacks by publishing another cover featuring a drawing of Mohammed, Choudary called it an “act of war” and said that in a Sharia court, it would be punishable by death.  The clear implication of Choudary’s comments was that someone should attack and kill Charlie Hebdo workers again.

Choudary, of course, is not nearly unique in this respect. The response of Muslims worldwide to both Charlie Hebdo cartoons was threats and incitements to violence in online Muslim blogs and on twitter.

And yet, when 130 innocent Parisians were killed by violent Muslim terrorists, neither Anjem Choudary nor any other Muslim cleric was rushed before cameras and demanded to condemn and apologize for their religious brethren. In fact, the media went to great pains to allege, again and again, that Islam was not responsible and had nothing to do with this. Hillary Clinton specifically said that Islam had “nothing to do” with what happened at all, as if all the many attackers suddenly contracted a violent mental illness that we don’t have a specific name for yet.

Here is a reminder of the facts: since the turn of the century, exactly one abortion provider, George Tiller, has been killed in anti-abortion violence. One. As much as Planned Parenthood et al try to fundraise off an alleged culture of violence against abortion providers, they are subject to homicide at a rate far lower than that of the general population.

Meanwhile, just in 2015,  there have already been over a dozen attacks by Muslim terrorists that have killed over 100 people at once. More than four times the number of people died just in the Paris attacks than have died in the entire history of anti-abortion violence.

It’s impolite to ask Muslims to what extent their doctrine harbors and encourages the violent extremists in their midst. Pro-life conservatives? Not so much – raking them over the coals is just par for the course.

I’m more than happy to go on television and condemn these attacks, because it so happens that I do condemn them – but not until the media starts applying this standard fairly to the real cause of the vast majority of terrorism in the world.

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