In an editorial today, the New York Times issues a demand to the anti-Islam bloggers whose work Norway terror defendant Anders Breivik cited in his manifesto:Mr. Breivik appears to have been deeply influenced by a small group of American bloggers and writers who have warned for years about Islam's supposed threat to Western civilization. Their tendency to paint law-abiding Muslims with the same brush as extremists is repugnant. They need to categorically denounce Mr. Breivik's depravity.OK, here's Robert Spencer on Saturday: "SIOA and SIOE [Stop Islamization of America and Stop Islamization of Europe] declare our sympathy for the victims and relatives of the victims of the heinous mass murders in Norway. We denounce the attacker and reiterate our dedication to the defense of free societies and opposition to all vigilantism and violence."
And here's Pamela Geller, also on Saturday: "He is a murderer, a mass murderer. Period. He's not anything else. He is sick, sick to death and he has aided the enemy in so many ways it defies comprehension. Anyone who would kill children is insane. And if he's a right winger who hates Muslims, how does that translate into killing a bunch of political youth party Workers' Youth League? . . . I despise savagery and inhumanity in any all instances. Period. This abject loser lowered himself to sub-human status."
One need not endorse Spencer's or Geller's views to acknowledge that they have already done what the Times demanded of them three days later. The Times's failure to acknowledge that is sloppy and dishonest.
A postscript: Yesterday we wrote that we did not know Spencer's religion. A reader points out that in a lengthy bio on his website, he says he is Catholic. If we'd have guessed, we'd have gotten it wrong. Another lesson in the importance of not jumping to conclusions.
I can only add this: the liberal attempt to blame conservatives for the Norway massacre has a secondary purpose besides the attempt to make Christians and conservatives look bad. It also deflects attention away from the culpability of the Left for the attack itself.
The mad policies of the culture of death and multiculturalism, which lead to the failure of a society to reproduce itself, and the naive Utopian belief that millions of Muslim immigrants can be brought into Western countries without being assimilated to the ethos of the West with no problems have created the conditions under which social peace is strained to the breaking point,. Those who have advocated such insane ideas should now take responsibility for the breakdown in social peace and civility. This is not to justify terrorism; it is to point out that the warnings conservatives have been issuing for years have not been heeded and violence has been the result. We wish liberals were willing to rethink multiculturalism precisely so that violence could be avoided.
When you meditate on the horror of terrorism - from both European and Islamic sources - remember that this is the entirely predictable fruit of policies the Left has convinced us to implement. So when will the editors of the New York Times apologize for their errors? When will they accept responsibility for the inevitable outcome of their policies? When will they apologize for mass murder in Norway?
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