Say It Like It Is (NYT columnist criticizes Obama over Islamic terrorism)

New York Times ^ | January 20, 2015 | Thomas L. Friedman

[reaganaut1]

I’ve never been a fan of global conferences to solve problems, but when I read that the Obama administration is organizing a Summit on Countering Violent Extremism for Feb. 18, in response to the Paris killings, I had a visceral reaction: Is there a box on my tax returns that I can check so my tax dollars won’t go to pay for this?

When you don’t call things by their real name, you always get in trouble. And this administration, so fearful of being accused of Islamophobia, is refusing to make any link to radical Islam from the recent explosions of violence against civilians (most of them Muslims) by Boko Haram in Nigeria, by the Taliban in Pakistan, by Al Qaeda in Paris and by jihadists in Yemen and Iraq. We’ve entered the theater of the absurd.

Last week the conservative columnist Rich Lowry wrote an essay in Politico Magazine that contained quotes from White House spokesman Josh Earnest that I could not believe. I was sure they were made up. But I checked the transcript: 100 percent correct. I can’t say it better than Lowry did:

“The administration has lapsed into unselfconscious ridiculousness. Asked why the administration won’t say [after the Paris attacks] we are at war with radical Islam, Earnest on Tuesday explained the administration’s first concern ‘is accuracy. We want to describe exactly what happened. These are individuals who carried out an act of terrorism, and they later tried to justify that act of terrorism by invoking the religion of Islam and their own deviant view of it.’

[reaganaut1]

It's not often you see a liberal NYT columnist cite National Review to eviscerate a Democratic president.

[Verginius Rufus]

I caught Adm. James Lyons on C-SPAN3 this morning (replay but the original event was within the past few days), saying that we are at war with Islam--he derided the attempt to distinguish between "radical Islam" and "moderate Islam."

He's a retired admiral.

[Uncle Miltie]

(most of them Muslims) by Boko Haram in Nigeria, by the Taliban in Pakistan, by Al Qaeda in Paris and by jihadists in Yemen and Iraq.

Hey Tommy! You cite 100% muslime terrorist acts. That's not "most". That's "ALL"!

[alloysteel]

To lay the source of the Paris massacres at the feet of Islamic jihadist terrorists, is to tacitly admit that you have SUPPORTED just such terrorism, if you are yourself sympathetic to Islam in all its forms.

Therefore terrorism cannot be labeled as Islamic terrorism (though Islamic terrorists are at the root of some 95% of the terrorism that goes on in the would today). It is important, instead, to go after gun owners and those who protest the cancerous growth of government into even the most minute aspect of personal life.

[bboop]

“Til Hell freezes over” - I would never have expected to see Tom Friedman and the NYT come out against Obama. Wow. Folks are slowly waking up.

[Excellence]

But you don’t see this in the two giant Muslim communities in Indonesia or India.

He hasn’t been paying attention.

[Jean2]

Especially from a clown like Thomas Friedman!

[dowcaet]

All these years the media would always find a way to defend Islam and separate the religion from the terrorists who invoke its name. I guess the attacks in Paris against one of their own are causing some of them to sing a different tune now. Stupid people.

[Sacajaweau]

This was supposedly canceled once...and it will be canceled again. It’s simply not reality.

[stephenjohnbanker]

Tom Friedman and the NYT ......

MIA for 6 years.

SCREW the NYT.

[Olog-hai]

Indeed, Friedman of all columnists. Although he probably is loath to admit that Obama is what the “right-wingers” said he is all this time.

[Sacajaweau]

http://www.techtimes.com/articles/25911/20150112/u-s-to-host-summit-to-counter-violent-extremism.htm

[Sacajaweau]

The post at No. 12 tells...right at the end...that the original summit was canceled in October. Hmmmm....just be election...

[Sacajaweau]

Says it's in response to the Paris killings. Well, that's a damn lie.

It was originally scheduled for October.....just before elections. See Post 12

[envisio]

Darn, I’d like to read the rest of the article... no way I’m going to click on a link to that cesspool though.

[Dqban22]

Christians Burned Alive: Where’s the Outrage? <[p>Raymond Ibrahim

Powerline

By John Hinderaker

http://www.raymondibrahim.com/in-the-media/christians-burned-alive-wheres-the-outrage/

From Pakistan, another in a long series of horrifying news stories: because of a (presumably false) rumor that they had burned pages of a Koran, a Christian couple was burned alive by a mob of Muslims:

Sajjad Maseeh, 27, and his wife Shama Bibi, 24, were set upon by at least 1,200 people after rumors circulated that they had burned verses from the Quran, family spokesman Javed Maseeh told NBC News via telephone late Thursday. Their legs were also broken so they couldn’t run away.

“They picked them up by their arms and legs and held them over the brick furnace until their clothes caught fire,” he said. “And then they threw them inside the furnace.”

Bibi, a mother of four who was four months pregnant, was wearing an outfit that initially didn’t burn, according to Javed Maseeh. The mob removed her from over the kiln and wrapped her up in cotton to make sure the garments would be set alight.

OBAMA, AMERICA SHARES VALUES WITH ISLAM

ISLAM IS A RELIGION OF PEACE

MUSLIN BROTHERHOOD INFILTRATE OBAMA’S ADMINISTRATION

[Brad from Tennessee]

Lowry’s referenced Politico column:

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/01/charlie-hebdo-of-course-it-is-islam-114277.html#.VL_mhi79m1s

[lentulusgracchus]

It's not often you see a liberal NYT columnist cite National Review to eviscerate a Democratic president.

Huge admission by Friedman. To get the goods, he had to turn to National Review. I thought the New York Times was the "newspaper of record"?

Major, huge, gigundo buck-up for Tea Party conservatives. "Tom, we told you about this guy!"

[what's up]

Wow...Friedman criticizing the White House?

Also, this morning the NYT's Peter Baker was critical of Obama's foreign policy.

Surprise surprise.

[Bluestocking]

After our own Islamic terrorist attack on 9/11, the world stood with us.

Not a single country stood apart pooh-poohing our concern over radical Islamic terrorism and the need to face up to it and defeat it.

Yet when France had its own Islamic terrorist attack a few weeks ago, our president refused to show solidarity both with France and the leaders of the world in their march in Paris, and now our president refuses to acknowledge that Islamic terrorists — self-declared haters of non-Muslims who are bent on destroying the non-Muslim world — are anything more than run-of-the mill extremists.

In a few days, Obama will be traveling to India, which experienced an Islamic terrorist attack of its own in Mumbai in 2008 by a group of Pakistani terrorists. In fact, this week India has been placed on high-alert because of an attack threat written on a wall in Mumbai’s airport. So what will Obama have to say to the people of India? Don’t worry about Muslim terrorists? Let’s all try to get along with religious maniacs who want to kill you in the name of the Muslim religion that we’re all supposed to open our arms to?