The West: Desensitized to Islamic Violence

Raymond Ibrahim Following the January 7 massacre at the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris, where Islamic gunmen killed a dozen people because the satirical magazine had mocked the prophet of Islam, one thing has become clear: the amount of atrocities committed in the name of Islam all around the world have become so frequent, so ubiquitous, that other, lesser hostilities by Muslims, which might once have been newsworthy, are now completely falling by the wayside, seen as minor and insignificant--commonplace, almost expected.

Thus, while Islamic gunmen were massacring "infidels" in Paris (and elsewhere), "everyday Muslims" in Europe were engaging in less dramatic, but no less significant behavior. On Friday, January 9--Friday being when Muslims get most riled during mosque sermons and when non-Muslims are frequently attacked--"foreigners" in Italy, believed to be Muslims, attacked a man kneeling in prayer before the statue of the Virgin Mary, tore the photo of a loved one from his hand, and then broke and urinated on the Virgin Mary statue. By the time police arrived at the chapel the attackers had already fled. Ten days later, also in Italy, a crucifix near a populated mosque was shattered to pieces. Immediately after this incident, according to the report, "People have already strongly reacted across social networks. They are outraged at this new blow to their deepest feelings, to their beliefs. People can't take it anymore."

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Nor did the municipality's Councillor Giuseppe Berlin of the civil list "Your Town" mince words: It's time to put an end to the do-gooders' policies of welcoming and integrating by a certain political party. Before we put a show of unity with Muslims, let's have them begin by respecting our civilization and our culture. We shouldn't minimize the importance of certain signals; we must wake up now or our children will suffer the consequences of this dangerous and uncontrolled Islamic invasion. Meanwhile, Pope Francis calledon Catholics and Western people in general to refrain from insulting other religions--namely Islam: "It's normal, it's normal [violence]. One cannot provoke, one cannot insult other people's faith, one cannot make fun of faith." It is widely believed that the Pope made these statements in reference to theCharlie Hebdo massacre, which was provoked by "insult[ing] other people's faith," those "people" being Muslims and that "faith" being Islam. One wonders if Pope Francis would still call it "normal" if members of his own flock were to murder those who urinated on the Virgin statue or broke the crucifix? And in Spain, also on Friday, January 9, an unruly and violent young Moroccan man broke into a store to get a knife, started screaming Islamic slogans--including "Allahu Akbar!" "You will all die!" and "I am a Muslim!"--resisted arrest, tried to snatch the arresting officer's weapon, and smashed the patrol car's windows. Police ended up tying him with tape and moving him to another patrol car to transfer him to the General Hospital of Manresa, where he was sedated. During the transfer, he kept shouting things like, "You killed my brothers in Paris. I'm going to kill everyone. Christians, you will die!" Before this incident, he was in a juvenile facility where he had triedto "propagate ideas of holy war and jihad among other youths of North African origin." None of these incidents made it into any major Western media and instead appeared in minor, local (Italian and Spanish) websites. You see, here in the West, for any Islamic outburst or attack to be deemed "newsworthy," it must involve dramatic, wholesale slaughter, as in the Charlie Hebdo affair--such is the West's desensitization towards Islamic violence. Muslims attacking Christians praying, smashing and urinating on Christian statues and icons, or screaming "You will all die! I am a Muslim!"--are today deemed trite and commonplace, hardly newsworthy. One wonders how long before Charlie Hebdo-style attacks also lose their newsworthiness, becoming commonplace and expected, as the tentacles of the jihad continue to grow.