The Folly of Importing Muslims Into America

You’d think we’d learned our lesson by now, but no. At the Observer, John Schindler writes:

It’s happened again. Yesterday, on the campus of Ohio State University, an angry young man used his car as a weapon, plowing through a group of bystanders, whom he then attacked with a butcher knife. Eleven innocent people were injured, though mercifully all are expected to make a full recovery.

This time, we got lucky. A campus cop was on-scene within a minute and, when the madman running amok refused to follow orders to drop his knife, the policeman opened fire, killing him before he struck lethally. Which was clearly his intent, as described by a student who witnessed the event unfold: “He seemed like a crazed animal. He seemed like he was determined. He seemed like he was there for one reason—to do as much damage as he could.”

Before any facts were established, the left-wing online outrage machine went into overdrive, like clockwork, with Democratic politicians and activists denouncing their usual suspects. One was Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, recently the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, who tweeted, “Deeply saddened by the senseless act of gun violence at Ohio State this morning.” Countless fervent Social Justice Warriors took to social media to express their deep hope that the shooter was a white racist—presumably inspired by President-elect Donald Trump and his message of “hate.”

Embarrassingly for the Left, the failed spree killer in Columbus turned out to have no gun at all. Worse for the liberal smart-set, he was a Somali refugee—hardly a redneck domestic terrorist. The disappointment felt online was palpable as it turned out the perpetrator was a Muslim of color, plus an immigrant to boot. He seemed to be practically a caricature drawn from Trump’s repeated warnings about the dangers posed by importing Muslims to America.

Virtually every liberal cliché was on display here. The dead man, Abdul Razak Ali Artan, an 18-year-old (some sources say 20), was a recent refugee arrival from Somalia, via Pakistan. His family moved to the United States in 2014 and Artan got an associate’s degree in 2016, then transferred to Ohio State to continue his studies.

Although Columbus has a considerable Somali community, Artan clearly did not feel at home there, as he told a campus newspaper back in late August, upon his arrival, complaining about how inadequate Ohio State was for a Muslim like himself. Artan was miffed about the lack of prayer rooms: “I wanted to pray in the open, but I was scared with everything going on in the media. I’m a Muslim, it’s not what the media portrays me to be. If people look at me, a Muslim praying, I don’t know what they’re going to think, what’s going to happen.”

What did happen is exactly what any reasonable person might expect was going to happen — another holy warrior masquerading as a “refugee” (a Somali who spent years in Pakistan, no less) — exploded in Sudden Jihad Syndrome and began attacking innocent real Americans in the heart of the Midwest. When do we say, enough?

It’s only a matter of time before self-starting jihadists in our country get better at killing, and Americans are getting butchered in significant numbers by madmen, as has become depressingly routine in Europe. I’ve warned repeatedly about jihad denial as a problem which aids extremists in their murderous mission. It’s time to start addressing this rising threat seriously, as President Obama has assiduously refused to do for the last eight years.

Donald Trump caused considerable upset among liberals for his plain speaking about the jihadist threat. Although some in his national security entourage—most notably Mike Flynn, who has essentially called for war on the whole Muslim world in the name of counterterrorism—have pushed extreme views which don’t help the fight against radical Islam, Trump’s essential take, that we need to drop pleasant lies and start dealing with the jihadist problem before it becomes chronic and constant at home, is timely and correct.

Above all, is it really wise to import Muslims from the most backward, violent and jihad-addled parts of the Islamic world?

And that’s why he’s now President-elect Trump.