Yesterday, "Jamaat-e-Ahrar, a splinter faction of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility" for a suicide bombing in Lahore, Pakistan that killed at least 69 people and wounded about 300. Why? Jamaat-e-Ahrar makes its reason very clear: "Its spokesman, Ehsanullah Ehsan, said in a statement that Christians were the target."
The Taliban murders Christians on Easter Sunday: This is the essential headline of myriad news reports, at home and abroad. But you'd never know that Christians were in the killers' bulls-eye from the U.S. State Department's news release. "The United States condemns in the strongest terms today's appalling terrorist attack in Lahore, Pakistan. This cowardly act, which targeted innocent civilians in the Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park, has killed dozens and left scores injured," says the statement. No mention of the Taliban. No mention of Islamism and it's brutal aggression. And no mention of Christians.
What happened yesterday in Lahore was the mass murder of Christians by Muslim radicals. This is not a statement of bigotry or an overreaction to violence. It is not inflammatory or hostile or anti-Muslim. It is a statement of fact, based on the remarks of the killers' official spokesman (a sickening thought -- barbarians have a "spokesman") and the indisputable carnage at a park where Christian children were playing after Sunday services.
Yet this administration cannot summon the moral courage to say what actually and obviously occurred. This is repulsive and a shame to our country, which proclaims itself "the home of the brave."
Former federal prosecutor and expert on radical Islam Andy McCarthy, in a recent lecture at Hillsdale College, said, "In the real world, we must deal with the facts of Islamic supremacism, because its jihadist legions have every intention of dealing with us. But we can only defeat them if we resolve to see them for what they are."
The Obama Administration lacks such resolve. Its fear of giving offense exceeds its willingness to defeat our enemies. Brussels, Lahore, San Bernardino, 9-11: the list goes on and on, as does the Islamists' intention of destroying us.
It is hard to know how to destroy an ideology grounded in a fanatical faith. But at least we can destroy those of its adherents intent on spreading their faith through vicious brutality. We must do this, even if it necessitates a recognition that such destruction could be a multi-generational endeavor. The security of 320 million Americans and the dignity of human life worldwide demand it.
