The events of October 23rd will hardly go down in history beside the horrors of 9/11, but many are speculating that Islamic terror has come back to New York City. A man named Zale Thompson, 32, attacked four of NYC’s Finest using a hatchet, launching his murderous plan while the four police officers posed for a picture. He succeeded in wounding two of the officers before police killed him. Unfortunately, a 29-year-old female bystander was injured by gunfire in the fracas.
As of Friday morning, the FBI was not ready to call the attack an act of terrorism, but early indications have led many to believe radical Islam could be a motivation behind the event. Several bystanders caught the incident on camera, and the videos have spread throughout social media.
According to MSNBC, Thompson’s Facebook page was adorned with hints of radicalization. It included pictures of “what appears to be a Muslim warrior and prayers.”
On CNN, Anderson Cooper talked with correspondent Jim Sciutto, who said, “What is truly concerning police are his social media postings–Facebook, YouTube, et cetera–which has raised suspicions that this random attack that you see in the surveillance video right there is tied to recent calls by radical groups including ISIS for random attacks like this on law enforcement.”
Though there is no evidence as of yet that Thompson was in any way connected to the two Islam-driven Canadian attacks this week, officials say that they are investigating a link. Even if they come up with nothing, however, the fact that we’ve seen three North American attacks in a week’s time suggests the development of a trend.
The NYC Police Commissioner told CNN on Friday that he had no evidence that indicated the hatchet attack was related to any Islamic views. Is this just an attempt to quell anti-Islamic sentiment when emotions are running high? We’ll have to see as the investigation plays out. ABC reported that a police source told them:
The initial impression is that he’s just an angry guy who’s ranting about the American government and American oppression of foreign people.
Just an “angry guy” who happens to be Muslim. Okay. Maybe. But I think it’s rather premature to dismiss the possibility that Thompson was carrying out a jihadist attack when he tried to murder four New York City police officers. This is becoming a trend for police and the American news media, though. We saw the same thing with the beheading at an Oklahoma food plant last month. We saw the same thing with the shooting at Ft. Hood. So scared are we to point the finger at Islam, we will grasp at every straw before conceding to the facts.
Folks, we are at war. Not with ISIS, not with Hamas, not with Al Qaeda. We are at war with a sick ideology that is gaining followers at an exponential rate. For the police and media to avoid calling it like it is for PC reasons is irresponsible and dangerous. How many attacks have to happen before we take an Israeli approach to the problem? I’m not suggesting we round up peaceful Muslims by any stretch, but how can we defend ourselves if we’re too scared to even name it?
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