As everyone knows by now, two Jihadis dressed in body armor and wielding Ak-47s opened fire at a "draw Mohammad" contest in Texas. No one was hurt thanks to the very quick, very accurate shooting of an off duty Texas Patrolman and his six-shooter. Both terrorists were killed on the spot. ISIS took responsibility for the attack and there is evidence that the two gunman had been in contact with ISIS shortly before the shooting.
Muslims view any depiction of the Prophet Mohammad to be offensive and sacrilegious. As with the other offenses on the very long list of crimes against Islam, the penalty is death. If you draw a picture of Mohammad, you die.
This offense has been used as an excuse to attack newspapers in Paris, politicians in Europe and behead journalists in the Middle East. Roving Jihadis apparently canvas the world looking for cartoonists who have the nerve to engage in satire at the Prophet's expense in order to kill them. What is clear now is that we have the enforcers of Sharia in the United States, and they chose an event in Texas, where almost everyone is armed, as their coming out party.
The draw Mohammad rally was organized by Pamela Geller, head of the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI). AFDI is a reactionary political group that spends most of its time as a provocateur of our enemies. As of late, Radical Islam has been their target, and there is no doubt that the Texas rally was selected for Jihad because of the AFDI's provocative mocking of the Jihadi religion.
Within hours of the attack, Ms. Geller was criticized for provoking the incident or "poking the bear." Politicians and media analysts, while quick to condemn the attack, also condemned the "methods" used by AFDI to protest Jihad. Regardless of what you think of Ms. Geller or her rally, the attack was very revealing in a number of ways.
First, after more than a year of living in denial, we can no longer pretend that ISIS Jihadis aren't living amongst us. This rally forced them to surface. Protestations from naive politicians that our borders are secure, or that we do not have to wage war on our soil, can now be cast aside. The President could classify the Ft. Hood shooting as "workplace violence." But, two ISIS Jihadis with body armor and AK-47s attacking an anti-Jihadi rally cannot be classified as anything but an attack. Anyone who pretends differently is a fool.
Second, we have learned that our political and media establishments are afraid. For whatever reason, ISIS has them obviously living in fear. The amount of hand-wringing being done in the media over this rally, and the fear that Americans might mock their enemies, demonstrates a whole new level of Elite weakness. In contrast, the winner of the contest was a moderate Muslim. He wanted to make the point that not all Muslims are unreasonable Jihadis who kill people for drawings. He is taking an enormous risk and will probably be killed by radicals, yet no major media outlet has the courage to even show his drawing. The Jihadis have successfully chilled free speech at the highest levels - the media. Luckily, most Americans don't have any use for the media anyway and will continue exercise their First Amendment rights. Nevertheless, shame on the guardians of the First Amendment for cowering in the face of an illegitimate assault on our freedoms.
Third, we have learned that it is important to be armed and on alert. We have been at war with Radical Islam for almost two decades, we just haven't accepted it. While our enemies used to only pop up sporadically in the United States, they are now here in force, and we need to accept it. Our porous border has allowed tens of millions of people across in the last twenty years. The internet has no borders, which makes it easier to recruit lone wolves already living in the country. We can no longer ignore the fact that Jihadis are here and that they will attack us where we live.
More importantly, however, we need to recognize that terrorist attacks, like most other attacks, happen in places in which people are disarmed. The Paris attacks were qualitatively different from the Texas attacks because French citizens have no right to own or carry a weapon. Three Jihadis went on a rampage, holding the entire city hostage for two days. In Texas, the attack was a total failure, and it was doomed to fail from the beginning. Unlike France, almost everyone in Texas (or the South for that matter) owns a gun. Many people carry their firearms. In this case, it was an off-duty traffic cop who ended the Jihad before it could start. The plain truth is that, in the future, these types of low-intensity attacks will be thwarted by armed citizens as well as police. "Gun-free zones" will be magnets for Jihadis looking to amass a high body-count. It's just that simple, and we need to begin to take that into consideration in our planning.
Finally, we have seen the limits of reactionary politics. Americans are pretty sick of Radical Islam. The War On Terror has taken an enormous toll on our nation, both in terms of lives and money. Two trillion dollars later, we have a situation that is even worse than it was before 9/11. Jihad has spread like wildfire across the Middle East, Africa and the Asian Pacific. Whatever we've been doing hasn't worked. When you see "draw Mohammad day" or "draw Mohammad" rallies in Texas, you are seeing a sharp rise in frustration from the population. For better or for worse, it is a natural reaction to our government's failure to solve the Jihadi problem. Mocking an enemy is the first step in dehumanizing them. Once dehumanized, exterminating them is no longer morally inconvenient. It is not a good thing by any means, but it is what has historically happened when a nation begins the march to towards total war. It is a warning sign that the nation is fed up and ready to fight to the death. This is a fight that the Jihadis want and believe that they will win. They are wrong. When enough ordinary Americans have decided that it's time to provoke the enemy, there will be a change of government, and what comes next will be all out war. A failed attack on a bunch of armed Southerners is just the beginning.
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