The Too Simple Side of Race

I long ago accepted that whenever a conservative talks about race in a way the left does not like the conservative is immediately branded a racist. Look, for example, at Rush Limbaugh who does not have a racist bone in his body and is vilified as a racist. When he attempted to purchase the St. Louis Rams, the left spent days attacking him as a racist. But after 20 years on the air, the left had to use fabricated quotes.Doesn’t matter.Take my post on Willie Horton and King Samir Shabazz, the left is up in arms because I stated two indisputable facts: (1) the Willie Horton ad was not racist and (2) Republicans are not going to significantly increase their share of the black vote regardless of what they do so they might as well make an issue of King Samir Shabazz.I bring all of this up in relation to this: on the same day the NAACP declared the tea party movement racist, President Obama is declaring Al Qaeda racist. We can hope the timing is a coincidence. But I presume the left will yet again declare me a racist for saying what follows, but what must still be said.

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Speaking about the Uganda bombings, the president said, “What you’ve seen in some of the statements that have been made by these terrorist organizations is that they do not regard African life as valuable in and of itself. They see it as a potential place where you can carry out ideological battles that kill innocents without regard to long-term consequences for their short-term tactical gains.””In short,” [an administration] official said, “al Qaeda is a racist organization that treats black Africans like cannon fodder and does not value human life.”

Yes, Al Qaeda is racist. It is also anti-Jew (I’d say anti-Semitic, but technically arabs are also Semites). It is also anti-Christian. Simply declaring Al Qaeda racist because of its treatment of “black Africans” is, frankly too simple a shortcut, particularly given the academic pedigree of this President.Al Qaeda is an organization built on hate. But that hate stems not from its disdain of race or skin color. Its disdain stems from its interpretation of its religion. It manifests itself outside of Al Qaeda, but within Islam, in places like Darfur and Nigeria. It manifests itself in Israel where Hezbollah and Hamas use the poor as suicide bombers. It manifests itself in places like Bosnia and Kosovo.This administration has been playing a dangerous game. It has refused to confront radical Islam because it does not want to insult Muslims. Now, by declaring Al Qaeda racist because of its treatment of “black Africans,” never mind its slaughter of Jews, white Europeans, Southeast Asians, and others, this White House will potentially, yet again, have another avenue down which it can proceed without confronting the actual problem we are dealing with — radical Islam.That is, if we are willing to be serious and not blanketly call people racist, very dangerous.

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