1) Just because IS claims a terrorist attack it doesn't automatically mean they were really behind it. They will claim anything that suits them. Why? Because it's good propaganda for them, and it'll help scare westerners into thinking they're more powerful than they are. It's a common tactic among terrorist groups and has been for decades.
2) This mass-murderer was interested in radical Islamic thought, but that's not the end of the story. He also frequented gay clubs and online chatrooms and used a gay dating app. His ex-wife believed that he led a secret homosexual double-life. As usual, reality is more complicated than propaganda.
3) As for blaming "the muslims" - it is beyond me how anyone can fail to see how that is utterly racist as well as stupid. During World War II, America locked up all Japanese-Americans in camps, out of fear for 'fifth columnists'. In practice, it turned out, there were hardly ANY Japanese-Americans who were disloyal during World War II. After the war ended, this was a source of shame for the government. You'd have thought people would learn a lesson from that. Less than 0.1% of American muslims are even SUSPECTED of holding radicalized views. Does that mean the >99.9% who are INNOCENT should suffer for the guilty few? If that's what you believe, your beliefs are incompatible with the fundamental concept "rule of law", which entails both "innocent until proven guilty" AND "equality under the law". Should all white males ages 15-35 be permanently monitored and ostracized from society because they are BY FAR the largest group of culprits in shootings with multiple victims? Should all white men be considered potential child molesters, because the vast majority of child molesters are white men?
4) It is a proven fact that the discrimination of Muslims as a response to Islamic extremism DIRECTLY leads to the radicalization of young Muslim men and women who previously held no interest in extreme Islam. Why? Because it appears to confirm the propaganda of Islamic extremists that the west hates Muslims and wants to destroy them. British journalist Robert Verkaik recently published a well-received book, the result of years of study, showing how this attitude directly contributes to the radicalization process:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/feb/15/jihadi-john-making-of-terrorist-robert-verkaik-isis 5) A huge scare-mongering campaign by far-right, anti-democratic groups is going on, and has been going on for years. Donald Trump, Geert Wilders, Marine Le Pen, the Lega Nord, the Golden Dawn, these are all part of a resurgent neo-fascist current in Europe and America which uses misinformation to instill fear and undermine stability. They, too, directly contribute to radicalization by deliberately singling out Muslims and provoking them on the one hand, and by emphasizing that extremist Islamism is "the only true Islam" on the other. The problem of Islamic terrorism WILL NOT END unless this dark menace is tackled as well - they are not separate problems, but part of the same attack on democracy.
6) Anti-gay violence is not a "Muslim-problem", despite the way the far-right is spinning it now. In gay-tolerant Holland, where statistical research has been done into anti-gay sentiments for a number of years, last years' survey clearly showed that anti-gay sentiment among Muslim immigrants is just as high as under white Dutch men over 55. The supporters of the anti-Muslim 'Freedom Party' are the group of voters who hold the second most unfavorable view of gays, after the protestant-fundamentalist SGP, which officially wants to replace the Dutch constitution with Biblical law. Does that latter intention sound familiar? Exactly. It's the same damn thing as Islamic radicals wanting to impose Sharia-law, but because the SGP are Christians, it's supposedly not scary. Also, which group is responsible for most anti-gay VIOLENCE? White males, 18-35. Who engage in anti-gay hate-speech most? Football hooligans. Who are mostly 18-35 year old white males.
7) While Islamic terrorism is the most well-known kind of terrorism, it wasn't the most numerous or the most virulent kind of terrorism until the start of the Syrian civil war. Even so, most victims BY FAR are other muslims. Why don't we want to protect THOSE victims? Instead we BLAME THE VICTIMS. Does that sound familiar too? It's what the far-right propagandists, like FOX News, tell you the 'left' does.
I see a kind of fascism on the rise again in Europe and America, and I'm not alone. Has any of you ever spoken to people who lived through the Second World War? Because I can tell you for a fact that I know several people now in their late 80s who get chills from the similarities between current populist groups and the nazis. But you can't say that in public anymore, because any comparison to the nazis is taboo. Which means that anyone can latch on to nazi ideology with impunity, as Donald Trump has shamelessly done. Remember the Mussolini quotes? Expect more of them.
Each of you has a choice now. You can either support fascism or oppose it. But if, instead, you choose to deny that it is back, history WILL prove you wrong. And you are then likely to find yourself on the wrong side.
