As reported here, a band of masked al-Shabaab gunmen raided a dormitory at Garissa University in Kenya early Thursday morning. The terrorists went from room to room, asking each occupant whether he was a follower of Christianity or Islam. Anyone who gave the “wrong answer” — viz., anyone who admitted to being Christian — was murdered on the spot.
Police responded and a siege followed that lasted 13 hours. When the smoke had cleared, five of the terrorists were in custody and 147 innocents lay dead.
Yesterday, the president of the United States released an official statement, which follows in its entirety:
Michelle and I join the American people in expressing our horror and sadness at the reports coming out of Garissa, Kenya. Words cannot adequately condemn the terrorist atrocities that took place at Garissa University College, where innocent men and women were brazenly and brutally massacred. We join the world in mourning them, many of whom were students pursuing an education in the pursuit of a better life for themselves and their loved ones. They represented a brighter future for a region that has seen too much violence for far too long. We also commend the heroism of the responders who lost their lives in the selfless protection of the students and faculty.
I know firsthand the extraordinary resilience and fundamental decency of the people of Kenya. So I know that the people of Garissa and all of Kenya will grieve, but their determination to achieve a better and more secure future will not be deterred. And neither will the resolve of the United States. We will stand hand-in-hand with the Kenyan Government and people against the scourge of terrorism and in their efforts to bring communities together. This much is clear: the future of Kenya will not be defined by violence and terror; it will be shaped by young people like those at Garissa University College – by their talents, their hopes, and their achievements. This is a message I will relay to the Kenyan people when I visit Kenya in July. Even at this difficult hour, the Kenyan people should know they have an unwavering friend and ally in the United States of America.
The statement, which was pro forma, was more remarkable for what it didn’t say than what it did. Nowhere in it was a mention of the fact that the massacre was an act of religious cleansing. Nowhere does he acknowledge that all of the murder victims were Christian and all of the killers were Muslim.
President Obama has claimed repeatedly that acts of terror committed in the name of Islam do not represent that religion. In this particular case, however, the gunmen were Muslim and demanded that each of its potential victims submit to a shibboleth. Those who were not “true believers” were summarily executed. Yet, Obama still stubbornly refuses to acknowledge that religion was the driver in this atrocity. What will it take to get him to own up to the reality that we are war with radical Islam?
(h/t Weasel Zippers)
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