Since 2003 the world has known about the inconceivable brutality of the organization that now calls itself the Islamic State. It was originally Jama’at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad (Organization of Monotheism and Jihad), the group that wrote the script for jihadist beheading videos. And yet to this day, soldiers and civilians surrender to the Islamic State after…
You’re making it hard for me to care about you
March 23, 2015
On March 20, 2015, the Islamic State used three suicide bombers to kill about 137 Shi’ite worshipers at their mosques in Sanaa, Yemen. Initially I was horrified. That sense of outrage has diminished somewhat. I want to tell my Muslim brothers and sisters that you’re making it hard for me to care about you. This…
You’re doing everything wrong
May 24, 2014
As I predicted, the reaction to the mass murder at Isla Vista, California, last night is utterly pro forma. Everybody is doing everything wrong. When families have spokespeople issue statements, I get queasy. Alan Shifman — a lawyer who represents Peter Rodger, one of the assistant directors on “The Hunger Games” — issued a statement…
The right way to report on these things
May 24, 2014
Last night Elliot Rodger murdered six people and injured seven others in the Isla Vista neighborhood beside the University of California at Santa Barbara. Rodger himself was killed, either by sheriff’s deputies or by his own hand. Normally I oppose publicizing mass shootings, because almost nobody ever describes the situation accurately. People use them to…