Massacre in Orlando, murder of policeman in Paris

In the aftermath of the massacre in Orlando and the murder of a policeman and his wife in France the press discusses potential links between terrorist crimes and radical Islamic ideologies. Commentators warn against hasty conclusions that encourage hatred and distrust of Muslim minorities.

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La Vanguardia (ES) /

How frenzied killers become assassins

Attackers who would have been described as downright crazy in the past are passing themselves off as jihad fighters nowadays, the Spanish daily La Vanguardia comments, urging people not to let themselves be taken in:

“The Orlando massacre and the deadly knife attack against a police officer and his wife in Paris testify to a macabre trend: the proliferation of disturbed individuals killing people on their own initiative and conferring the Islamic State with a power it doesn't possess. At the same time the attackers achieve a higher legitimation for what used to be referred to as 'acts of madness'. These two killers declared their allegiance to the IS only hours or days before carrying out their savage attacks. All it takes is an act of faith and an oath - without even the need for any witnesses - to act in the name of jihad and elevate to the status of an assassination an act that often is simply the result of very personal complexes and obsessions.”

Trouw (NL) /

Don't jump to hasty conclusions

People have been far too quick to instrumentalise the Orlando massacre and see it as an act of Islamist terror, Trouw complains, pointing out that at this stage very little is known about the killer:

“Was he in good mental health or was his distaste for kissing men just a convenient excuse for his madness? Did he have ideological motives, and are we right to call him a lone wolf? ... Jumping to conclusions and calling such attackers radical Islamist terrorists can lead to us overestimating the IS's influence. As long as we don't have a clearer picture of the facts people should refrain from making such judgements - and from suggesting potential solutions.”

Libération (FR) /

Don't fall for IS's strategy

Societies that are targeted by Islamist terrorists must not allow their Muslim minorities to become the targets of hatred, Libération warns:

“The more difficulties the IS encounters, the more it will try to show its strength abroad by encouraging its bloody, amateurish murders, which are to a certain extent even more frightening for local populations. The much-explained strategy of the assassins consists of doing as much as possible to widen the gap between the targeted nations and their Muslim minorities, in the mad hope of sparking a more or less covert civil war between communities. And as always since the start of this crisis, the only sensible response consists in standing up to the threat by distinguishing between the terrorist fringe, its fundamentalist breeding ground, and the mass of Muslim citizens who are supposedly being turned into accomplices, but who are above all victims.”

Hürriyet Daily News (TR) /

Muslims must combat extremism too

Not just the West can be accused of growing Islamophobic tendencies, Hürriyet Daily News points out:

“Leaving aside the historic factors, the emergence of Islamophobia is a new incident. What has made the concept of Islamophobia enter world languages is the climb of terror. With the rise of ISIL, terror further escalated between 2014 and 2016. This sad picture cannot be downgraded with words such as 'provocation, foreign powers,' etc. Muslims, especially those who engage in politics in the name of Islam, Islamic intellectuals and scholars should not settle just for condemning individual terror acts. Unless they develop a determined faith-, ethical, humanitarian- and freedom-based stance against the religious perception that has created such widespread waves of terror, it will not be possible to prevent Islamophobia.”

24 Chasa (BG) /

Islam preaches hatred of homosexuals

The massacre in Orlando is clearly a hate crime inspired by Islam, writes 24 Chasa with conviction:

“The politically correct analysts will once again say that the massacre has nothing to do with Islam. In reality, however, it has a lot to do with Islam. Muhammad's laws clearly sentence homosexuals to death. In Saudi Arabia and Iran gays are arrested, whipped, stoned and beheaded. ... In addition, homosexuality is punishable by death in Yemen, Iraq, Mauritania, some regions of Nigeria, Qatar, Somalia, Sudan, the United Arab Emirates and the parts of Afghanistan that are controlled by the Taliban, where Omar's parents come from. ... We are not dealing here with the everyday homophobia that can be found all over in Europe. In this case homophobia is the official religion whose norms are considered binding law.”