Timing is a weird thing.
Last Friday we published this short piece by a Women’s Agenda reader about her experience with violent fanatics attacking abortion clinics. In her case, she was mid procedure when someone wielding a knife broke into the clinic and started threatening people.
The point she wanted to make was that terrorism happens in Australia, religious fanatics are here and are a danger.
They are not all adherents of Islam.
Within hours of that piece being published, a terrorist attacked the Planned Parenthood Clinic (which performs abortions) in Colorado Springs. He killed three people and wounded nine more.
Responses to the shooting were mixed, but it was nothing, nothing, of the reaction we would have had if the perpetrator had been Muslim.
This comment from Fanny Fairweather came past in my Facebook feed:
Bracing myself for the onslaught of anti-Christian sentiment, the condemnation an entire religion for the actions of the radicalised few, calls for the Pope to publicly condemn these acts of terrorism and ignoring him when he does, crying “I’m not racist, it’s Christianity that is the problem, look how terribly it treats women!”, government monitoring of the social media accounts of the (many) Christian men online stating those women deserved what they got, hundreds of ignorant memes comparing Christianity to the Nazis…
What, no takers?
The motive for this shooting hasn’t been confirmed yet, but there is some evidence (other than the location of the shooting) that it was directed at the clinic because it performs abortions.
Planned Parenthood said on Sunday that news reports that the gunman who attacked its Colorado health clinic had uttered “no more baby parts” during his arrest showed that the suspect was motivated by an anti-abortion agenda.
The remark attributed to suspect Robert Lewis Dear was an apparent reference to Planned Parenthood’s abortion activities and its role in delivering fetal tissue to medical researchers, a hot button issue in the 2016 race for the presidency.
“We now know the man responsible for the tragic shooting at PP’s health center in Colorado was motivated by opposition to safe and legal abortion,” the organization said on Twitter.
Authorities have steadfastly declined to discuss a motive for the attack, saying their investigation was still under way.
It’s a fair point, until the investigation determines the shooter’s motive, it is irresponsible to claim we know definitively why he was shooting people at an abortion clinic.
However, we do know that he went into a medical clinic, carrying a high powered weapon and shot at least twelve people.
Where was all the outcry against radicalised white men? Why is a white man a “shooter” a “lone gunman” or a “lone wolf”, and NOTALLMEN, but a radicalised middle eastern man is automatically a terrorist, typical of allnonwhitemen?
Anyone who has demanded that Muslim leaders denounce Islamic state, and wouldn’t think to demand the same of the Pope in regard to Robert Dear, please do get in touch and explain why there’s a difference. I’d love to know what the explanation is.