Is the Tide Turning?

In his column in the Washington Post Colbert King writes:

A stipulation: History records that Christendom oppressed and degraded Muslims and Jews by the millions in the name of the Gospel. Christianity was behind the Crusades and the ghettoes of Europe, the persecution and the pogroms. Speaking for myself, our halos are, indeed, badly tilted.

Another stipulation: Not all terrorists are Muslims. Far from it. Terrorism is as abhorrent to most Muslims as it is for most of us.

But that doesn’t mean we can turn a blind eye to Islamist-inspired terrorism.

[…]

Within the Obama administration, “Islamic terrorism” is an offense that dare not speak its name. The administration referred to the Fort Hood massacre, where Nidal Malik Hasan, a self-identified “Soldier of Allah” who shouted “Allahu Akbar” while shooting dozens of people, as “workplace violence.” Why? Whose feelings are being spared?

Certainly not Hasan’s or those of groups like al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, which proudly take credit for the mayhem they cause.

A plea to the White House from potential victims and targets of Islamic terrorism here in Washington, Paris and beyond: Call it what it is. Dispense with safe words and focus on the real foe.

There is a strong Jacksonian strain within the African American community, the most reliable of Democratic interest groups. It will be interesting to see whether the tide is turning there.