Like many others I was saddened by the attack with what’s being described as an “improvised flamethrower” on people demonstrating peacefully in Boulder, Colorado. From Jasper Ward, Kristina Cooke and Mark Makela at Reuters:
BOULDER, Colorado, June 1 (Reuters) – Eight people were injured on Sunday when a 45-year-old man yelled “Free Palestine” and threw incendiary devices into a crowd in Boulder, Colorado where a demonstration to remember the Israeli hostages who remain in Gaza was taking place, authorities said.
Four women and four men between 52 and 88 years old were transported to hospitals, Boulder police said. Authorities had earlier put the count of the injured at six and said at least one of them was in a critical condition.
“As a result of these preliminary facts, it is clear that this is a targeted act of violence and the FBI is investigating this as an act of terrorism,” the FBI special agent in charge of the Denver Field Office, Mark Michalek, said.
Michalek named the suspect as Mohamed Soliman, who was hospitalized shortly after the attack. Reuters could not immediately locate contact information for him or his family.
Hopefully, Mr. Soliman is a “loon wolf terrorist”. If there’s more to the story than that, we have some serious questions before us. In particular we should ask ourselves whether we care to allow people to pursue their ethnic or sectarian grievances here rather than in their countries of origin?
USA today reports (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/06/02/mohamed-soliman-boulder-colorado-terror-attack-suspect/83986962007/) that Mr. Soliman is an Egyptian national who came to the US in 2022 on a B2 visitor visa, claimed asylum and whose claim is still pending.
I can imagine this is going to be a Rorschach test.
“I can imagine this is going to be a Rorschach test.”
Maybe. But I think he was rejected, and only then saved by a Biden admin ruling for work permitting. I think that’s factual.
Why do we go through all these contortions to spin bad guy immigrants as almost saints?
No rationale person believes even a small fraction of everyman is a great human being. Yet we go out of our way to define illegal immigrants gloriously.
Of course, its politics. US citizen’s interest be damned.
Sad state of affairs.
Is he being spun as a near-saint or as a victim? I don’t believe he is a victim. I believe that choices have consequences and when the consequences of your choices are bad that’s not victimization. That’s bad choices.
IMO that’s the situation the Gazans are in. Hamas is the elected government of Gaza. The only faction more popular than Hamas is Islamic Jihad. In other words from the point-of-view of the Gazans the only thing wrong with Hamas is they’re too darned moderate.
I havent seen them spun as saints, though I am sure it happens. I have seen them spun as rapists and criminals, and some are. Overall, though mostly want to come here to work and the rate of crime among immigrants seems to be lower than natural born.
In the particular case of Jews and Muslims. Some of them in each group have hated each other for centuries. A few have decided to act on that while here. Keeping it in context the Pittsburgh shooter killed 11 and wounded 6. Maybe everyone of Bowers nationality should be shipped back to their country? Or maybe we realize that one person out of millions doing something bad shouldn’t condemn the millions? (But where would be the fun in that.)
Steve
That’s a category error. Look a little deeper.
The United States has the problem that there is a very high rate of urban black crime. It is not a racial issue per se because the rural black crime rate is about the same as the rural white crime rate. But the urban black crime rate is much higher.
That is particularly true of homicides. The homicide rate among urban blacks is treble that among urban whites. That’s high enough that it distorts the statistics unless you break them down by race.
That itself is a problem. Telling the truth is not racist. Giving black criminals a pass because they are black is. And black people are hurt more by it.
My view is that we have a gang problem, particularly black and Hispanic gangs. The crime rate among gang members is high regardless of the gang’s race or ethnicity.
A Lone Wolf is one that briefly wanders away on his own to hunt on behalf of the pack.