The establishment press, and now apparently the FBI, have a problem on their hands: an alleged killer who converted to Islam; expressed sentiments favored by terrorists; killed a woman by employing terrorists' favored method, i.e., beheading; shouted Islamic slogans while carrying out his evil deed; and was trying to kill someone else when another armed person shot and wounded him.
Their problem is that political correctness demands that they try to convince the public that Alton Nolen's deeds weren't linked to terrorism, and that they weren't even terrorist in nature.
On Thursday in Moore, Oklahoma, as described in a Saturday morning Associated Press report by reporter Tim Talley, Nolen "beheaded a woman with a knife and was attacking another worker when he was shot and wounded by a company official." But no one should be worried about the potential for other such incidents, Talley writes, because an unnamed law enforcement official says there is "no connection to terrorism."
Similarly, an MSNBC report by Meredith Clark carries the following headline: "No evidence Oklahoma beheading linked to terrorism, police say."
A Fox News report datelined today indicates that "FBI officials confirmed to Fox News that they were assisting the Moore Police Department in investigating Nolen's background and whether his recent conversion to Islam was somehow linked to the crime."
Well, if they're right about no direct connection to terrorism, Americans should really be more worried than they would be than if Nolen was under direct orders from ISIS/ISIL.
Evidence that Nolen had terrorist sympathies and that he was influenced by Islamic fundamentalism — accumulated by non-establishment press sources, as usual — continues to mount.
Via the indispensable Gateway Pundit (links in original sentence; bolds are mine throughout this post): "KWTV Channel 9’s Robin Marsh tweeted that Nolen had been shouting Islamic phrases during the bloodbath."
The New York Post reports:
A Facebook page that The Washington Post said belonged to Nolen features photos of bin Laden and quotes like, “AMERICA AND ISRAEL ARE WICKED. WAKE UP MUSLIMS!!!”
The page also has a photo of Chchen ISIS fighter Omar al-Shishani and another of a banner that reads “Islam will dominate the world. Freedom can go to hell.”
Truth Revolt's Caleb Howe has details about what might have led to Nolen's alleged acts:
(The) Local newspaper McCurtain Gazette reports (no online edition is available):
A classmate of Nolen's, who didn't wish to be identified, told this newspaper that he spoke to a close family member of Nolen's today.
He told this newspaper that according to the family member, Nolen was telling coworkers Thursday of an Islamic teaching that said women should be stoned for an offense, and that an argument followed the (re)mark, Nolen was later fired and returned later Thursday, when he beheaded Colleen Hufford, the family member said.
Howe also notes that the mosque Nolen attended is attempting to cover up its possible influence. The trouble is, Nolen left tracks of it on his Facebook page:
The Islamic Council of Oklahoma has stated that Nolen is "not known to any of the leadership in Oklahoma mosques," however the Facebook page reviewed and confirmed by the Gazette as his shows several photos of him interacting at "the Islamic Mosque in Oklahoma City."
Nolen also recently spent time in prison. There are indications that he was not a Muslim adherent before his incarceration. Roger Simon as PJ Media writes:
We don’t know the extent to which Nolen’s conversion to Islam occurred in prison, although it is highly likely most of it did. This is surely worth investigating.
Simon opines that there is reason to believe that:
... prisons (are) veritable training grounds — petri dishes, if you will — for fanatic killers of the type of the Oklahoma suspect, not to mention recruitment centers for whatever murderous Islamic sect happens to be in vogue that week or month.
The media's desire to avoid reality was already evident yesterday at the Daily Beast, where, as Ken Shepherd at NewsBusters noted, "didn't note the potential Islamist dimension to the attack."
The predictable galling sanitization process appears to be under way. ABC News's Meghan Keneally writes that "officials said they believe that workplace anger was the main source of his rage."
If there were really were no direct terrorist influences on Nolen, it would imply that anyone with violent tendencies who becomes a follower of Islam as preached in the typical American mosque could become a beheader if the stresses of life become overwhelming.
Someone needs to explain to me why that should make us feel better than we would if we learned that Nolen was under direct orders from ISIS/ISIL.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
