{"id":1508,"date":"2016-06-13T14:06:29","date_gmt":"2016-06-13T18:06:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?p=1508"},"modified":"2016-06-13T14:06:29","modified_gmt":"2016-06-13T18:06:29","slug":"largest-mass-shooting-no-second-deadliest-act-of-islamic-terror","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2016\/06\/largest-mass-shooting-no-second-deadliest-act-of-islamic-terror.html","title":{"rendered":"Largest Mass “Shooting:” No, Second Deadliest Act of Islamic Terror"},"content":{"rendered":"

Within hours of the Orlando massacre that occurred early Sunday morning, veteran academic and prolific writer Mary Grabar predicted on her Facebook wall that \u201cliberal pundits\u201d would soon enough be \u201clinking the Orlando shooting [at a gay nightclub] to other instances of homophobia, such as Harvey Milk and the Stonewall riots.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Public Broadcasting System (PBS), continued Grabar, would get busy planning a documentary entitled \u201c\u2018Homophobia in America,\u2019\u201d a film that will show how the Christian<\/em> origins of homophobia \u201cinfected American culture, how \u2018migrants\u2019 from places like Afghanistan, alienated and bewildered by an Islamophobic American culture, picked up the homophobia and \u2018hate,\u2019\u201d and \u201chow in desperation they turned to violence, taking advantage of lax gun laws\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most of this prediction has already come to pass. Few of us will be surprised if it all <\/em>comes to fruition soon enough.<\/p>\n

Dr. Grabar\u2019s point is well taken: \u201cLiberals,\u201d i.e. the left, can always be counted upon to regurgitate their tired stock phrases, clich\u00e9s that, however logically irrelevant <\/em>to the issues at hand, have proven to be politically useful<\/em>.<\/p>\n

This time, however, their talking points aren\u2019t just irrelevant. They aren\u2019t just ridiculous.<\/p>\n

They are offensive.<\/em><\/p>\n

A self-sworn Islamic jihadist pledges his allegiance to ISIS and then drives over 100 miles from his home to shoot up a gay nightclub. Immediately prior to killing at least 50 people and critically injuring over 50 more, he screams: \u201cAllah hu Akbar!\u201d The notion that this is an instructive lesson in the need for Americans to support more \u201cgun-control\u201d is offensive.<\/p>\n

It is both intellectually <\/em>and morally <\/em>offensive.<\/p>\n

In fact, it borders on the perverse.<\/p>\n

The Islamic State has long been calling for \u201clone wolf\u201d attacks<\/a> throughout the West, promising that \u201cwe will strike you in your homeland [.]\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDo not ask for anyone\u2019s advice,\u201d said an ISIS spokesman, \u201cand do not seek anyone\u2019s verdict. Kill the infidel, whether he is civilian or military.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Orlando massacre may very well be the biggest \u201cmass shooting\u201d in American history. But to bill it only as such reflects at once an aversion to truth and, doubtless, a desire for political self-aggrandizement. To throw this event under the umbrella heading of \u201cmass shooting\u201d suggests, and is meant to suggest, that the killer, Omar Mateen, has more in common with the likes of Adam Lanza (of Sandy Hook infamy) and the killers of Columbine than he shares with Osama bin Liden and Muhammad Adnani, the ISIS mouthpiece who has been calling forth the Mateens of the West.<\/p>\n

Confucius sheds<\/a> some much needed light here. \u201cIf language is not correct,\u201d he taught his disciples, \u201cthen what is said is not what is meant [.]\u201d Yet this in turn means that \u201cwhat must be done remains undone,\u201d and, consequently, \u201cmorals and art will deteriorate\u201d and \u201cjustice\u201d will go \u201castray [.]\u201d<\/p>\n

This teaching is known as \u201cthe Rectification of Names.\u201d If ever there was a violation of it, the ascription of \u201cmass shooting\u201d to the Orlando massacre is it.<\/p>\n

What happened in Orlando is a case\u2014but another <\/em>case\u2014of Islamic terrorism. <\/em><\/p>\n

More importantly, it is the <\/em>deadliest such case to have occurred on American soil second only to that of the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001. Even the left-leaning Huffington Post <\/em>acknowledges that \u201cIslamic terrorism\u201d is a more accurate label for the Orlando massacre when it correctly notes that it is no \u201ccoincidence\u201d<\/a> that this attack occurred during the Islamic holiday of Ramadan.<\/p>\n

From the time of Plato and Aristotle through the middle Ages to the Catholic Church in the present, a distinction has always been maintained between two types of characteristics: \u201cessential\u201d and \u201caccidental.\u201d For example, snow, say, is essentially cold. It is only accidentally white (or yellow, or black, etc.). A person is essentially rational, but only accidentally white, black, six feet tall, 250 pounds, and so forth.<\/p>\n

The essential attribute of a thing is that which makes it the thing that it is. Take away an object\u2019s essence, you take it <\/em>away. A thing\u2019s identity is its essence.<\/p>\n

This paradigm is not perfect. In light of it, though, we can better grasp the significance of Orlando:<\/p>\n

This <\/em>mass murder is essentially <\/em>an act of terror, and Omar Mateen is essentially<\/em> an Islamic terrorist. Moreover, he isn\u2019t just a terrorist who happens<\/em> to be Islamic. By virtue of his allegiance to ISIS and his affirmation of Allah just seconds before opening fire, he is an Islamic terrorist<\/em>.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, he is accidentally <\/em>a gunman. This mass murder is accidentally <\/em>a mass shooting. <\/em><\/p>\n

What this means is that the means<\/em> by which Mateen achieved his ends are ultimately neither metaphysically nor morally relevant to the nature of the end<\/em> itself. The nature of the act is determined by the motive of the actor and the objective of the act itself. Mateen wanted to slay infidels, in this case, gays, for the sake of glorifying his God. That he chose guns to realize this goal no more makes this event a gun matter than the fact that the 19 hijackers of 9\/11 chose box cutters and airplanes to slay infidels for the sake of glorifying the same God made that horrific event a teaching moment about the dangers of box cutters and airplanes.<\/p>\n

The Orlando massacre was, essentially, the second deadliest terrorist attack in American history.<\/p>\n

In this election year, though President Obama, Hillary Clinton, and the Democrats won\u2019t approve, perhaps we should start referring to this act of Islamic terror for what it is.<\/p>\n

Maybe we can start calling it \u201c6\/12.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Within hours of the Orlando massacre that occurred early Sunday morning, veteran academic and prolific writer Mary Grabar predicted on her Facebook wall that \u201cliberal pundits\u201d would soon enough be \u201clinking the Orlando shooting [at a gay nightclub] to other instances of homophobia, such as Harvey Milk and the Stonewall riots.\u201d The Public Broadcasting System…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nLargest Mass "Shooting:" No, Second Deadliest Act of Islamic Terror<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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