Visits to Islamic Centers and mosques with accusations of “Islamophobia” by elected officials following terrorist attacks represent the stuffing of the Strawman. Attacks against Jews, for instance, routinely number three to one versus Muslims, as documented by law enforcement authorities. Americans, by virtue of their general decency, tend to leave them alone.
Accusations of Islamophobia are thrust at critics of Islamic extremism in order to silence them and avoid discussion of an obvious problem, namely that while most Muslims are not terrorists, most terrorists are Muslims. In those rare cases when Muslims condemn terrorism, they qualify their condemnations with “buts”—“but you have to understand the poverty, the frustration of the Palestinians, the oppression of the dictatorships” and so forth, thereby negating their criticism with justification.
—Jeffrey S. Wiesenfeld
