Department of Inane Hyperbole
By Ordinary crime has apparently become too boring for this fellow, who muses — while writing about a recent shooting in Georgia — that we have entered something ominously described as the “era of individual jihad.” He founds his theory on the work of a source whose credentials appear to include only her ability to speak Arabic and her talent for receiving invitations to conservative speaking events. Regardless, the Jawa logic is spellbinding:
Al Qaeda sympathizers have recently declared it so. Further, these al Qaeda fellow-travellers have produced a series of ‘how-to’ videos for the individual jihadist. A kind of step-by-step do-it-yourself guide for would-be jihadists who do not, or cannot, belong to an organized terror cell. The terrorist of the future–and of now–may not belong to a terror group at all, but rather, will carry out acts of terrorism with little or no outside direction or support.
Was this alleged attack on a returned soldier in Georgia an act of individual jihad? It’s unclear. It’s very possible that this is nothing more than a case of overblown egos clashing. But it’s also not wise, in this ‘age of individual jihad’, to simply write the incident off simply because the two Muslims do not have any known connection to extremist groups.
Of course! Because someone who apparently self-publishes her own books thinks we’ve entered teh EIJ, it would be unwise of us not to assume that every altercation between a Muslim and a non-Muslim just might be a little piece of homestyle jihad. Examined in this light, of course, the definition of terrorism in the USA Patriot Act seems dangerously quaint. Remember — the constitution is not a suicide pact, and extremism in defense of liberty is no vice.