Terrorism? Hate Crime? Road rage?...Media wimps out

Mark Steyn's column in the Sun-Times today rightly chides the media for its politically correct/multi-cultural/egalitarian/always tolerant (unless they are covering white heterosexual Christian conservative males) coverage of "the disgruntled young man" who plowed in to a crowd of people (with an SUV, no less) at the University of North Carolina last week. What got in to that young man, anyway?

The driver in question was Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar.

Whoa, don't jump to conclusions. The Times certainly didn't. As the report continued:

"According to statements taken by the police, Mr. Taheri-azar, 22, an Iranian-born graduate of the university, felt that the United States government had been 'killing his people across the sea' and that his actions reflected 'an eye for an eye.'"

"His people"? And who exactly would that be? Taheri-azar is admirably upfront about his actions. As he told police, he wanted to "avenge the deaths or murders of Muslims around the world."

And yet the M-word appears nowhere in the Times report. Whether intentionally or not, they seem to be channeling the great Sufi theologian and jurist al-Ghazali, who died a millennium ago but whose first rule on the conduct of dhimmis -- non-Muslims in Muslim society -- seem to have been taken on board by the Western media:

The dhimmi is obliged not to mention Allah or His Apostle. . . .

Are they teaching that at Columbia Journalism School yet?

A fellow called Mohammed mows down a bunch of students? Just one of those things -- like a gran'ma in my neck of the woods a couple of years back who hit the wrong pedal in the parking lot and ploughed through a McDonald's, leaving the place a hideous tangle of crumbled drywall, splattered patties and incendiary hot apple-pie filling. Yet, according to his own statements, Taheri-azar committed an act of ideological domestic terrorism, which he'd planned for two months. He told police he was more disappointed more students in his path weren't struck and that he'd rented the biggest vehicle the agency had in order to do as much damage to as many people as possible. The Persian car pet may have been flooring it, but the media are idling in neutral, if not actively reversing away from the story as fast as they can. Taheri-azar informed the judge he was "thankful for the opportunity to spread the will of Allah," and it was apparently the will of Allah that he get behind the wheel of Allah.

Be sure to read Steyn's entire piece...you can't just read a couple of paragraphs and do him justice.

It's a given that the media's coverage of this act of terror and how they conduct themselves isn't even surprising anymore. What galls me is that this self admitted terrorist wasn't charged with terrorism. At the very least he should be charged with a "hate-crime," that is if we're going to be the least bit consistent.

What's to become of this Islamo-fascist now? Will he now be able to become a terrorist recruiter in our prison system?