How the police and media have whitewashed the truth about the Columbus attack.

Last Thursday there was yet another jihad terror attack on American soil: a Muslim named Mohammad Barry entered the Nazareth Restaurant & Deli in Columbus, Ohio, screamed “Allahu akbar” and began slashing at patrons with a machete. Immediately, the denial and obfuscation machine cranked into high gear. Columbus police Sgt. Rich Weiner said: “Right now there’s nothing that leads us to believe that this is anything but a random attack.” The Washington Post wondered: “Random act or Islamist terrorism?”

It’s actually abundantly clear that this was not a random attack, but an incidence of “Islamist terrorism,” and not just because Barry screamed “Allahu akbar” (which was not reported in mainstream media accounts about the attack). Barry was on the FBI’s radar for his jihadi views, although they dropped any investigation of him back in 2012 (why?). An initial report said that Barry “walked into the restaurant, had a conversation with an employee and then left,” only to return later with his machete. The owner of the restaurant, Hany Baransi, explained what the conversation was about: Barry “came in and asked where I was from.” An employee of the restaurant (Baransi was not in the restaurant at the time) told him that Baransi was from Israel.

Hany Baransi is indeed a Christian from Israel. A large Israel flag along with an American flag greets restaurant patrons at its entrance. “I am a very outspoken Israeli,” said Baransi, “and I have an Israeli flag in my restaurant. When people [from the Arab community] ask me where I am from, I tell them I am Israeli, I am an Israeli Christian Arab, it’s not like I am Palestinian, and then they start arguing and fighting with me.”

To sum up: a Muslim who was known to the FBI as having jihadi sentiments entered a restaurant owned by a proud and outspoken Israeli and prominently displaying an Israeli flag. He asked where the owner was from and then, having found out, left the restaurant and returned with a machete, which he used to slash patrons after screaming “Allahu akbar.” Yes, that’s a real head-scratcher. There is just no telling what could be going on here. Never mind that there is a global jihad being waged by Muslim groups all over the world who hate Israel, hate Christians, and tend to scream “Allahu akbar” as they commit murder. Sgt. Rich Weiner is determined not to recognize that. The Washington Post is determined not to recognize that. So to them, this can be nothing but a random act.

Hany Baransi knows better: “Is it a random attack? Yes, but it wasn’t a random attack like you’re walking in the street and there are 10 shops and you pick one,” he said. “It was a random attack [insofar] that I was one of the Israelis [picked] between all of the Israelis that are around here. It was a terrorist attack.”

The law enforcement and media refusal to face this obvious reality is entirely unsurprising: after every jihad terror attack now, it seems as if the first priority of the media and every official who says a thing about it is to make sure that no one gets a negative view of Islam because of the attack. It must be very nice for Islam to have so many eager PR agents, but it does create a problem for the rest of us: what if a jihad terror attack really does have something to do with Islam? What if the fact that Mohammad Barry screamed “Allahu akbar” is entirely relevant to the case as a revelation of his motives and goals? And aren’t those motives and goals useful to know so that authorities can take realistic steps to prevent this kind of thing from happening again?

I have said all this before and will no doubt say it again, unless the jihad gets around to me first. It is worthwhile to keep repeating it, but both law enforcement officials and the mainstream media appear to be absolutely unshakeable in their resolve to ignore, deny and obfuscate the true root causes of Islamic jihad.

And so we are on our own. Hany Baransi shows us the attitude we should have in such a situation: “Actually I have another flag, and I am going to get a bigger flag, and I am going to get a Star of David necklace and put it on my chest, and I am going to get a tattoo. Honest to God, I am not kidding. They don’t scare me. We are Israelis. We are Israelis. We are resilient, we fight back.”

This is what we need: defiance and courage in the face of evil. Instead, the whole West is surrendering, and calling their surrender “respect.”