The official denial of jihad just keeps getting more ridiculous. Whenever a Muslim screaming “Allahu akbar” kills someone, we are told that it was because of some other reason, nothing whatsoever to do with jihad or Islam. Often lately we hear that jihadis were mentally ill.

In this case, it was unrequited love, a romance gone bad for poor Smail Ayad, although “certainly from Mia’s point of view” there was no “romantic connection.”

Well, that’s a shame. The broken-hearted are indeed many, and some do resort, in their rage and shame and frustration, to physical attacks against those who have rejected them. The difference here is that Smail Ayad screamed “Allahu akbar” while murdering Mia Ayliffe-Chung. Up to the point he did this, he may have been a “moderate.” He may not have had an Islamic State or al-Qaeda membership card in his wallet. He may, in other words, have shown no signs of “radicalization.”

What he did show signs of, however, was a tendency among Muslims to react with a murderous rage that they associate with religious fervor when they are denied, frustrated, rejected. Is it really wise for Australia or any other country to import large numbers of people who believe that Allah will punish Infidels by their hands (cf. Qur’an 9:14) and that therefore, if they believe an Infidel has wronged them, may decide to become executors of the divine wrath?

An update on this story. “Australia Police: No Extremist Motive Found in Hostel Attack,” by Kristen Gelineau, Associated Press, August 25, 2016: