Last year, the establishment media made an all-out effort to whitewash the phrase “Allahu akbar.” The worst article, among many, was published in the New York Daily News. Zainab Chaudry of the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) argued that non-Muslims shouldn’t “believe the worst” about “Allahu akbar” because Muslims don’t just scream it while murdering non-Muslims, but use it in a variety of contexts. Chaudry’s conclusion was chilling:

So the next time you hear Allahu Akbar — whether it’s in a media report, on an airplane, or in a shopping mall, remember that the phrase used by millions of Muslims and Christians daily to praise God regardless of their circumstances, can never be justified for use when harming His creation.

This was deadly advice. If you hear “Allahu akbar” yelled on an airplane or in a shopping mall, you may well be in the midst of a jihad terror attack. But people conditioned by Chaudry’s advice may not realize that. Bystanders in Ouagadougou, when they heard “Allahu akbar,” should have gotten as far away as possible. But Chaudry would have had them stand there thinking about how Islam is a religion of peace. And so the casualties would have been maximized.

“Explosions, gunfire rock Burkina Faso’s capital,” Associated Press, March 2, 2018: