by Matt Barr

There should be an easy way to find out

Hate, not terror, is "the semi-official motive for the shooting of six women by a Muslim man at a Seattle Jewish community center," Jeff A. Taylor reports at Hit and Run. Why, he wonders?

Is it because a terror attack would pre-empt Bush administration claims that its policies, like the PATRIOT Act, have kept America terror-free since 9/11? Is it an attempt to deny that violence in the Middle East does, the evidence indicates, motivate some to do violence in the U.S.? Or do we have some unspoken notion that terror can only result from a conspiracy of two or more persons? Or is it bodycount?

Well, hey. Let's compare the press coverage and administration spin here to how it's spun when Jewish assailants open fire in crowds of Muslims, killing and wounding several.

...

Anyway, isn't it a possibility, remote though it may be, that there's a reluctance to call something "terrorism" if perpetrated (a) by a Muslim (b) against Jews? Possible enough to, you know, throw out there with the theory that it's not being called terrorism by the press because it would make President Bush look bad?

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