And liberals wonder why they're so often seen as sympathetic to Islamists.
Fox News analyst Juan Williams contributed mightily to that perception with comments he made today on Fox's late afternoon show The Five.
The discussion centered around the arrests of three Brooklyn residents, all foreign nationals, who allegedly planned to travel to Syria and join ISIS for the purpose of waging jihad.
After downplaying the threat from homegrown jihadists, Williams diverted attention to what he considered the actual danger facing Americans --
ERIC BOLLING: FBI Director James Comey said that he has open investigations in every single of the 50 states in the union. That's gotta be concerning.
WILLIAMS: Sure it's concerning ...BOLLING: Then why are we more alarmed than the administration?
WILLIAMS: Oh, because I think that the administration is alarmed, but I don't think that you want to blow these guys up into monsters. I mean, what we're talking about here to me is the equivalent ...KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE (not believing what she just heard): What ...?
WILLIAMS: ... of what happened, like for example, with the Boston Marathon.
BOLLING (gesturing toward Guilfoyle): We're just kinda looking at each other, like, what do you want to make them, Easter bunnies?
WILLIAMS: No, I just don't see, look, if you're talking about, again, al Qaeda, this is not al Qaeda. This is a bunch of losers, this is a bunch of kids who, I think, are totally misguided, distorted. And as you were, you know, this whole thing about the Internet and the ability of the Web to recruit them, we've heard that here at this table this very moment, that's on target! That's how these kids are going. And by the way, let me make ...
GUILFOYLE: But they're not kids.
WILLIAMS: Well, they're young people. I think they're 19, 24 ...
GUILFOYLE: You're really minimizing it in a frightening way.
WILLIAMS: No I'm not!
GUILFOYLE: Oh, we want to make them out to be monsters? They're crucifying children, they're beheading people, they're lighting them on fire.WILLIAMS: Excuse me, I was talking about the threat here at home, the threat from these guys specifically. But let me just say the big threat, since the administration has identified young people like this in all 50 states, the big threat we should be talking about is Republicans in Congress being willing to shut down the Department of Homeland Security.
Why is it that Senate Democrats can block DHS funding through repeated filibusters and never face accusations from their chums in the media of trying to "shut down" DHS? It's almost as if some form of collusion is taking place here.
Incredibly, Williams compares the three Brooklyn residents arrested on terrorism charges with those who were responsible for the Boston Marathon bombing -- as if what happened in Boston two years ago was somehow not monstrous. Has Williams forgotten that it was the worst terrorist attack on American soil since 9/11? Williams thinks he's downplaying the threat posed by the three suspected terrorists from Brooklyn when he's doing the opposite.
From a legal standpoint, yes, these are alleged monsters until they are convicted and, who knows, perhaps they won't be. But morally, jihadists cross the line at the moment they vow to kill infidels and apostates in the name of their religion. Mohamed Atta became a monster long before he got on the plane.
