AG Eric Holder Refuses to Say ‘Radical Islam’ Is a Cause of Terrorism Committed by Muslims

This YouTube clip from the attorney general’s testimony today will be the most painful two minutes of video you will ever watch. Mr. Holder would obviously rather get a root-canal than utter the words “radical Islam” (despite the fact that his description of the American people as “a nation of cowards” on race and of Bush officials as war criminals seemed to roll of the tongue without much difficulty).

You’ll be pleased to discover, via the AG, that there is an infinite variety of reasons why Muslims commit terrorist attacks. Those reasons, of course, have nothing to do with Islamic doctrine, which is why, even as we speak, agents are struggling to understand what might possibly have driven Faisal Shahzad to try to blow up Times Square. (I guess Mayor Bloomberg will be pleased to know that opposition to the healthcare bill hasn’t necessarily been ruled out yet.)

How can you ever hope to stop something when you refuse even to speak its name?

Interesting, by the way, to hear Mr. Holder has become such an expert in Islam that he now purports to know more about the subject than people who have spent years studying it. He referred to al Qaeda recruiter Anwar al-Awlaki as beholden to “a version of Islam that is not consistent with the teachings of it.” I wonder if he will enlighten us on what exactly Awlaki has gotten wrong. Hopefully, Mr. Holder will at least let Secretary Clinton know because the State Department is showcasing the Dar al-Hijra Islamic Center — Awlaki’s old Virginia haunts, where the imam used to minister to 9/11 hijackers and the Fort Hood mass-murderer – as the model depiction of Islam in America. (See Steve Emerson’s reports at the Investigative Project on Terrorism, here and here).