Why Focus on Pro-Lifers?

Father Jonathan Morris
Father Jonathan Morris (photo: wikipedia)

“This week we have witnessed two apparently similar drive-by killings by enraged activists. Suspect Scott Roeder has been charged with killing late-term abortion provider George Tiller as he served as an usher in his church. Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad is charged with shooting and killing an army recruitment officer (and wounding another) as the victim stood outside his office. Both cowardly suspects fled the scene. Both men are now in police custody. Both were motivated by what they considered their religious convictions.”

Legionary of Christ Father Jonathan Morris notes these similarities between Roeder and Muhammad at the start of his June 2 article posted here at the Fox Forum. But Father Morris stresses there’s a crucial difference between the two alleged killers:

In other words, it is crystal clear that Scott Roeder, the man suspected of killing Dr.  George Tiller, in no way represents the pro-life cause he heralded, while Abdulhakim will be considered a hero by many of his fellow Islamists whose cause is the destruction of America and Christianity in particular.

In light of the fact that Muhammad does represent a substantial segment of the Islamist community, whereas Roeder’s actions are completely out of step with the pro-life community’s commitment to nonviolence, Father Morris asks why the Obama administration seems to regard radical pro-lifers as a much greater threat than radical Islamists.

Yesterday, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the federal government will begin to provide increased security at abortion clinics and for abortion providers. But no announcement was made about increased security of military recruitment centers. With all the intelligence we have about Islamists who want to kill our soldiers, you would think that this recent murder at an Army recruitment center would have deserved at least the same response from the attorney general.

More significant still was President Obama’s decision to release a statement condemning the killing of Dr. George Tiller and calling for mutual respect in the abortion debate. Notice how in this case President Obama went to the cause of the murder — disrespect for human life. But so far, the President has not seen fit to release a statement rejecting the radical Islamist motivation of Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, even though he is about to embark on a trip to the Muslim world this week, where the killer’s anti-American sentiment was cultivated.

Every murder is wrong and demands our condemnation. Also worthy of condemnation is the administration’s politically correct obfuscation of these two murders. It’s a mistake to treat a handful of crazed anti-abortionists as a greater threat to our national security than the countless faithful followers of a fanatical Islamist ideology that continues to threaten our very existence.