PARIS STABBING UPDATE: Reader George Beckwith forwards this story, in which it is noted that the stabber was: “a 39-year-old practising Muslim born near Paris, who told interrogators he acted ‘out of animosity towards politicians and homosexuals.'” The headline, of course, mentions only that the Mayor, Bertrand Delanoe, was stabbed by a “homophobe.” Most stories seem to be omitting all of this information.

One can, of course, be a homophobe and — especially — a hater of politicians without being a Muslim, but there do seem to be rather extensive efforts to downplay any Islamic connections. Beckwith adds:

Most of the elite media and nearly all governments are concealing the extent and nature of Islamist terrorism, because they are terrified of public reaction. The FBI treatment of the Egyptian who killed the Jews at LAX is a prime example. This is certain to fail in the information age, destroying the believability of governments the dominant media alike.

Yes, I think that efforts to gloss over this sort of thing are as likely to feed prejudice as to reduce it — and the lost credibility that results will make it far harder to contain any backlashes that appear.