Bob CollinsOver the weekend, four people — three men and a high schooler — were arrested for plotting to bomb a Muslim community in New York. Good luck finding anything more than a passing mention on the news.
The men, who were in Boy Scouts together, had access to 23 rifles and shotguns and three home-made explosives, authorities said. The cops found out about it when the high school student talked about it at school, and someone alerted the cops.
“If they had carried out this plot, which every indication is that they were going to, people would have died,” Greece, N.Y., Police Chief Patrick Phelan said at a news conference this week. “I don’t know how many and who, but people would have died.”
And they would’ve died for one reason: they were Muslim.
Who radicalized these men? That’s a question nobody who sits on a couch in front of a camera on morning TV is asking. Nor are the radio talk show hosts. Nor are the letters to the editor nor editorials in the newspaper.
It’s at least the second time a plot has been foiled against the Muslim enclave in the Catskills.
In 2015, Robert Doggert of Tennessee told a police informant, “Those guys (have) to be killed,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
So far, no one seems to be uttering the “T” word.
Here’s a clip about previous threats – specifically a biker rally. pic.twitter.com/U0xKmVpQg4
— Dan North (@D_NorthTV) January 23, 2019
“Where are the terrorism charges?” asked Muslims of America CEO Hussein Adams.
“This is a double standard. Had Muslims been plotting to build bombs, to harm any other communities there would be a sweeping investigation into the radicalization of the suspects as well as the network of criminals that supported the plot,” Adams said in a news conference on Wednesday.
Related: 2 men expected to plead guilty in Minnesota mosque bombing (AP)
