Charleston Massacre

Chattanooga Terrorist: The Dylan Roof of Radical Islam

On the surface, Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez and Dylan Roof might seem to have little in common but the brutal nature of their crimes. The former was a Muslim terrorist who killed five U.S. servicemen and wounded several others at a recruiting office in Chattanooga last week. The latter is the white supremacist who slaughtered nine innocent people at a historic black church in Charleston last month. Given the somewhat opposed nature of their respective extremist beliefs, they might even have been expected to hate each other, at least privately.

Joel B. Pollak
Abdulazeez / Roof (Composite / Wires)

No, Obama–The Charleston Murderer Was Not Being ‘Used by God’

President Barack Obama delivered a stirring eulogy Friday for the Rev. Clementa Pinckney and eight others who were murdered in their church earlier this month by a white racist who hoped his act of terror would ignite a racial war. The first part of Obama’s remarks were a fitting and inspiring tribute to the victim, whom he knew personally. The second half was a regrettably political speech that exploited the pulpit for partisan ends–and claimed the murderer had been “used by God.”

Joel B. Pollak
The Associated Press

NASCAR: No Confederate Flags for Us

NASCAR announced that they support the position of South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and will not permit the use of the Confederate flag in any official capacity at any of their sanctioned events.

Robert Wilde
Dukes of Hazzard

Hillary Clinton Denounces White Privilege, Calls for Taking Guns From ‘Those Whose Hearts Are Filled With Hate’

Roof is, by all accounts, a mentally-unbalanced man taking psychotropic drugs, who wrote a neo-Nazi, anti-American screed. He clearly surrounded himself with horrifically irresponsible friends who didn’t bat an eye when he told them he planned to shoot up a school. There are many problems here, but “assumptions and privilege” aren’t among them.

Katie McHugh
The Associated Press