A sigh of relief was heard last week from the New York Times to many newspapers and media outlets around the world, even in Israel, accompanied by a sneer toward the political right: He’s not a Muslim! Wow. It turns out that the mass murder in Las Vegas was committed by “only” a lunatic, Stephen Paddock, and one doesn’t have to be a jihadist to carry out a merciless massacre.

Too many people are busy apologizing all the time. They eagerly jumped on the “not a Muslim” part. Here’s their proof that Muslims had nothing to do with the massacre. They’re right. But their mocking joy reveals something much deeper. They’re stricken with blindness. Someone who jumps for joy when “a non-Muslim” carries out a massacre usually keeps quiet when “an actual Muslim” carries out a massacre. Reality should be looked at as it is, without “right-wing” or “left-wing” glasses that impair not only one’s vision but also one’s thought.

First of all, every month in the past few years, 1,000-2,000 people have been murdered by jihad organizations. These aren’t casualties of war. These are only, exclusively, acts of terror. Most of them aren’t even reported by the Western media because it really isn’t interesting that three or five or dozens of people have been murdered in Nigeria, Somalia, Afghanistan or Pakistan. Just a few weeks ago, two young Muslim women carried out a suicide bombing in a crowded market near a refugee camp in Nigeria. All the victims were Muslim. The number of reports in the Western media was close to zero.

Second, at certain points in history, Christianity was a lot more murderous than Islam, and even if Islam tries very hard, it won’t reach the atrocities committed, for example, in the Crusades. It was a merciless massacre against entire Jewish communities. Synagogues were torched with people inside them. In the Thirty Years’ War, as part of a bloody battle between rival Christian factions, the Christians massacred each other in large quantities, making the battle between the Shiites and Sunnis look like children at play. The thing is, Christianity weaned off the death industry. Islam is far from rehabilitation.

Third, just like most victims of the old Christian murderousness were Christians, most of the victims of the Muslims today—the absolute majority—are Muslims too. The terror attacks in the West are only a small percentage of the daily terrorism suffered by Muslims themselves: The absolute majority of the 21,245 people who were murdered in 2016 were Muslim. The most serious terror attack in the West took place in Nice when a truck was deliberately driven into crowds of people celebrating Bastille Day.

Fourth, with all undue respect to the lunatic from Las Vegas, we should remember the words written by a brave Muslim, Abdulrahman al-Rashed, the former editor-in-chief of Asharq al-Awsat: “It is a certain fact that not all Muslims are terrorists, but it is equally certain that almost all terrorists are Muslims.” He wrote it in 2004. Since then, things have only gotten worse.

Fifth, many Muslims likely know that wherever radical Islam rears its head—whether in Western communities or in Muslim countries—the inevitable result is destruction, oppression, and ruin. The problem isn’t just terrorism. It’s also the oppression of women and separatism, which are leaving the Muslims behind. The brave ones among them launch an open battle, but the forces of progress usually turn their backs on them. If they refuse to participate in the campaign of hatred against the West or against Zionism, they are unworthy of support.

I doubt there’s a single serious right-wing person who voiced his disappointment upon learning that the Las Vegas murderer wasn’t Muslim. But it’s perfectly clear that the sigh of relief heard from some of the speakers of the Left points to something a lot more serious. Because when massive amounts of capital keep flowing from Saudi Arabia and Qatar to fund mosques and radical imams, and when intellectuals from the forces of progress provide explanations and justifications for jihad, and the meticulous ones even sympathize with Hamas and Hezbollah, and when the Muslim support for jihad or for imposing sharia laws keeps growing, both in Muslim states and in the West—jihad can keep relying on the foolishness of the forces of progress. They’ll always be there to make people indifferent. They’ll always be there to say there’s no problem. And problems of this kind have a strange tendency: The more we ignore them, the more we sink into denial, the bigger they become.

Reprinted with author’s permission from YNet News