Sniper Suspect Muhammad Bought the Left's Anti-American Lie

Back to the Washington Sniper's Page

Reprinted from NewsMax.com

Daniel J. Flynn
Friday, Oct. 25, 2002

"Why should we support the United States,” a University of Hawaii professor rhetorically asked after 9/11, "whose hands in history are soaked in blood?” "Anyone who can blow up the Pentagon would get my vote,” boasted University of New Mexico professor Richard Berthold. A protester at the University of Colorado simply stated, "We had it coming.”

The Hollywood Left has reacted to the terrorists in much the same way, arguing that our enemies are right to hate us. In a recent Manchester Guardian article, Woody Harrelson implied that the United States, and not the terrorists, sparked the conflict between the U.S. and al-Qaeda. Elsewhere the millionaire actor carped, "The war on terrorism is terrorism.” In the aftermath of 9/11 Danny Glover labeled the United States, "One of the main purveyors of violence in this world.”

One American who reportedly made similarly ugly statements in the days following the bloody attacks on America is John Allen Muhammad, arrested Thursday morning in connection with the sniper attacks that have plagued Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C, for the past month.

Somewhere along the line, John Muhammad and his youthful sidekick John Lee Malvo drank from the same polluted fountain of anti-Americanism from which so many on campus and in Hollywood have imbibed.

According to news accounts, Muhammad, a security guard at Louis Farrakhan’s Million Man March and a former enlistee in the U.S. Army, was rabidly anti-American. A convert to Islam who recently changed his name, Muhammad allegedly spoke favorably about the 9/11 terrorists and regularly denounced the country that he once served. Reports now point to this hatred of America as the motivating influence behind the alleged sniper’s desire to kill scores of his fellow countrymen.

When Americans look at their country, they normally see the pioneer of freedom and self-government in the modern world, the nation that helped liberate Europe from the Nazis and the winner of the Cold War, and the welcoming destination for millions of immigrants. They see a people who cured tuberculosis and polio, landed a man on the moon, and invented the telephone, the airplane, the television, the computer, the ATM, and a host of other contraptions that have bettered the lot of humanity. In short, they see a good place.

America haters, on the other hand, see America through a jaundiced lens. Racism, sexism, poverty in the face of great wealth, and invented "imperialist” atrocities abroad cloud their vision to America’s true greatness.

For the anti-American, America is not about the Declaration of Independence, liberating the slaves, Lindbergh’s triumphant flight or Jonas Salk’s magnificent discovery. It’s about Dred Scott, melted corpses at Hiroshima and Matthew Shepard’s grisly death upon a fence post.

This latter version of America was the one that John Allen Muhammad apparently bought into. By deluding oneself into believing that America is all evil and no good, one is able to rationalize evil actions against this country. The foreign terrorists fell into this trap, and so, reportedly, did the D.C.-area sniper.

With many other Americans subscribing to this venomously negative view of their country, we might unfortunately expect more John Allen Muhammads in the future.

In the wake of 9/11, anti-Americanism motivated campus activists and the Hollywood Left to say stupid things. It allegedly sparked John Allen Muhammad and John Lee Malvo to commit evil acts.

Ideas do have consequences. And as we’ve seen with John Walker Lindh, Jose Padilla, the terrorist sleeper cell in Buffalo, and now allegedly with John Muhammad, bad ideas have bad consequences.

Daniel J. Flynn, executive director of Accuracy in Academia, is the author of "Why the Left Hates America: Exposing the Lies That Have Obscured Our Nation’s Greatness" (Prima Forum).

Also see: Author Says the Blame-America-First Left Undermines the Nation.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Sniper Shootings
War on Terrorism
Editor's note:
Now we know: "Why the Left Hates America"