A Shariah Atrocity in Pakistan

Yesterday’s hideous murder of 132 school children by the Taliban in Pakistan is a chilling reminder that radical Islamists are prepared to go to any length to promote their radical ideology of Shariah.

Like the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, the 9/11 attacks, the July 2005 London bombings, the 2004 Madrid Train bombings, the 2005 Bali bombings, the 2008 Mumbai attacks, the April 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, and numerous other radical Islamist terrorist attacks, the Taliban yesterday again proved that that radical Islamist jihadists are prepared to kill innocents to advance their fanatical cause.

In response to this week’s deadly hostage ordeal in Australia, Frank Gaffney, President of the Center for Security Policy, described these Shariah-driven Jihadists as a death cult.  How else can one explain armed insurgents raiding a military-run high school, methodically shooting children in the head, and then setting their bodies on fire?

Press accounts said this attack was retaliation to avenge Pakistani military operations against Taliban strongholds in the tribal areas near the Afghan border.  Such an explanation does not come close to explaining an atrocity that the Wall Street Journal today said “sets a record for moral depravity.”  This was an attack staged by the Global Jihadist Movement against Muslims and non-Muslims who resist the same extremist Shariah ideology promoted by al-Qaeda and the Islamist State to establish a global Islamist caliphate and that martyrdom to force to submit to shariah is the surest path to paradise.

This gruesome act of terror probably was also motivated by a losing effort by jihadists to seize control of Pakistan by killing the children of Pakistani government officials.  These horrific killings are likely to further set back this effort because of the outrage against the Taliban they are likely to spark among most Pakistanis.  Hopefully, Pakistani officials will also realize from the killings that their country will never be safe and secure as long as the government collaborates with and accommodates terrorist groups.

It is sadly ironic that this horrific event takes place as congressional Democrats and the far-left are grandstanding against the Bush administration’s enhanced interrogation program.  I know from my work on the House Intelligence Committee staff that this program worked and protected the United States from terrorist attacks.  If using enhanced interrogation against a radical Islamist detainee could have stopped yesterday’s murder of 132 school children, could any sane individual say this would not have been justified?