Top newspaper columnist: Blame men, not Muslims for terror attacks

A top newspaper columnist has urged society to stop rushing to blame Muslims following a terror attack – and instead focus their attention on men.

Writing for The Guardian, Gary Younge pointed out that almost every mass killer worldwide has been male, before hitting out at the lack of regulation or travel bans on groups of men, like there are for Muslims right across the world.

Just days ago, a van mowed down a crowd of people in Toronto, leaving 10 dead and 15 injured. Shortly after, author and writer Paul Joseph Watson, of conspiracy site Infowars, tweeted: “A jihadist has just killed 9 people.”

Noting the immediate jump for a “far-right lynching party” to assume the attacker must be Muslim, Younge wrote: “But there is a far safer assumption one can generally make. For while a relatively small proportion of mass killers in North America are Muslim, across the globe they are almost all men.”

A jihadist has just killed 9 people and the Mayor is already out virtue signalling. https://t.co/sw2lJv9aEz

— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) April 23, 2018

He hit out at the lack of regulations to stop men spreading “toxic masculinity”, a lack of surveillance to watch men who “congregate”, and a lack of travel bans on men – making a less-than-subtle comparison to the travel restrictions many Muslims face day to day.

“Obviously not all men are killers,” he added. “But the fact that virtually all mass killers are men should, at the very least, give pause for thought. If it were women slaying people at this rate, feminism would be in the dock. The fact they are male is both accepted and expected. Boys will be boys; mass murderers will be men.”

Alek Minassian is now standing accused of the tragic killings in Monday’s Toronto van attack, and Younge claimed it’s yet another example of masculinity gone wrong. In fact, he said masculinity was the primary “motive” for this particular attack.

According to Minassian’s Facebook page, he socialised with members of “incel”, short for “involuntarily celibate”. While the initiative was originally set up by a woman for people struggling to find sexual partners, it has now been adopted by a group of men who claim they “can’t have sex despite wanting to”.

Read more: London Bridge terror attack could have been much worse

At the centre of these mens’ belief is a resentment that they can’t get a girlfriend, and the idea that women are somehow denying them the sexual relationship they believe they’re entitled to. Younge explains: “Their inadequacy is central both to their identity and their rage.”

Minassian’s latest Facebook post read: “The Incel Rebellion has already begun! We will overthrow all the Chads and Stacys! All hail the Supreme Gentleman Elliot Rodger!” Facebook later confirmed to the BBC that Minassian was the author of the post.

The Elliot Rodger he referred to in his post was the 22-year-old who killed seven people, including himself, and injured 14 in Isla Vista, California in 2014. He had reportedly written a piece against women and couples beforehand.

Younge made reference to Rodger’s past comments on women in his column, and remembered one video where Rodger launched a direct attack on women.

“I don’t know why you girls aren’t attracted to me but I will punish you all for it,” Rodger is claimed to have said in the video at the time. “It’s an injustice, a crime because… I’m the perfect guy and yet you throw yourselves at all these obnoxious men instead of me, the supreme gentleman.”

Younge also referenced Alexandre Bissonnette, who was accused of killing six and injuring 19 in an attack on a mosque in Quebec City last year. He is claimed to have conducted an internet search on Rodger before his own attack.

Younge blamed this belief of inadequacy for some of the men’s issues, writing: “They are not the men they want or need to be; they do not have the status they feel was their birthright. This is the fault of others and somebody, anybody, must therefore pay.”

What do you think of his view?