A Progressive Fatwa

By Larry Huss

On Sunday, September 15, 2024, there was a second attempt to assassinate former President Donald Trump. It occurred less than two months following the first attempt on the former president and current Republican Presidential nominee at an outdoor rally in Butler, Pennsylvania during which the would-be assassin fired eight shots at Mr. Trump – one striking him in the ear as he turned away from the bullets trajectory – and, thereafter, was killed by a Secret Service marksman. In this current instance, the would-be assassin lay in wait in bushes adjacent to Mr. Trump’s golf course in Palm Beach, Florida, for nearly twelve hours based on tracking of his cellphone location. A Secret Service agent, staying a hole ahead of Mr. Trump, spotted the assailant’s rifle poke through the fence in preparation for Mr. Trump to move onto the targeted hole and fired his weapon flushing the assailant from his cover and sending him fleeing to a waiting car. Because a bystander took a photo of the car, it and the assailant were quickly apprehended alive and uninjured.

Okay, that’s a summary of what happened. What happens next should be pretty routine. However, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) took charge of the Butler, PA, attempt and quickly threw a blanket of secrecy over it and, to-date, we know little more than we did the day of the attempted assassination. The FBI, with the full cooperation of the Department of Justice (DOJ) – perhaps at the guidance of the DOJ – has refused to release any information, including denying access to the appropriate congressional committees. It is likely that we will never know any more than we do now. It follows a long pattern of deceit and deflection by both agencies that effect the political dialogue.

The FBI, again with the full cooperation of DOJ, has taken charge of the current assassination attempt and just as quickly has thrown a blanket of secrecy over the whole investigation. What little information that is coming out is primarily due to enterprising internet sleuths combing social media. In this instance, however, Florida Governor Ron Desantis (R-FL), given the demonstrable bias and previous actions of the FBI and DOJ, has launched an independent investigation in order to ensure a more professional examination. But his most important job may be to protect the would-be assassin and keep him alive to stand trial. Currently, the would-be assassin remains in federal custody and is, therefore, at risk – no suspect, no information.

Now all of this may sound like a conspiracy to you and you would be right. However, it is not the kind of conspiracy you would think. This is more like a fatwa. For those of you forced to endure a teachers unions education in the Portland public schools a fatwa is a ruling by a religious elder or body that requires the faithful to carry out its edict – even to the point of terminating a life. The most vivid example is the fatwa commanded in 1989 by Iran’s Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini demanding the death of Salman Rushdie for his publication of the Satanic Verses. The fatwa was not directed to a particular person to kill Mr. Rushdie but rather to the whole of the Islamic world. In issuing the fatwa Khomeini described the Satanic Verses as an existential threat to the teaching of Islam and the very existence of Islamic nations as justification for such an ultimate penalty.

According to Pew Research there are approximately 1.9 Billion Muslims worldwide. And, according to the United States census about 4.5 million in America. If even one tenth of one percent of those Muslims accepted the barbaric demand of Khomeini, it still unleashed nearly 1.9 million would-be assassins waiting and watching for an opportunity to take Mr. Rushdie’s life. As a result of Khomeini’s order there have been multiple serious attempts on Mr. Rushdie’s life including the latest one being in 2022. Wikipedia described that attack thusly:

“On August 12, 2022, novelist Salman Rushdie was stabbed multiple times as he was about to give a public lecture at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, New York, United States. A 24-year-old suspect, Hadi Matar, was arrested directly and charged the following day with assault and attempted murder. Rushdie was gravely wounded and hospitalized. Interviewer Henry Reese was also injured by the attacker.”

Khomeini has been dead since 1989 and yet the fatwa continues. And Mr. Rushdie remains a target of opportunity. A target of opportunity is a quasi-military term. In its simplest terms it means if the opportunity presents itself, kill him.

Just as Khomeini raised the threat level of Mr. Rushdie’s existence by declaring him an existential threat, America’s progressives have done the same. If it were just the headbangers like Rep. Alexandria Ortega Cortez (D-NY) and her merry band of anti-semites – the Squad – no one would have paid any attention. But this is the leadership of the Democrat Party – progressives and/or socialists all: President Joe Biden, Vice-President Kalamata Harris, former President Barack Obama, former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Sen. Bernie Sanders (Socialist-VT) and the list goes on right down to the merely obnoxious such as Reps. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) and Maxine Waters (D-CA). It even includes left out and former Republicans such a A-Woman-Scorned Liz Cheney. It also includes the mainstream media: ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC and the sob sisters who serve as late night comedians on their programming. It’s not just that you oppose Mr. Trump, or that you don’t like him as a person, or that you oppose his programs (I mean even Ms. Harris has embraced several of his proposals although she is clueless as evidenced by her inability to say why she changed her mind.) No, its when you declare that Mr. Trump is Adolf Hitler, that he is an existential threat to democracy, that he intends to be a dictator, that he will never relinquish the Office even at the end of his term – every vile and vindictive imagery you can portray. Recently The New York Times declared in headlines that Mr. Trump is “dangerous in word, deed and action.” And the Washington Post has declared him an existential threat at least a dozen times. These are fighting words. These are a call to action, not just an opinion. And they come from the people and the organizations that have long been identified as “leaders,”who are acting in the nation’s “best interest” and who by the nature of the offices they hold or held advise on the condition and direction of the country. And these are the people who know damn well the danger of their rhetoric and yet continue it incessantly.  Stopping Mr. Trump from being elected president is their goal and if he dies in the process – well, that’s okay too.  This isn’t rhetoric that just urges Mr. Trump’s defeat, but rather his elimination. It is in essence a command to kill. And while the overwhelming majority of Americans ignore these politicians, there are a sufficient number of miscreants ready to act upon their advice. Mr. Trumps life is in danger as a result. And it appears that the only reprieve from this will be a universal condemnation of both the politicians and the press by the public – a repudiation of their venal urging and a removal of them from their platforms of privilege – their elective offices.

There is an existential threat to America and it is not Mr. Trump. Rather it is those who will use the power of the government to silence you.