ORLANDO, Fla. – Marcus Dwayne Robertson, the Islamic imam who preaches intolerance toward homosexuals, denied that the Orlando nightclub shooter, Omar Mateen, was a student of his online Muslim academy, during a Tuesday night interview broadcast by Fox News.
"Our heart goes out to the victims and we didn't ever train this guy. Never met him. He is not a student of ours," Robertson, who goes by Abu Taubah at his Timbuktu seminary in Orlando, Florida, told Fox interviewer Greta van Susteren. He told her that media reports of a connection had drawn death threats.
When truly pressed to find some optimism in all the garbage of current events, I've sometimes fallen back to pointing out that there really isn't anything new. We've seen these pissant thugs before; they're part of the ebb and flow of history. It's not pleasant when they're surging, and it's especially irksome when the mainstream media and (more importantly) people with whom we disagree, philosophically, but whom we respect, can't muster a strong denunciation of those who would beat us senseless, if given the chance.
But thems the games. It falls to us to decide whether we're for principle or for temporary victory. We have to decide on the threshold at which prudence means breaking the other guy's nose so that the civilized conversation can continue. And decide that we haven't gotten there, yet.
