Muslim, not a Muslim

Lawrence Auster, my favorite fringe-right blogger, has focused the past few days on a grisly murder in Canada. In a nutshell: a sleeping passenger on a Greyhound bus was stabbed, disemboweled and beheaded by another passenger.

The word “beheaded” is what leaped out at Auster. His first post – soon after midnight on Friday morning – was headlined: “A new phase of jihad? Man stabbed to death and decapitated on bus in Canada.”

Auster took a swipe at the “uber PC” Canadian police, who hadn’t released the suspect’s name. Because, you know, there just had to be an “Ahmed” or “Khalid” in it. Or at least we can assume that’s what Auster believed, based on the word “jihad” in his headline.

Later Friday morning, Auster bemoaned the fact that no new information had been released.

“I can think of only one explanation for this news blackout,” he wrote. “It is that the killer is indeed a Muslim, and that the news is so shocking, its implications so frightening--Canadians might be slaughtered and beheaded, anywhere, any time--that the ultra-PC Canadian authorities... can't handle it.

“Because, if the killer is a Muslim, as seems very likely,” Auster continued, “it would mean that Canada (and every Western country with a Musulman population) has now become like Israel, where death-by-Islam can occur to anyone, any time, any place.”

An hour or so later, officials released the suspect’s name: Vince Weiguang Li. “And he’s not a Muslim, at least by his name,” Auster blogged, “he’s Chinese (though of course there are Chinese Muslims).”

Shortly after noon on Friday, Auster felt the need to post again... about whether or not he had embarrassed himself with that “jihad” business:

“[I]f there is anyone thinking, based on the fact that the beheading suspect is apparently not a Muslim, that I was premature in guessing that he is one, think about what that says about your attitudes and assumptions....

“There is one group in the world for whom beheadings are central to their religion and culture. In every country where Islamic law is in effect, Muslims behead criminals.”

Point taken, Mr. Auster.

By Friday evening, he posted yet again... with this headline: “The likelihood of a Muslim inspiration should not be dismissed.” After all, as one of Auster’s readers pointed out, “Tapes of beheadings (yes, done by Muslims) have been available on the Web for years.”

Early Saturday morning, Auster had new information: “Report: beheader is ‘Chinese Muslim motivated by Koran.’ ”

Evidently, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation had put this on its website: “A Chinese Muslim, Li expressed to investigators that his actions were motivated by the Koran.” But that line was soon removed from the CBC report.

Was this a case of politically incorrect information being “sanitized” by the CBC? Or was the information removed because it was wrong in the first place? Lawrence Auster isn’t sure.

“If this is true, then my controversial guess... that the killer was Muslim (followed by my theory that the Canadian authorities were covering up his Muslim status in order to prevent a mass anti-Muslim reaction) was accurate. But we don't know that it's true.”

On Saturday night, Auster shared another right-wing blogger’s notion that Vince Weiguang Li might’ve acted out of “voluntary jihad syndrome” – that is, he was a Muslim who suddenly “went postal” on an infidel.

Then, early Sunday morning, came this from the ever-vigilant Auster: “It’s virtually definite: he’s a Muslim.” This based on information in a Chinese-language newspaper, sent to Auster by one of his readers.

Alas, by Sunday afternoon the mainstream media was reporting that Li and his wife had occasionally attended a Baptist church in Winnipeg, prompting Auster to blog: “If he went to a Baptist church, even just a few times, he could not have been any kind of devout Muslim.”

Later came a report that Li had cannibalized his victim. And if that’s true, Auster wrote, “he couldn’t be a Muslim.”

By now, I picture Larry Auster shaking his fists at the sky, wailing because he is “forced to form an inadequate picture out of bits and pieces.”

I sure hope the truth comes out soon... for Auster’s sake. Sounds like he’s been losing sleep.