The “mainstream” media has once again erred on the side of political correctness, and once again missed the boat on Islamist responsibility for violence. Newsweek has apologized for and retracted its story claiming that U.S. troops flushed the Koran down a toilet at Guantanamo Bay:

It turns out that the anonymous source on whom it [Newsweek] had relied was not necessarily in a position to know what, if anything, had really happened.

The magazine said: "We regret that we got any part of our story wrong, and extend our sympathies to the victims of the violence and to the US soldiers caught in its midst."

Naturally, many in the media have concentrated on the Islamists’ violent reaction – 15 people were killed in Afghanistan and about 100 injured across the Muslim world in reaction to the false allegations of Koran “desecration.”

The implied assumption on the part of the media is that Muslims were driven into a fury by the Newsweek story and/or actions by the U.S. military – as if Muslims are somehow justified in their reaction: “See what we, the Great Satan, have done again!”

This logic assigns no responsibility to the perpetrators of the violence. It is condescending in its assumption that Muslims should naturally react with violence, as if they are somehow a lower form of human life (“poor things”).

The questions to be asked are: “What is the sorry state of a people/religion where ultra-violence (terrorism) is such an integral part of their society?” and “What can Muslims do to clean up their societies, and start practicing democracy and free, open, and peaceful discourse when solving problems?”

How many times have decent American citizens seen their flag burned, watched their president burned in effigy, and observed Christians and Jews having their heads sawed off by Islamist barbarians? These Americans haven’t responded with violence. Yes, the U.S. has problems, but not anywhere near the ills plaguing the Muslim world.