Of all the questions about Wednesday’s dastardly terrorist attack in Paris, the one that has the clearest answer regards the motivation: Kill those who oppose Islam in any way. The Religion of Peace™ has now claimed at least 15 victims in multiple attacks – all in the name of Allah. Even as police have surrounded the suspects, who insist they “want to die as martyrs,” the Left is bending over backward to make apologies for them.

> Update: Simultaneous police raids killed the jihadis. Unfortunately, at least four hostages were also killed.

Sure, victims received an outpouring of support both in Europe and here in America. Reporters, writers, cartoonists and government officials condemned the attack. But if that kind of support existed when the Charlie Hebdo offices were bombed in 2012, maybe Stéphane Charbonnier, his colleagues and the two unarmed police officers who were nearby would still be alive.

There is no reasoning with these maniacal and radical Islamic fundamentalists.

Our own fearless leader, Barack Obama, has spent much time in his presidency going through linguistic gymnastics to deny that terror attacks like the one in Paris are related to Islam. “Islam teaches peace,” he told us. Worse, the lesson Obama drew from the Sept. 11, 2012, murders of American Ambassador Christopher Stephens and three other Americans at the embassy in Benghazi, Libya, was this: “The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.”

Secretary of State John Kerry has followed suit. When asked about the rise of the Islamic State, he denied any connection to Islam: “ISIL claims to be fighting on behalf of Islam, but the fact is that it’s hateful ideology has nothing to do with Islam.” In his eyes, the weather is a bigger threat.

Are we really to believe that ISIL is not a threat? Is radical Islamic fundamentalism just another misunderstood ideology? Let’s ask Anjem Choudary, a radical Muslim cleric and longtime Sharia advocate.

“Contrary to popular misconception, Islam does not mean peace but rather means submission to the commands of Allah alone.” These are the opening words of Choudary’s op-ed published by USA Today Thursday in response to the Paris murders. He added, “Muslims do not believe in the concept of freedom of expression.” He goes on to point out that all Muslims are, or should be, motivated to protect the prophet Muhammad every day in every way. Even if it means murder.

Choudary’s unapologetic defense of the Paris murderers goes so far as to place the blame for the crime at the feet of the dead writers and artists. If they hadn’t provoked wrath, they might still be alive, he argued. Consider for a moment how this outrageous statement sounds applied in other situations: She was raped because she was wearing a short skirt. He wouldn’t have been beaten to death if he drank from the colored water fountain like he was supposed to.

Yet leftists are falling over each other to make excuses for these attacks. Obama is this nation’s ringleader when it comes to this foolishness.

Obama’s not alone in his blindness. The Religion of Peace™ has racked up a body count that is second to none in our post-Cold War world, yet leftist “thinkers” and media acolytes want to blame all these acts of war on Western thinking. Like Choudary, many want to say that the writers and artists brought their deaths on themselves.

One of the two brothers responsible for the Paris massacre, who has a record of terrorist activity by the way, blamed his radicalization on George W. Bush, the war in Iraq and the Abu Ghraib prison abuses. How convenient.

Murderers like him always have a reason for their crimes that push responsibility away from themselves. And leftists in this country almost always buy it. Suppose Abu Ghraib and Iraq were motivators for their actions. What motivated the radicals that forced us to invade Iraq in the first place? What motivated 9/11? The attack on the USS Cole? The dual bombings of American embassies in Africa in 1998? They will always come up with a reason to justify their murder.

In the same manner, leftists will always come up with a way to blame radical Islamic acts of violence in the West on “homegrown” terrorists. There has rarely been a more foolish concept. Former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy at National Review points out that there is no such thing as “homegrown” terrorism in the West. These radicals come with the deliberate goal of burrowing into a Muslim community, staying apart from the society as a whole, and rejecting our laws and customs with the express purpose of someday emerging to act out openly against us.

And as Mark Alexander notes, they’re not “lone wolves,” either. If all these supposed “homeland” terrorists are indeed “lone wolves,” why are there so many of them?

Never fear: The Obama White House will endeavor to set the record straight on “real Islam. In the words of Press Secretary Josh Earnest, the U.S. must "be clear about what the tenets of Islam actually are. And we are going to redouble those efforts.” Does that mean Obama will switch from executive orders to fatwas?