Cherif Chekatt attacked a Christmas market in the French city of Strasbourg Tuesday night. He killed three people and wounded 13 more before fleeing the scene. At the time of this writing, a massive manhunt is underway amid reports that he may have escaped into Germany.

We have also learned that Chekatt had an extensive criminal history. He was another “known wolf” on the terrorist watch list, which apparently means that authorities watch you be a terrorist. 

What is the purpose of this list? There are nearly 80,000 people on France’s “watch list.” The government can’t possibly watch them all. 

It seems to me that the list is just another means of trying to placate the public, enabling feckless politicians to say, “Oh, look, we have a list,” while the bodies pile up.

It is striking that the media collectively, including Fox News, have come up with a way of reporting these attacks without in any way referring to “radical Islam,” “Islamic extremism,” “jihad” or anything else that explains the motivation behind what just happened.

Various reports have stated that “Chekatt had been radicalized in prison and had been monitored by French intelligence services … because of his suspected religious extremism.”

But radicalized to what? Veganism? Environmentalism? Isn’t it important to know what he was radicalized about?

He was identified with “religious extremism.” So the problem is religion? 

I know a lot of Christians who take their faith very seriously. They believe every word of the Bible, as I do. But I’m not aware of anyone who violently attacked a mosque claiming Jesus required them to do so.

And what is it that is regularly attacked in France and Germany this time of year? Christmas markets. 

So a French Islamic supremacist shot up a Christmas market because he wanted to kill Christians. This is the classic definition of a hate crime. But you will be hard-pressed to find this explanation of Tuesday’s events in virtually any “mainstream media” report.

The more the Islamists kill us — whether it is Hamas, Hezbollah, ISIS, Islamic Jihad or the radical Islamic Republic of Iran — the more it becomes evident that a large segment of Islam is at war with the West. And yet our elites refuse to acknowledge this reality.

Synagogue Attack Foiled

It’s not just France that is struggling to deal with Islamic extremism. The Department of Justice announced this week that the FBI had arrested Damon M. Joseph of Holland, Ohio, for “planning an attack on a synagogue in the Toledo, Ohio area” and for providing material support to the Islamic State.

Undercover agents had been monitoring Joseph’s social media account for several months. But they stepped up their surveillance when he expressed support for the October attack on the Tree of Life synagogue, telling an undercover agent, “I can see myself carrying out this type of operation inshallah [if Allah wills it].”

Last week, Joseph told undercover agents that he had narrowed his targets down to two synagogues in the Toledo area. He also said that he wanted to kill a rabbi. Media reports add that Joseph also expressed hatred for Christians, and wrote, “I don’t believe in the sugarcoated watered down Islam a lot of Muslims of the West follow.”

Sadly, Joseph isn’t alone. As we have reported, there are numerous mosques across America that are preaching anything but peace, love and tolerance.

Fighting Religious Persecution

There was another important moment at the White House Tuesday besides the televised smackdown over border security. (More on that below.) 

President Trump signed legislation directing U.S. humanitarian aid and reconstruction assistance to the Iraqi Christian and other minority victims of the horrific genocide committed by ISIS. The legislation was co-sponsored by Representatives Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Anna Eshoo (D-CA).

Vice President Mike Pence was a strong advocate for the bill, and has been determined to break through bureaucratic obstacles to ensure that this critical aid reaches the communities most in need.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, on which I serve as one of nine commissioners, praised President Trump’s commitment to helping those who have suffered the most from the Islamic State’s barbarism. 

Sadly, the ethnic cleansing of Christians in the birthplace of Christianity continues, just like the ongoing efforts to rewrite the history of the Jewish homeland. 

Who is behind these atrocities? Who is calling for a second Holocaust through the annihilation of the Jewish state? Radical Islamists. 

Christians are not rampaging across the Middle East slaughtering Muslims. Jews are not trying to destroy any Muslim nation. It is the exact opposite.  

A Sign Of Weakness

Here’s a story guaranteed to make your blood boil. One hundred Central American migrants marched on the U.S. consulate in Tijuana Tuesday. They demanded to be allowed into the U.S. or be paid $50,000 each to return home.

Alfonso Guerrero Ulloa of Honduras, a spokesman for the group, said, “It may seem like a lot of money to you. But it is a small sum compared to everything the United States has stolen from Honduras.”

Can anyone imagine refugees or illegal immigrants in any previous time in our history being so certain of American weakness that they would dare to think such a strategy might pay off? 

Ulloa and his comrades are only trying this because they see the left in the U.S. constantly resisting and undercutting everything the president does.

Speaking of the left’s border insanity, President Trump yesterday tweeted:

“The Democrats and President Obama gave Iran 150 Billion Dollars and got nothing, but they can’t give 5 Billion Dollars for National Security and a Wall?”