Last week Illinois Republican Rep. Donald Manzullo apologized for some comments he made in regards to terrorists. His comments were particularly inflammatory. Speaking about terrorist suspects, Manzullo said, "These are really, really mean people whose job it is to kill people, driven by some savage religion." Muslims who got wind of these words thought Manzullo was referring to Muslims, sui generis.
Turns out he wasn't refering to Muslims in general and was alluding to the extremist ones. His apology explains this rather un-poetically.
But the quick apology seems rather serious, given that it is common knowledge that when referring to terrorist's religion it is usually considered to be of the extremist sort--not the layman's blend.
So why so fast with the apology if most modern human beings should be able to flesh out Manzullo's words? The reason is simple. Manzullo, remembering the danish cartoon debacle, knows what offended Muslims are capable of: riots.
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