No one calls these attacks "blowback"

[Marr]

30. I don't tend to 'attack the left', because I'm very much on the left.

But on this one issue, I perpetually feel completely out of step with people I align with on a lot of other issues. There's this kneejerk reaction on much of the left to make excuses for violent Muslim extremists, as seen in this OP. Nevermind that it's paternalistic and infantilizing in the extreme, making Muslims into a sort of passive group that has no thoughts or agendas of it's own, and can only respond to the actions of the almighty white man of the west. Muslim extremists don't even understand their own motivations, to hear these people tell it, even though they happily outline those motivations over and over. No, the benevolent western liberal just ignores their actual *words* and gives another lecture on their own foreign policy views.

It seems like many of us are so anxious to jump in and defend people we perceive to be minorities, or under dogs (they are neither there, of course, but ignoring that), that we don't stop to consider that they might also be destructive, close-minded bigots.

And I disagree-- describing ISIS as 'terror blowback' most certainly is excusing it. It's passing the moral failing off on the west. Ultimately, ISIS is a product of it's homeland and religion.