By BI: American author, Ed Cline, got a visit from the FBI where he was informed that he was on the Islamic State murder list. When his landlord, Lawson Enterprises, found out, they chose to kick the 70-year-old Air Force veteran threatened by ISIS into the street.
Frontpage According to Cline, Lawson Enterprises informed him that he posed a “risk” to the safety of the other tenants. It is not ISIS that poses the risk, but its target and its victim, who must be put out on the street. Cline has no means of moving and nowhere to move to. After initially being ordered to leave by July 1st, he was offered a “courtesy” extension to July 19th, which was later rescinded, leaving the elderly writer with few options and less time. Cline described the experience as taking “years” off his life.
And so in its own way, ISIS may have accomplished its purpose. Not through bombs or bullets. No Jihadists rushed through the lobby of Cline’s building. ISIS took no risks at all. All it needed to do was to issue a threat and fear did its dirty work. ISIS put names on a list. Americans living right here did the rest.
While Lawson Enterprises refused multiple requests for comment on this story, Mr. Cline related a conversation in which he had made the mistake of honestly describing the purpose of the FBI visit even while stating that the agent had informed him that there was no imminent threat. If the FBI did not believe there was a threat, why is Lawson Enterprises evicting Edward Cline?
Writing about Islamic terrorism, as Cline does on his blog, Rule of Reason, makes you culpable. People who warn us about Islam terrorism somehow deserve to be killed by Muslim terrorists. The working theory among some is that shooting the messenger will eliminate the need for the message.
And so a 70-year-old Air Force veteran and respected novelist will be homeless because his name appeared on an ISIS hit list, along with many others, and because he did something to “deserve it” by warning us about the threat of Islamic terrorism.
It does not matter that ISIS, if it had the power, would not spare anyone in Mr. Cline’s building, regardless of their politics. It is easier to evict a man whom ISIS has made a target and imagine that this makes us all safe. Being so terrified of a terrorist group some 6,000 miles away allows any moral outrage to be committed, including kicking an elderly writer out of his home, in the hopes that somehow the dread shadow of terror will pass them by next time. And maybe the time after that.
Edward Cline is only one man. Perhaps his friends, who have succeeded in raising some money for him on GoFundMe, may be able to help him. Or perhaps not.
We will not defeat ISIS by having the biggest weapons. We will either do it through moral courage or not at all. Edward Cline has shown that species of moral courage. That he is being punished for it shows us why we are losing and what it will take for us to truly defeat the Islamic State.
https://youtu.be/a2FmwNZ1drU