Fox's Varney Laments Public Officials Can't Describe Violent Crimes As Terrorism Until There's Proof It’s Terrorism

Stuart Varney: “A Public Official Cannot Use That Word 'Terror' Until Such Time As A Connection Is Established” Between Attacker And “Some Contact In The Islamic Community Or Terror Community”

From the November 28 edition of Fox News' Your World with Neil Cavuto:

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STUART VARNEY (HOST): A vehicle was deliberately on purpose driven into a crowd of students. He got out with a butcher's knife, and slashed and attacked those students. He has a Somali background. What is required for authorities to use the word “terror?”

DAVID KATZ: They just need to have some, and it doesn't have to be a lot, some motive. Now, if he said something getting out of the car, if he shouted “Allahu Akbar,” if he speaks to anybody -- I know you mentioned they did an interview with a -- one of the campus publications where he talked about being a Muslim, and self identifying as Muslim. So, we know he fits the demographic of Islamic terrorist, and he's a Muslim male, 18 to 40. What we don't know is what actually precipitated the act. We can assume, you know, but that's not enough.

VARNEY: So, that's what it takes. You cannot go out in public and say this is was an act of terror, until such time as you know the motivation, and connect it to terror. Is that required?

KATZ: Well, I would say -- I would say it is clearly an act of terror. Is it an act of radical Islamic terror? That's the more narrow question.

VARNEY: Why the dancing around this? I mean, there's an extreme reluctance to go anywhere near that subject.

[...]

VARNEY: But you can't say that, a public official cannot use that word “terror,” until such time as a connection is established between the perpetrator, and some contact in the Islamic community or the terror community. Never want to put it like that. You can't use that word “terror” until that moment arrives.

Previously:

Fox's Varney Speculates That German Cinema Gunman May Be “A Plus For Donald Trump”

Fox's Varney Complains That American Muslims Haven't “Demonstrat[ed] On The Streets” To Denounce Terror

Watch A Professor Shred A Fox Host's Defense Of Trump's Racist Call To Ban Muslim Immigrants

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