Chicago Mayor Under Fire (What Else Is New?)

Hat tip Algemeiner

The mayor of Chicago, Brandon Johnson, one of the most left-wing mayors in the country, is facing widespread criticism from the local Jewish community and beyond after his remarks in the wake of the shooting of an Orthodox Jewish man walking to a synagogue in Chicago last Saturday. Johnson failed to mention that the victim was Jewish, and all indications are that this was a hate crime not yet charged as such.

While Johnson’s statement in itself is not objectionable, it is recalled that after the horrific stabbing death of a 6-year-old Palestinian boy in October 2023, in Plainfield Township, Illinois, Johnson issued a statement and made a point of mentioning the boy’s ethnicity and religion while referring to Islamophobia. That is what has many Jews in Chicago and elsewhere wondering why Johnson did not use this opportunity to condemn acts of anti-Semitic violence.

Is there a double standard here?

The alleged shooter, Sidi Mohamed Abdallahi (22), is a young man from Mauritania, who when confronted by police, reportedly shouted, “Allahu Akhbar“ while exchanging gunfire. It is also being reported by some media that he is in the country illegally, having entered last year, processed by immigration authorities, and released.

To be clear, both of the above attacks committed in Illinois in the past year are deplorable. Last October, there was widespread outrage at the horrific attacks by Hamas against innocent Israeli civilians of all ages and genders. That, however, could never justify murdering a 6-year-old Palestinian child in Illinois or anywhere else. By the same token, shooting a Jewish man in Chicago on his way to synagogue cannot be justified because one is angry at Israel’s military response against Hamas and other terrorist groups attacking the Jewish state.

 Mayor Johnson should have enough sense to know that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, particularly after last year’s attack by Hamas, has spurred bad feelings on both sides here in the US. I don’t have a problem with him using last year’s murder to speak out against anti-Muslim feelings or Islamophobia though I have problems with that word itself. Why he did not use Saturday’s shooting incident to condemn the wave of anti-Semitism sweeping the country is beyond me. One would think that the mayor of America’s third-largest city would know enough to understand the sensitivities and what each incident represents.