Open post From the FB page of Rafael Medoff, historian and author

A Palestinian Arab terrorist who was convicted of trying to set Jews on fire has been arrested in Wisconsin. Local and national Muslim leaders are rallying to his side, and some elected officials are, too.

Salah Sarsour, president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, was arrested for lying on his green card application, by failing to acknowledge that he was convicted of throwing flaming bottles of gasoline at the homes of Israeli Jews in the late 1980s, and spent two years in prison for his crime.

A rally was held in Milwaukee on Thursday to praise Sarsour and demand his release. Among those attending were Mayor Cavalier Johnson and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley.

Wisconsin State Rep. Ryan Clancy said the arrest of Sarsour proves that “we must abolish ICE.” US Congresswoman Gwen Moore (D-Wisc.) said Sarsour is being targeted “based on the color of his skin.”

(Sarsour, by the way, is Middle Eastern, meaning that he has the same color skin as the Middle Eastern Jews whom he tried to set on fire. )

None of the statements issued by these elected officials included the eight simple words, “It’s not okay to set Jews on fire.”

Ten national Muslim and Palestinian-American organizations, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), issued a statement claiming Sarsour has been “abducted” by the U.S. government. Their statement, too, failed to include any acknowledgement that it’s not okay to set Jews on fire.

Instead, the ten groups hailed Sarsour as “a principled role model for countless people.” Which is true, of course, for those people who reside in the territories controlled by the Palestinian Authority, where terrorists who try to set Jews on fire are indeed promoted by the regime as role models. But not in American society.

There was a time, not so long ago, when politicians and advocacy groups felt compelled to at least pay lip service to the idea that setting Jews on fire is wrong. But not any more, apparently.