Four Jews were murdered in a kosher supermarket in Paris last month, after an Islamist terrorist claiming loyalty to Islamic State (ISIS) took the Hyper Cacher store hostage before police raided it and shot him - but according to US President Barack Obama the attack was "random."
In calling the attack random during an interview with Vox on Monday, Obama in fact did not even identify the victims as Jews, instead terming them "a bunch of folks."
"My first job is to protect the American people. It is entirely legitimate for the American people to be deeply concerned when you've got a bunch of violent vicious zealots who behead people or randomly shoot a bunch of folks in a deli in Paris," Obama said.
The shocking statement refers to an attack that Amedy Coulibaly, a Muslim terrorist of African origins, committed one day after he shot a policewoman dead, and two days after Islamist terrorists murdered 12 at the Charlie Hebdo magazine headquarters in Paris over cartoons of Mohammed, the founder of Islam.
Aside from brushing off the attack as being random, Obama also said the entire threat of global terrorism, which has included recruitment by Muslim terrorist groups deep within the west and attack attempts within the US, was "overstated" by the media.
"I don't blame the media for that," said Obama, quoting the saying "if it bleeds it leads. ...It's all about ratings."
The Obama administration has been dogged by claims it has systematically sought to downplay the danger of Muslim terrorism, with one prime example being the 2009 Fort Hood shooting massacre by a Palestinian Muslim US Army psychiatrist who had business cards reading "Soldier of Allah."
It was reported at the time that the term Islam was completely missing from the FBI report on the shooting, which classified the attack as a case of "workplace violence." That despite the fact that the terrorist shouted "Allahu akbar" (Allah is greater) during the attack and later admitted to having exchanged e-mails with leading Al Qaeda terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki.