A German-born 18-year-old of Iranian descent named Ali Sonboly went on a shooting spree last Friday.  He reportedly targeted young children, and a number of adolescents were among the nine he murdered.

This incident is a reminder that the ongoing terrorization of the West is not limited to the Islamic State (“ISIS”), “extreme” Wahhabi or Salafi interpretations of Islam, or terrorists posing as refugees entering the West.

Ali Sonboly was none of those things.  He was born and raised in Germany and, based on his name and Iranian heritage, was most likely of Shia background.

But he was a Muslim.  He screamed Islam’s ancient war cry “Allahu Akbar” during his rampage.  It’s also telling that he launched his attack on the one day of the week that many calculated Islamic attacks on non-Muslims occur: Friday.

And that is the grand lesson of the Munich massacre.  Mere Islam – to borrow from C.S. Lewis’s famous book about the many commonalities shared by most Christian denominations – is responsible for the ongoing terrorization of the West.

If you doubt this, simply turn to a recent study.  It found that everyday Muslims of all sects, races, and sociopolitical circumstances – not just “ISIS” – are responsible for persecuting Christians in 41 of the 50 worst nations to be Christian in.  Shia Iran is the ninth worst nation, “Wahhabi” Saudi Arabia is 14th, while “moderate” nations like Malaysia and Indonesia are ranked 30 and 43, respectively.

The common denominator in all these nations is Islam – without qualifier.

Even ISIS’s abhorrent treatment of Christians and other non-Muslims is only an extreme reflection of what Muslims in general are doing to non-Muslims all around the world.  See “Muslim Persecution of Christians,” reports I’ve been compiling every month for five years this month, and witness the nonstop discrimination, persecution, and carnage committed against Christians by “everyday” Muslims – from the highest authorities to the basest mobs.  Each monthly report (there are currently 58) contains dozens of atrocities, any of which if committed by Christians against Muslims would receive 24/7 blanket coverage.

While the media concoct any number of lies to dispel the Islamic nature of the Munich attack – the usual strategies, especially talk of “grievances,” are already being employed – the fact remains: for all the differences and tensions between Europe’s native and Muslim populations, the Christians being persecuted by Muslims are often identical to their persecutors in race, ethnicity, national identity, culture, and language.  There is no political dispute, no land dispute.  Nor do these disempowered and ostracized Christian minorities have any political power – meaning there are no Muslim “grievances,” either.

So why are they hated and hounded?  Because they are Christians – t–hat is, non-Muslim infidels -- and that’s the real reason Western people are being terrorized by Muslims, most recently (or at least as of this writing) in Munch.

Ugly or not, this truth, that mere Islam – not “ISIS,” “Salafism,” “Wahhabism,” or “Shiism” – promotes hate for and violence against non-Muslims will never be remedied until those in positions of leadership first acknowledge it.  And, with the notable exception of Donald Trump, they are very far from doing so.

Raymond Ibrahim, author of The Al Qaeda Reader and Crucified Again, holds fellowships at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and the Middle East Forum.