A lot of the MSM and others on the left including a lot of politicians and celebrities see moral equivalence between Western Civilization and Islamic terrorists. These are the people who see the murderous thug Che Guevara Lynch as a hero. Michael Moore is famous for saying (and I think, hoping) that the terrorists would win. Here are comments from Daniel Pearl's father on this phenomena.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123362422088941893.html?mod=djemEditorialPage