On this date, September 1st, in 2004, the attack on a Beslan school in North Ossetia began.  When it was over 3 days later, 331 people were dead, 186 of them children.

At the time, U.S. media made comparisons to the 1999 Columbine school shooting, in which two students shot and killed 15 classmates.  This misleading analogy obfuscated far more than it clarified.  One was an attack by two mentally disturbed youths out to kill as many students as possible, and the other was a well-planned Islamic terrorist attack, possibly with outside assistance, in an attempt to gain independence for a Muslim region.

Years later, many details of Beslan remain unclarified.  The number of attackers, whether any of the terrorists escaped, who fired first in the final assault, and what actually killed the victims are all still debated.

Just as after the 9/11 attacks in the U.S., the media asked the question, "Why do they hate us?" in a process of blaming ourselves for Muslim behavior, parents of the dead Beslan children aimed their anger at the Russian government of Vladimir Putin, for botching the rescue attempt and for using excessive and indiscriminate force.

The Boston Globe summarized:

But the grief was joined by rancor as survivors blamed their government, and each other, for the death toll in the country's worst terrorist act.

Whatever mistakes Putin made, and whatever other personal faults Putin may have, and whatever bad tactical decisions were made by commanders at the site in Beslan, responsibility lies soley with the terrorists who invaded the school.  They set up bombs among the students;  whether or not those bombs were accidentally or purposely ignited, and whether they were ignited before or after the rescue attempt began, is of little import.  The terrorists shot several many victims execution style, and dumped their bodies out the windows, in the first hours of the attack.  They came prepared to kill, they came intending to kill.

In another case of blaming anyone other than the Muslims who carried out the attack, David Satter of the Weekly Standard  allows his anti-Russian (lingering anti-Soviet) feelings to lead him into terrorism-excusing and bizarre conspiracy-theorizing:

It is now all but certain that the terrorists' attack on the school could have been prevented. According to internal police documents obtained by the newspaper Novaya Gazeta, the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs in Moscow knew four hours in advance that an attack on a school in Beslan was planned for September 1, 2004.
[...]
Besides these indications that the disaster could have been prevented, there is evidence that the terrorists' real aim was not to kill the hostages but to negotiate a political settlement of the Chechen conflict.
[...]
In fact, the conditions suggested by Basayev [leader of the terrorists] were not unreasonable. While he proposed formal independence for Chechnya in exchange for security for Russia, he also said an independent Chechnya would conclude no military or political agreements directed against Russia, would remain in the ruble zone, and would join the Commonwealth of Independent States.
[...]
The evidence that is now available makes it clear that, despite Putin's promise to protect the host ages, Russian forces attacked the school in Beslan according to classic military doctrine for destroying reinforced objects without the slightest regard for innocent life. This was done although agreement had been reached between the former Chechen president and local Russian political authorities on negotiations that would have ended the crisis. It is also possible that the ease with which the terrorists took over the school was not solely the result of official incompetence. The Russian authorities may have deliberately allowed the terrorists to take over the school in order to have an excuse to destroy them.

Too many journalists and pundits, while educated on some topic or another, are completely uneducated about Islam.  On both the "right" and the "left", too many journalists and pundits have excuses for the actions of jihadis.

Previous Days in the "Religion of Peace™":

Aug 29: Jihad on European Synagogues
Aug 28: Poet Laureate Baraka
Aug 27: Bombardment of Algiers
Aug 26: Sistani vs. Sadr
Aug 25: Cape Town Jihad