Your task is to extract the thesis of an opinionated news article by selecting some of its text segments. The thesis is a summarization of what the author wants to persuade the reader of. Your answer should consist of segments of the given text. Note that you are not allowed to combine different sentences.

[Q]: Paris: Why Obama's presence Sunday would have been height of hypocrisy. Commentators from both sides of the political aisle have discussed the "optics" of President Obama's absence from the massive, anti-terrorism march in Paris on January 11 . Sadly, they've all missed the point . It would have represented a glaring hypocrisy for Mr  Obama, or any highly- ranked official from his administration, to attend the rally . A sad fact about our pundit class, conservative or progressive, is that they too often miss the obvious . That condition infects both critics and supporters of the Obama administration . They simply cannot connect the dots with this leader . After all ,  he is an unusual president . So let me draw a line between the unconnected dots . Just two years ago, the administration blamed the killing of the American ambassador to Libya, and three security personnel, on a video that negatively depicted the prophet Muhammad . Remember that? You see , it was an unknown, bigoted Christian man from California who single- handedly caused the death of our ambassador . According to the administration, the film by Nakoula Basseley Nakoulahad sparked spontaneous riots to defend Muhammad's honor , and our ambassador got caught up in the mayhem . Mr  Obama called the filmmaker a "shadowy character," and in front of the United Nations and the world, blamed the attack on the "disgusting" movie . At that podium, he declared that "the future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam." Congressional hearings later proved that the violence in Benghazi was due to a coordinated terrorist attack , and had nothing to do with a protest over the movie . But administration officials stuck to the lie . Just a few weeks after the attack, the filmmaker was arrested on parole charges by federal authorities , probably taking orders from Attorney General Holder . Now fast-forward to the rally in Paris-- the one that Holder would not deem worthy to attend, even though he was in Paris at the time . The one that President Obama, nor Vice President Biden, nor Secretary of State Kerry would attend either , even though other major world leaders rushed to Paris to demonstrate their solidarity . Let me draw the line between the dots a little darker :. Q : Who did the terrorists attack in Paris on January 7? A: A satirist magazine that had mocked Christians for years . Q: Why did the terrorists kill those specific journalists and cartoonists? A : For a mocking portrayal of Muhammad . Q : Isn't that the same issue that had enraged the White House after the Benghazi attack? A : You betcha . The "bad optics" that so many pundits are complaining about actually fit perfectly into the philosophical mindset of this White House . They do not want us to insult their Islamist friends . In the eyes of the Obama administration, the jihadists in Libya and France committed the same savagery for the same reason . Give the administration credit for consistency . They're not about to appear sympathetic to a French cartoonist when they had condemned the filmmaker from California . Having persecuted the latter , they weren't about to march to defend the former . What represents bad optics to most civilized people's worldview represents good optics to the Obama administration's worldview . It's all too clear that America and the world have no hope of stopping these never-ending barbaric acts until a Reagan-like figure steps up . A leader who will honestly and courageously define such terrorism as it really is : An Islamist's interpretation of the Koran . That's the definition recently used by President el-Sisi of Egypt, a man of far greater honesty and courage than America's current counterpart . Only with an American leader of Reagan-like strength will we be able to develop a plan and the determination to defeat the dark ideology of Islamism , just like Reagan managed to defeat the Soviet Union and its evil ideology . Dr  Michael Youssef is the founding pastor of the Church of the Apostles in Atlanta, Georgia and the author of over 30 books, including his most recent, "Jesus, Jihad & Peace: What Does Bible Prophecy Say About World Events Today?" (Feb  17, 2015, Worthy Publishers) . Find him online at www.michaelyoussef.com and follow him on Twitter: @MichaelAYoussef .
[A]: It would have represented a glaring hypocrisy for Mr  Obama, or any highly- ranked official from his administration, to attend the rally


[Q]: Who is a German? A spectre is haunting Germany and Europe and the spectre is called PEGIDA . Until recently only a few people had heard of PEGIDA, acronym for "Patriotic Europeans against the Islamisation of the Occident." It started as a small protest movement in the eastern city of Dresden against the influx of immigrants, foreign workers and asylum seekers and, above all, against the "Islamisation" of Germany . Adopting the slogan"We are the people" of the weekly anti-communist demonstrations in 1989 which ultimately led to the overthrow of the German Democratic Republic, PEGIDA's appeal seems to have grown week after week . The hundreds of demonstrators of the first few Monday evening "walks" in Dresden have swollen to tens of thousands . Besides Dresden, there are now similar weekly rallies in other big German cities . With its history of anti-Semitism and fascism many find it shocking that a considerable number of Germans, particularly in the east of the country, are flocking to a xenophobic, racist and Islamophobic movement . The surge of the anti-Islamisation movement has led to polarisation of the public opinion, many counter demonstrations and a fierce public debate, involving politicians, church leaders and academics . Chancellor Angela Merkel strongly criticised PEGIDA and called on Germans not to attend their rallies . "Do not follow the people who organise these, for their hearts are cold and often full of prejudice, and even hate," Merkel said in her New Year's Eve speech . Marginalised . Not everybody agrees . Development Minister Gerd Muller of the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU), warned not to exclude PEGIDA sympathisers . "The overwhelming majority of those demonstrators are not racists at all . Many of them are low income Germans and they feel they are being neglected, while refugees are offered help . The refugees, but also other migrants, are perceived by these people as competitors . In spite of our flourishing economy there are millions of poor families in Germany . The poor feel marginalised and not represented." The CSU, Merkel's CDU's sister party and longtime political ally, has been accused of showing a bit too much understanding for PEGIDA . In fact the CSU's positions on immigration, integration and tougher rules for asylum seekers are quite similar to PEGIDA's . It may well be that the CSU is distancing itself from Merkel because it is worried about right-wing competitors like the anti-establishment and eurosceptic AfD, Alternative fur Deutschland (Germany's Alternative) . The AfD may succeed in winning over many of the PEGIDA-sympathisers . AfD-chairman Bernd Lucke has gone out of his way to advocate a dialogue with this "new civil movement" and listen carefully to its arguments . At the same time Lucke tried carefully not to alienate the more "respectable" right-wing voters and to distance himself from a too xenophobic discourse . Other AfD leaders are less ambiguous and clearly show support of PEGIDA by participating in their marches and inviting PEGIDA organisers to Saxony's regional parliament . Some German observers don't doubt the existence of an alliance between AfD and PEGIDA . Analyst Volker Wagener sees the AfD as the "parliamentary voice of the street" . He notes that the AfD manages to score with a xenophobic discourse especially in the east of Germany . If the AfD succeeds in translating PEGIDA's objectives politically and electorally , it may take a role not unsimilar to Marine le Pen's National Front in France and especially Geert Wilders' Freedom Party in the Netherlands . In fact ,  there is a striking similarity between the anti- Islamisation positions of Geert Wilders and PEGIDA . Like Wilders' Freedom Party, PEGIDA does not only condemn jihadists and Islamist terrorists but Islam itself . Refugees, asylum seekers, migrants and the islamic religion are all lumped together in a vague, scary, threatening mix . Both the Freedom Party and PEGIDA claim to defend the "conservation of the Judeo-Christian heritage" . Both claim not to be radical , but PEGIDA and Wilders' party do in fact appeal to right wing radicals and extremists . Neo- Nazis and violent"hooligans against Salafists" openly support PEGIDA . Both forces represent a significant portion of the population in Germany and the Netherlands . If there would be parliamentary elections in the Netherlands now, Wilders' Freedom Party would be the first or second political force in the country (depending on which poll to believe) . In Germany, around 30 percent of the population thinks PEGIDA's concerns are legitimate . Some German experts say the debate shows the need for a redefinition of"who is a German" and recognition of Germany as an immigration country . According to a recent study, most Germans see somebody as "German" when he or she speaks German well and has a German passport . Some 38 percent of those polled said that women who wore headscarves could not be German . To define a new concept of "German-ness" and promote a welcoming culture of tolerance and openness will not be an easy task, and should probably not be left to the politicians .
[A]: A spectre is haunting Germany and Europe To define a new concept of "German-ness" and promote a welcoming culture of tolerance and openness will not be an easy task, and should probably not be left to the politicians


[Q]: The real American Sniper was a hate-filled killer. Why are simplistic patriots treating him as a hero? I have to confess : I was suckered by the trailer for American Sniper . It's a masterpiece of short-form tension - a confluence of sound and image so viscerally evocative it feels almost domineering . You cannot resist . You will be stressed out . You will feel . Or , as I believe I put it in a blog about the trailer , "Clint Eastwood's American Sniper trailer will ruin your pants." But however effective it is as a piece of cinema, even a cursory look into the film's backstory - and particularly the public reaction to its release - raises disturbing questions about which stories we choose to codify into truth, and whose, and why, and the messy social costs of transmogrifying real life into entertainment . Chris Kyle, a US navy Seal from Texas, was deployed to Iraq in 2003 and claimed to have killed more than 255 people during his six-year military career . In his memoir, Kyle reportedly described killing as "fun", something he "loved" ; he was unwavering in his belief that everyone he shot was a "bad guy" . "I hate the damn savages," he wrote . "I couldn't give a flying fuck about the Iraqis." He bragged about murdering looters during Hurricane Katrina , though that was never substantiated . He was murdered in 2013 at a Texas gun range by a 25-year-old veteran reportedly suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder . However we diverge politically, I have enough faith in Eastwood's artistry and intellect to trust that he is not a black-and-white ideologue - or, at least, that he knows that the limitations of such a worldview would make for an extremely dull movie . But the same can't be said for Eastwood's subject, or, as response to the film has demonstrated, many of his fans . As Laura Miller wrote in Salon:"In Kyle's version of the Iraq war, the parties consisted of Americans, who are good by virtue of being American, and fanatic Muslims whose 'savage, despicable evil' led them to want to kill Americans simply because they are Christians." Adds Scott Foundas at Variety:"Chris Kyle saw the world in clearly demarcated terms of good and evil, and American Sniper suggests that such dichromatism may have been key to both his success and survival; on the battlefield, doubt is akin to death." Eastwood, on the other hand, Foundas says, "sees only shades of gray" , and American Sniper is a morally ambiguous, emotionally complex film . But there are a lot of Chris Kyles in the world , and the chasm between Eastwood's intent and his audience's reception touches on the old Chappelle's Show conundrum: a lot of white people laughed at Dave Chappelle's rapier racial satire for the wrong reasons, in ways that may have actually exacerbated stereotypes about black people in the minds of intellectual underachievers . Is that Chappelle's fault? Should he care? Likewise, much of the US right wing appears to have seized upon American Sniper with similarly shallow comprehension - treating it with the same unconsidered, rah-rah reverence that they would the national anthem or the flag itself . Only a few weeks into its release, the film has been flattened into a symbol to serve the interests of an ideology that, arguably, runs counter to the ethos of the film itself . How much, if at all, should Eastwood concern himself with fans who misunderstand and misuse his work? If he, intentionally or not, makes a hero out of Kyle- who, bare minimum, was a racist who took pleasure in dehumanising and killing brown people- is he responsible for validating racism, murder, and dehumanisation? Is he a propagandist if people use his work as propaganda? That question came to the fore last week on Twitter when several liberal journalists drew attention to Kyle's less Oscar-worthy statements . "Chris Kyle boasted of looting the apartments of Iraqi families in Fallujah," wrote author and former Daily Beast writer Max Blumenthal . "Kill every male you see," Rania Khalek quoted, calling Kyle an "American psycho" . Retaliation from the rightwing twittersphere was swift and violent, as Khalek documented in an exhaustive (and exhausting) post at Alternet . "Move your America hating ass to Iraq, let ISIS rape you then cut your cunt head off, fucking media whore muslim," wrote a rather unassuming-looking mom named Donna . "Rania, maybe we to take you ass overthere and give it to ISIS... Dumb bitch," offered a bearded man named Ronald , who enjoys either bass fishing or playing the bass (we may never know) . "Waterboarding is far from torture," explained an army pilot named Benjamin, all helpfulness . "I wouldn't mind giving you two a demonstration." The patriots go on, and on and on . They cannot believe what they are reading . They are rushing to the defence of not just Kyle, but their country, what their country means . They call for the rape or death of anyone ungrateful enough to criticise American hero Chris Kyle . Because Chris Kyle is good, and brown people are bad, and America is in danger, and Chris Kyle saved us . The attitude echoes what Miller articulated about Kyle in her Salon piece : "his steadfast imperviousness to any nuance, subtlety or ambiguity, and his lack of imagination and curiosity, seem particularly notable" . There is no room for the idea that Kyle might have been a good soldier but a bad guy; or a mediocre guy doing a difficult job badly; or a complex guy in a bad war who convinced himself he loved killing to cope with an impossible situation; or a straight-up serial killer exploiting an oppressive system that, yes, also employs lots of well-meaning, often impoverished, non-serial- killer people to do oppressive things over which they have no control . Or that Iraqis might be fully realised human beings with complex inner lives who find joy in food and sunshine and family, and anguish in the murders of their children . Or that you can support your country while thinking critically about its actions and its citizenry . Or that many truths can be true at once . Always meet your heroes .
[A]:
In his memoir, Kyle reportedly described killing as "fun", something he "loved"