How the media spins or ignores this will speak to how it will be 'handled'.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/26/us/okl...html?hpt=hp_t2

From initial CNN article:

Beheading raises questions, but officials say no terror link
The idea that a man who's been trying to convert others to Islam ends up beheading someone is alarming enough, but perhaps even more given what has been happening in the Middle East.

The Islamist extremist group ISIS has made a name for its itself using such tactics, going so far as to record the beheadings of American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff as well as British aid worker David Haines.

And they've threatened more to come, especially if the United States and its allies continue to launch airstrikes at the group in Iraq and Syria. This has spurred concerns that ISIS sympathizers may similarly lash out against innocents in the West.

That said, it's not known if Nolen's religion had anything, at all, to do with what happened Thursday.