I will admit that I am hard on those I call the "good Christians" - those Christians who silently stand by and never speak a word of condemnation against far right Christians who spew nothing but hatred towards others. They are akin to the "good Germans" who stayed silent as the Nazi regime rose to power and who later denied any knowledge of the horrors done by Hitler, et al, including the wholesale murder of Jews. In London today a horrible murder occurred and now, I am waiting for Muslims around the globe to rise up out of silence and condemn the horrible deed and also condemn clerics who preach such hate and violence. Bad things happen when good people remain silent. And silence ultimately translates into complicity. I am an equal time critic of fundamentalist religion and the evils which seem to be its principal fruits. I expect nothing less from "good Muslims" than I do of "good Christians." The Daily Beast looks at events today in London when a soldier was attacked and beheaded by apparent Jihadists. Here are highlights:
A blood-splattered jihadist with a meat cleaver in one hand declaring to a bystander’s smartphone camera “Allahu Akbar” and “we will always beat you” in a pronounced south London accent? While waiting twenty minutes for the police to arrive after he’s taken part in what seemed like a ritual assassination of a British soldier? Exactly what terrorist profile does this conform to? None.
And that’s what concerns British terrorism officials. Is this bizarre episode the beginning of a new, unpredictable pattern of loners operating without any organized backing behind them, or a one-off?
The two assailants could, indeed, just be a couple of deranged freelancers. But the guidance British ministers have been giving reporters assumes something much graver, a form of terrorism so unsophisticated and amateur that it can’t be detected by existing surveillance methods.
The fact that the wild, bloodied harangue to camera was delivered by a black man with no trace of a foreign accent – indeed, in an accent that seemed to originate in south London in particular – suggests homegrown militants, perhaps men radicalized via the Internet, through a form of widely dispersed propaganda rather than targeted brainwashing.
Many witnesses saw two men in a car deliberately run down the off-duty soldier, then hack away at him with a meat cleaver, apparently attempting to decapitate him.
The BBC has been reporting that one of the attackers was a Nigerian known to have had connections with the Somalia-based terrorist group Al-Shabaab, from as far back as 2003.
Fundamentalist religious belief to me is a form of sickness or, better yet, a form of mental illness. How else to explain the hate and savagery that seems to go with it? But, this judgment doesn't apply to all members of faith groups. That said, I have a number of Muslim clients who are decent, respectful individuals. Unfortunately, they and others will be painted with a broad brush if Muslim leaders do not immediately condemn this atrocity in the strongest means possible. Fundamentalist religion of all faiths is a dangerous evil that needs to be eradicated from the face of the earth. Once again I find myself believing that a world entirely without religion would be a far better place.
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