Jun 3, 2009

Murders from the edges

I blogged about the murder of Dr. George Tiller in Kansas not too long after it occurred on Sunday. I added an "update" the next day about the murder of a U.S. Army recruiter in Arkansas, knowing only the early report that authorities said "politics and religion" were involved in the latter shooting. I wrote then that only hate and guns united the two crimes. Now that more of that story is coming out, I feel obligated to add a third common denominator: religion. In each case, the shots were fired by men doing what they believed their god wanted them to do. The suspect in murder of Private William A. Long, 23 and the wounding of Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula, 18, of Jacksonville is identified as 24 year old Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad. He had recently become a convert to Islam and was being investigated by the FBI in a terrorism probe. The alleged killer of Dr. Tiller, 51 year old Scott Roeder, was described by his wife as having become ''very religious in an Old Testament, eye-for-an-eye way". He also subscribed to a magazine titled Prayer and Action News that preached it would be justifiable homicide to kill an abortion doctor. Hate. Guns. Religion. Each with their own constitutional protections, yet together a potent and potentially deadly mix. [UPDATE: 6/9/09 The alleged Arkansas shooter tells the AP he was justified because of the U.S. military action in the Mid-East. and he called it "an act, for the sake of God, for the sake of Allah, the Lord of all the world, and also a retaliation on U.S. military."] [UPDATE 6/11/09 And now an anti-Semitic white supremacist kills an African-American guard at the Holocaust Museum in D.C. Again: hate, guns and religion.]
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1 comment:

  1. Warm Southern BreezeWednesday, June 03, 2009 10:29:00 AM

    People don't need reasons to murder, neither do they need religion of any stripe to do evil.

    The Scriptures indicate that the first murder was because of anger, brother against brother, and was in a garden.

    "If you do well, won't you be accepted? But if you don't do well, sin is lying outside your door ready to attack. It wants to control you, but you must master it. Cain talked to his brother Abel. Later, when they were in the fields, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him." Genesis 4:7,8 GWT

    Loss of self control is perhaps the primary problem, NOT anger or hatred (though it can be problematic).

    What would we say about clients whom killed their hairdressers? Diners who killed the chef? Patrons whom killed the piano player?

    Don't like their hair (bad hair day)? Steak not done "to perfection" (whatever THAT means). Don't like the music selection (personal preference)?

    Kill 'em!

    Please...

    As I've said for quite sometime, "If you're looking for an excuse, any excuse will do."

    So, S. Roeder and others will find any convenient excuse attempting to justify their self-centered actions... of loss of self-control.

    The same goes for any criminal behavior, theft, dishonesty, including greed, drug abuse, sexual misbehavior, etc.

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