Posted on 10/19/2004 10:05:16 PM PDT by tombrokenjaw
I'm new at this, so my thoughts are in the "body of comment" area. Ok. Whatever.
Some would cite Timothy McVeigh as an example of Christian terrorism because of his role in the Oklahoma City bombing. This is misguided since McVeigh never purported himself to be a "freedom fighter" for God or anything of the sort. As a matter of fact, he defiantly purported himself to be a "freedom fighter" against what he perceived to be a government operating outside the bounds of the Constitution. Maybe he was correct about the government, but he was an evil, murderous scab of a human being none-the-less. There's quite a profound difference between the above mentioned varieties of "freedom fighters." McVeigh was interviewed by Lou Michel, co-author of the book "American Terrorist." Michel talked about it with CNN in a story posted on April 1, 2001. The following is an excerpt:
QUESTION: Does McVeigh have any spiritual-religious beliefs?
LOU MICHEL: McVeigh is agnostic. He doesn't believe in God, but he won't rule out the possibility. I asked him, "What if there is a heaven and hell?” He said that once he crosses over the line from life to death, if there is something on the other side, he will -- and this is using his military jargon -- "adapt, improvise, and overcome.” Death to him is all part of the adventure. ##
So much for the blue-eyed white-devil Christian terrorist theory we repeatedly hear used as a means of convincing us that there is no pattern within the terrorist genre.
The most troubling thing is that Muslims in the United States seem rather silent when atrocities occur by the hand of Islamic extremists, such as the Russian school massacre or bus bombings in Israel. Following the slow, agonizing decapitation of Nick Berg using what might as well have been a plastic butter knife, I heard nothing from American Muslim groups on any major media outlet in the United States. When an alleged terrorist cell was busted in Buffalo, NY, I saw no prominent American Muslims on TV discussing their satisfaction amid the arrest of a group of possible criminals. We instead heard accusations of religious hatred on the part of GWB and John Ashcroft.
We are likely entering WW4 (the third world war having been the Cold War), and the citizens of the United States have a nasty history in the course of such conflicts. In WW2, as you likely are quite aware, a frustrated American public perceived the Japanese American community to be less than enthusiastic toward the endeavor the nation was about to embark upon against Japan. Furthermore, there were numerous examples of Japanese Americans who were actively working to undermine the efforts of the US government against Japan. Anxiety lead to action, and so it was that on February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which resulted in the forcible internment of 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry. What a disgrace… but a necessary disgrace.
If you're a Muslim living in America, and you're reading this, please try to understand history and the lessons it teaches. Please don't serve as an impediment to this just and necessary pursuit of your country, for history has a tendency to repeat, and sadly, it seems that the wheels of repetition might already have begun to irreversibly turn.
Mike Walker tombrokenjaw@kmeat.net
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