Posted on 08/07/2010 3:45:37 AM PDT by Cardhu
Eight foreigners and two Afghans have been found shot dead next to abandoned vehicles in the north-eastern Afghan province of Badakhshan, officials say.
The dead foreigners are believed to be six Americans, one Briton and a German, who worked for an international charity providing eye care and medical help.
Their vehicles were discovered a day after contact was lost with them.
Local police said robbery might have been the motive. However, the Taliban have said they were behind the attack.
Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, said bibles translated into Dari had been found.
"Yesterday at around 0800 (0330 GMT), one of our patrols confronted a group of foreigners. They were Christian missionaries and we killed them all," he told the AFP news agency.
He later told the Associated Press they were "spying for the Americans".
The team was working for a Christian charity, the International Assistance Mission (IAM). Its executive director, Dirk Frans, denied the medics and their Afghan interpreters were missionaries.
"That is a lie. That is not true at all. IAM is a Christian organisation, we have always been that," he told the BBC.
"We have worked in Afghanistan since 1966 - under the king, the communists, the Russians, the Mujahideen and the Taliban. They have known us as a Christian agency, but we certainly do not distribute bibles."
An IAM spokesman earlier said it was still awaiting formal identification of the victims, but that their families had been informed.
The bodies are expected to be returned to Kabul over the weekend.
"We cannot confirm any details at this point, but are actively working with local authorities and others to learn more about the identities and nationalities of these individuals," it said in a statement.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
Uh huh. And I replied to say that it does no such thing.
A little business venture went wrong, and made an international headline. Now they have become priority target of Allied Forces in Afghan. What a catastrophic business move.
There is a fatalistic hubris shared by a lot of "missionaries" that they are somehow immune from the primitive dramas they inject themselves into. That somehow their good intentions will protect them.
I see this folly as no different than going to a zoo and crawling into the lion cage, hoping they've been fed recently.
I realize my report is at complete odds with the media story. There seems a strong drive to legitimize what they were doing. I think it is more important to report the facts and let everyone realize how grim life and death is in Afghanistan.
Few of the locals will give a whit that these doctors can no longer treat their own countrymen. It is strictly a them or us attitude with Afghans.
also shared by garden-variety bleeding-heart liberal Christians. Actually, this is how you remain to be an acceptable Christian in Europe. You have to highlight bleeding-heart potential of Christianity.
Not just bandits - Taliban Muslim bandits.
The other clarification you need is your statement that missionaries are fatalists and act with hubris. That is your own BIAS being projected onto the victims’ motivations.
Your emotions are showing. Your spirited offense against Christians is actually funny. At this point there is nothing I can show you that will change your aggressive stance against militant and defensive Christianity
Only the Lord Jesus can do that. Or even reading the Christian fathers.
Blaming the victims are we?
You stated that NO person of the Christian faith has EVER, in the ENTIRE course of history, committed ANY atrocity or violent act. This is statement is simply ludicrous and laughable, absolutely false. Now, you could argue that those people, while they might have claimed to be Christian, were not actually "religious" Christians (as you defined them), because they were not following Jesus' instructions when they did their dirty deeds. And I would say sure! People are people and as such are fallible, some more so than others.
So I was simply repudiating your statement that no Christian person has ever done a really bad thing. Sure some have! There is no denying that. What you are doing, however, is taking this as an affront to Christianity itself. You are interpreting what I am saying as an "aggressive" attack on Christianity, as meaning that it is something less than pure and true, as a derision of your faith. Nothing could be further from the truth.
You need to stop connecting what I am saying about the fact that some people, who happened to be avowed Christians, messed up and did some terrible things, with your adamant defense of your Christian faith. I am not attacking your faith. I am not attacking Christianity. I AM predominantly Christian (though I assume, not as fundamentalist as you), but I was born and raised Lutheran, for crying out loud. Why would I attack my own faith?
I love the way some people here play the "peg" game. From a couple of sentences in a single post, they already have me pegged as a (1) secularist, (2) atheist, (3) militant anti-Christian, (4) RINO, (5) anarchic Libertarian, and who knows what else. I am none of those things, but I am getting a pretty good sense of what you are: militantly confrontational against anyone who says ANYTHING that could even remotely be construed by you as an attack on Christianity.
Except that it wasn't, and your refusal to recognize the factual and quite non-controversial statement that I actually made, and continue to misconstrue it as an attack on you and your (and my) faith alike, is just, well, silly.
Their motivation was to travel in a large group, with no security what so ever, into a remote area full of hating and armed people.
Now they are all dead instead of treating sick people.
Their dreaminess is now their families nightmare.
My bias is to see highly skilled doctors treat the sick, nothing more.
These heroic missionaries - and by the way they WERE highly skilled - are doing first and foremost the Lord's work. Obviously you disapprove. That is your prerogative. But the most significant work for the poor everywhere in the world is done by Christian missionaries not by Govt. drones.
Only disapprove of highly skilled doctors traveling so carelessly that they are now DEAD.
Their recklessness has deprived the sick in Afghanistan of needed medical care. You can't do the Lord's work on earth if you are in heaven.
Their recklessness ...
Oh my NO! What a strange use of the word reckless. These Saints are not reckless. They knew exactly what they were doing and had years of experience there. You do not understand Christians.
Their passing will only inspire thousands of others to get involved.
Explain why being dead, because of their personal security mistake, is better than being alive and helping others.
You say: "They knew exactly what they were doing". Excuse me, their body bags speak otherwise.....
You say: "You do not understand Christians." Excuse me, what authority do you have to question the belief system of anyone?
When Christians make mistakes, and die, and deprive the world of their skills and honorable beliefs, OK, that is something I disagree with, don't you?
You say: "Their passing will only inspire....to get involved". And die like they did? What is it about dead and non-functional don't you understand?
You obviously believe in martyrdom as an acceptable outcome of humanitarian service. So does bin Laden......
Thank you for pinging me.
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