when someone shouts "God is great" as he murders people?
For the usual suspects who think I'm Rush in drag, or that this is going to be about Islamic extremism and its encroachment in the West, or who will be quick to point to the Crusades as evidence of Christian militarism and slaughter....spare me, this time.
I'm simply wondering at the immense irony of it all, believing as I do in a just and merciful God. For you atheists, it's easy; there is no God. Religion is the problem and men would be more just and rational without it. I don't agree, but can understand the chain of reasoning.
There are people who think that Islam is the problem, and they base this conclusion on what they know of the Quran. I can't agree with that, either, mainly for the admittedly unsophisticated reason that one of my best friends is a Muslim with a secular world view, and I can't imagine that there aren't millions like her. Those millions of people don't want stonings for adultery (often only the women are sentenced) executions for failing to attend Friday prayers (this happened recently in Somalia) or executions for not being Muslim in a Muslim-majority nation (this just happened to the only Christian member of Pakistan's government.)
It is extremism that is the culprit, and for those who will jump to point out Christian 'extemism,' please cite any examples of calls for the death of non-Christians in the current landscape. There aren't any--plain and simple. Fundamentalist Christians might tell you you're going to go to Hell for being gay, or for not accepting Jesus Christ as your personal savior, or whatever, and you can be understandably annoyed by that, but they're not exhorting their adherents to go out and kill you, in their God's name.
I don't care what happened eight centuries ago; the guy who just killed two members of our armed forces wasn't doing it in revenge for the Crusades, unless that was part of his twisted 'education.' He did it because he's been brainwashed to believe, by those who manipulate for political reasons, that murder in the name of Allah is justified.
Those of us who believe--whether Christian, Jew or Muslim--in one God who is the father of us all, can never countenance such sin.
