We are all French today, but are
all mass murderers "radical Islamic terrorists" (I'm not sure those words aren't copyrighted, actually)?
“He was not a Muslim, he was a s***. He beat his wife, my cousin, he was a nasty piece of work,” Bouhel’s relative told the Daily Mail. “Bouhlel was not religious. He did not go to the mosque, he did not pray, he did not observe Ramadan. He drank alcohol, ate pork and took drugs. This is all forbidden under Islam,” Walid Hamou, a cousin of Bouhlel’s wife said.
Huh. And there's this:
"The attacker, who worked as chauffeur and truck driver, was convicted on assault-related charges earlier this year and the mayor of Nice told CNN that last he showed “signs of radicalization.” However, national authorities claim that Bouhlel was completely unknown to intelligence officials and that initial investigations have found no record that he had been radicalized in any way."
So: was this an act of terrorism, or just an act of violence that, in America, probably would have involved an arsenal of guns rather than a large truck? Especially since there's this:
"No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack."
Not to say ISIS/Daesh may want to; but should we let them?
It's so much easier to blame religion for everything, it's an easy out. Maybe there should be an investigation as to the religious fidelity of people who claim that was their motive and, especially, for those who don't claim it as a motive but who have it claimed for them by people who don't know them.
ReplyDeleteThe question has to be asked what would keep any malevolent psychopath from doing what he did for whatever motive.
Just yesterday I encountered someone who claimed that Timothy McVeigh did what he did "as a Christian" even though he, himself said he didn't believe in God and he was an acolyte of the anti-Christian neo-Nazi William Pierce who more or less wrote the instructions for what he did.
But its so much easier and safer to punch down than punch up so they go for the religious claims. It's also so much cheaper than trying to get the criminally insane off the streets.
It's so much easier to blame religion for everything, it's an easy out. Maybe there should be an investigation as to the religious fidelity of people who claim that was their motive and, especially, for those who don't claim it as a motive but who have it claimed for them by people who don't know them.
ReplyDeleteThe question has to be asked what would keep any malevolent psychopath from doing what he did for whatever motive.
Just yesterday I encountered someone who claimed that Timothy McVeigh did what he did "as a Christian" even though he, himself said he didn't believe in God and he was an acolyte of the anti-Christian neo-Nazi William Pierce who more or less wrote the instructions for what he did.
But its so much easier and safer to punch down than punch up so they go for the religious claims. It's also so much cheaper than trying to get the criminally insane off the streets.
He was Tunisian, although a resident of France for many years, and therefore not really "French" or "European."
ReplyDeleteSo we can keep the "scary Muslim" meme alive. We need that to keep up the security state that simultaneously tells us to be afraid, and that they will protect us.
Nobody calls Charles Whitman a "terrorist," even in retrospect. Nor do we call the Colorado theater shooter a terrorist. Nor the Sandy Hook Shooter. In fact, few mass shooters in America are "terrorists" unless they are non-white and/or Muslim. Then they are terrorists, even though they may be as "Muslim" as Timothy McVeigh was "Christian" (I.e., not at all, but culturally close enough, so let's go with it).
This can't be the act of a crazed man who just wanted to kill people (a la Sandy Hook, or almost any other mass shooting in America, or any serial killer, for that matter), because then we have nothing to be afraid of, and our meme about "Muslims scary! (but don't be afraid of them, that wouldn't be nice)" can't be reiterated endlessly.
Everybody has to make some variation of it; even the Presidents of France and the U.S. After all, deny it, and you're refusing to call it "radical Islamic terrorism" and you hate America (and probably France).
I'll retire to Bedlam.