Summer is over, although you wouldn’t know it by the heat here in Southern California, so it’s time to get back to blogging. Let’s start by linking to an informative piece over at getreligion. Although you wouldn’t know it by listening to US media, Terry Mattingly notes that terrorism is primarily a religious story.
While U.S. media are stressing the political side of the [terrorism] equation — with a few exceptions — media in England have openly addressed the religious questions behind this carefully planned massacre of children. But let’s start with the New York Times, which did report a controversial detail from one of the victims:
“The terrorists ran in yelling, ‘Allahu Akhbar,’ ” said Asamaz Bekoyev, 11, who escaped with his mother and brother and lay in his bed on Saturday at his grandmother’s house, being treated for cuts and minor burns.
At this point, no translation is needed.It seems that the whole world knows what it means when armed men run into the public square shouting “Allahu Akhbar!” or Allah is great. (This is the script in the painting above.) It means that many people are going to die — soon.
This reality infuriates Abdel Rahman al-Rashed, the general manager of Al-Arabiya news channel, who poured out his anger in a column in the pan-Arabic newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat. It was then published in the Telegraph. This is one of those cases where a Muslim commentator is allowed to say what others cannot say:
It is a certain fact that not all Muslims are terrorists, but it is equally certain, and exceptionally painful, that almost all terrorists are Muslims.
The hostage-takers of children in Beslan, North Ossetia, were Muslims. The other hostage-takers and subsequent murderers of the Nepalese chefs and workers in Iraq were also Muslims. Those involved in rape and murder in Darfur, Sudan, are Muslims, with other Muslims chosen to be their victims. Those responsible for the attacks on residential towers in Riyadh and Khobar were Muslims. The two women who crashed two airliners last week were also Muslims.Bin Laden is a Muslim. The majority of those who manned the suicide bombings against buses, vehicles, schools, houses and buildings, all over the world, were Muslim. What a pathetic record. What an abominable “achievement”. Does all this tell us anything about ourselves, our societies and our culture?
Yes, and it should tell us about Muslim theology. The question we should be asking is, “Does the Allah of the terrorists really exist?” Or put another way, “Does the greatness of the one true God of the universe really shine through in the massacre of children? Is this what he wants?”