Lazy Gopher Pachyderm

The Star Tribune has a running ‘reader response’ section to their story on the six Imam mentioned below, begging the question “Were the imams treated unfairly?” One reader, a Steve Philion, produced the following gem of colossal ignorance:

"Uhm, let's see, Right wing Christian extremists did bomb a federal building to smitherens [sic]...I guess I better report anyone with a white collar or carrying a bible and praying in a federal building to the police and demand they be handcuffed just in case they should pull a Timothy McVeigh on us...You never can be too careful."

The reference is, of course, to the demolition of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City. First of all, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols hardly rate as a religion, sect or movement. Second, McVeigh had no particular religious leanings, only claiming a non-specific belief in “a God” and keeping the details of whatever faith he had secret. Third, no one ever saw McVeigh with a white collar, carrying a bible, or praying in a federal building. Fourth, his penned views on America were hardly “right-wing,” being very critical of America’s policies regarding Iraq. Fifth, unlike Islam, there is no evidence of any Christian sect harboring a devotion to destruction of civilian targets, let alone acts of suicide that involve the deaths of innocent civilians.

This silly attempt at moral equivalence is typical of what might be charitably called “liberal thinking.”

# posted by Ricard : 7:42 PM