An Illinois man has been charged after a stabbing outside Chicago that left a 6-year-old Muslim boy dead and his mother critically injured in an attack police said was connected to the Israel-Hamas war. The latest: The Department of Justice has "opened a federal hate crimes investigation into the events leading to the tragic death of Wadea Al-Fayoume and the serious injuries suffered by his mother, Hanaan Shahin," per a DOJ statement late Sunday.
This is an act of evil and there can be no justification for it. Brutalizing and killing innocent people because of their ethnicity or religion is what the jihadists do, not what civilized people do. Wadea Al-Fayoume is being described as Palestinian-American (though based on the name, I assume the family was ultimately of Egyptian origin), but he had no connection with the atrocities committed by Hamas in Israel, nor did his death contribute in any way to the campaign against Hamas.
Decent people seem to recognize this. Unlike the disgusting scenes since October 7, when swarms of human garbage poured out into our streets to cheer and celebrate Hamas's orgy of murder and rape and torture, I have not heard of anyone whatsoever voicing support for the murderer of this child.
The necessary eradication of Hamas will inevitably involve the death of some innocents; all one can do is try to keep them to a minimum, as Israel has habitually done. But there is no justification for singling out and attacking innocent people when no legitimate military purpose is being advanced.
In the course of my years spent studying the Middle East, I met and got to know many people from that part of the world. My Arabic instructor at university was a Palestinian. I've traveled in three Arab countries, and overall the people there were the friendliest to outsiders of any of the countries I've visited. Most Middle Eastern people are just people, like those anywhere else. The monstrous religious hate and blood-lust that produces hideous engines of murder and sadism like Hamas and al-Qâ'idah and Dâ'ish is a mental infection very much like that which, centuries ago, launched our own ancestors on the similarly murderous Crusades, and fueled the Inquisition and the witch-burnings. Over time we fought off the infection. The Middle East too is beginning to do so.
There are evil individuals and evil organizations, and above all, evil religions -- but there are no evil races or ethnic groups. Never forget that.
Israel very rarely gets the credit for it's attempts to avoid collateral. Indeed every new hi-tech weapon designed for pin-point precision is frequently seen as yet more evidence of their genocidal aims despite it being quite the reverse.
ReplyDeleteI live near Manchester. On May 22nd 2017 an Islamist suicide bomber attacked an Ariana Grande concert at Manchester Arena. From wikipedia...
the bombing occurred at 10:31 p.m. and killed 22 people, injured 1,017, and destroyed the arena's foyer. It was the deadliest act of terrorism and the first suicide bombing in the United Kingdom since the 7 July 2005 London bombings.
The perpetrator was motivated by the deaths of Muslim children resulting from the American-led intervention in the Syrian Civil War. Carrying a large backpack, he detonated an improvised explosive device containing triacetone triperoxide (TATP) and nuts and bolts serving as shrapnel.
Ariana Grande's fanbase is largely teenage girls. The attack was timed for the end of the concert as people were leaving. Mainly kids being picked up by their parents.
Islamists don't get enough "credit" for actively seeking it.
Last paragraph says it all..Mary
ReplyDeleteNickM: That's all true, but I don't see how it relates to the specific topic of this post.
ReplyDeleteMary: It's something I think people need regular reminders of.
The murder of the child tells us the US has its own mental infection. Along with the ones you mentioned, I'd add white nationalism, bigotry, racism, fascism, and Trumpism. All of these have taken a terrible toll on human life.
ReplyDeleteNone of these would be so infectious if not for the human tendency to allow emotion to overrule reason. Ignorance breeds fear. Fear breeds anger. Anger breeds hate, etc.
It's no secret that nefarious leaders know exactly how to trigger and exploit these emotions in susceptible people. Hitler and Trump were master manipulators of emotion.
This is how authoritarians get followers.
We know Trump is a master at triggering emotions in his followers. He feeds them the fear, false victimization, anger and hate they crave.
Before teaming up with Gingrich, Frank Luntz was a pollster for Pat Buchanan.
They ran an effective propaganda campaign in the '90s that deprived Clinton of a majority in Congress for his second term. "Death tax" was his baby. This is how you frame "estate tax" in something more fearful.
His stated purpose is the goal of causing audiences to react based on emotion. "80 percent of our life is emotion, and only 20 percent is intellect...My job is to look for the words that trigger the emotion".
The road to tyranny, fascism and theocracy is paved through the amygdala.
That's true as far as it goes, but while Trump has exacerbated the problems I'm talking about here, those problems date back to long before he appeared on the scene -- long before the United States was established, in fact.
ReplyDeleteHi Infidel:
ReplyDeleteI hope all is well by you. Been to busy running Angry Bear to get out and visit. The big issue I see coming out of this (I lack for words to describe each side) is another generation of hate and revenge.
At least the murderer of Al-Fayoume has been arrested and charged. There are no Jewish groups cheering for his crime. The Hamas murderers of hundreds of children are being glorified as heroes both in the Gaza Strip and by the newly-emerged Nazi marchers in the West. There's no "both sides" here.
ReplyDelete