Nine members of a Christian militia group, Hutaree, were charged Monday with plotting to kill a police officer and slaughter scores more with homemade bombs. According to the indictment, the actions were done in hopes of igniting an uprising against the U.S. government.
News of this terror plot is likely to spark a great deal of discussion around the idea of domestic terrorism. But there are some things that are not likely to be part of that discourse. For example, we're not likely to hear experts discussing whether or not Christian doctrine teaches its followers to overthrow governments and kill people. And, although the Hutaree website quotes scripture passages that allude to battle and sacrificing lives for the greater cause, the Bible is not likely to become condemned for inspiring acts of terror.
Hutaree means "Christian Warrior," yet the American public is not likely to blame Christianity. And Homeland Security probably isn't going to single out all people with Christian names in the airport security line. The FBI most likely isn't going to start wire-tapping Churches and Christian homes, and it's unlikely that the whole world will be expecting every peace-loving Christian to apologize for actions they had nothing to do with -- just because it was done in their name.
Unfortunately, these rules do not apply to Muslims. When a Muslim commits a crime, the Quran goes on trial. For example, after the failed "Christmas bombing," a January Wall Street Journal piece highlighted the fact that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had studied at the San'a Institute for Arabic Language. "He knew how to read and write in Arabic because he had learned to read the Quran being a Muslim, but his speaking abilities were very limited," recalls Mohammed Al-Anisi, the institute's director. Abdulmutallab may have also studied French poetry as a student, but that probably wouldn't have been considered relevant to his crime. The study of the Quran and Arabic, on the other hand, seems to be.
If there's news of a Muslim terrorist, Islam becomes complicit in the crime. Yet few people are going to accuse Christianity of motivating the terrorism of the Hutaree militia. These Christian terrorists are considered violent criminals who've perverted a peaceful religion.
Muslim terrorists, on the other hand, are just following a violent, perverted religion. A Christian terrorist is considered violent in spite of his or her faith, whereas a Muslim is violent because of it. Some might claim that this assumption is because the Quran is full of violent passages while the Bible teaches only peace and love. But in a recent NPR piece, religion historian Philip Jenkins explained that in fact there is more violence in the Bible than in the Quran. "Much to my surprise, the Islamic scriptures in the Quran were actually far less bloody and less violent than those in the Bible," Jenkins said. He explained that violence in the Quran is largely defensive.
"By the standards of the time, which is the seventh century A.D., the laws of war that are laid down by the Quran are actually reasonably humane," says Jenkins. "Then we turn to the Bible, and we actually find something that is for many people a real surprise. There is a specific kind of warfare laid down in the Bible which we can only call genocide."
Are we now going to create a new brand of crime called "Christian terrorism"? Is the entire Christian community going to be put on the defensive, while media pundits begin the mantra: "Why aren't Christians condemning acts of terrorism?" Probably not. The question is: why should someone named Christopher need to condemn the acts of the Hutaree militia any more than someone named Mohammad does? And why should Mohammed be expected to condemn the acts of the "Christmas bomber" any more than Christopher?
As FBI agent Andrew Arena said, Hutaree is just "an example of radical and extremist fringe groups which can be found throughout our society." Their crimes are committed in spite of their religious affiliations -- not because of them.
Follow Yasmin Mogahed on Twitter: www.twitter.com/YasminMogahed
Feds: Christian militia needed to be `taken down' - Yahoo! News
Another member of Christian militia Hutaree arrested - latimes.com
Christian Militia Group Family Defends Hutaree Members - ABC News
If your God wants you all to make your own choices and decisions, good or bad why does he feel the need to THREATEN you in the bible with HELL, the APOCALYPSE, etc...? He uses INTIMIDATION to encourage free will?
Why talk to you at all? After all GOD knows EVERYTHING so he already knows that a large percentage of his flawed creations simply will not make the cut come judgement day so why does he tell you that you all have FREE WILL and then punishes you for using it ? He threatens you into making HIS choices in the bible doesn't He? An awful loty of talk in their about your PUNISHMENTS for sin.
Free Will isnt very FREE now is it? He makes you PAY when you dont do what HE wants, so God really doesnt respect FREE WILL.
I'm not gay but I think gay people should be able to do whatever the Hell they please within the law and they certainly shouldn't have public laws like marriage biased against them for SEXUAL PREFERENCE or religious reasons. I respect their free will even though I find their lifestyle amusing and probably joke too much at their expense. I would never think to THREATEN them into my sexual preferences and if I did, I wouldn't call the choice they make through FEAR AND INTIMIDATION OR PUNISHMENT....free will. Now that would be ignorant.
If a mostly Muslim country was a supper power and came to America and told you how you should live and invaded for your own good what would you do?
Sit back and become Muslim?
Strap bombs to yourself?
Fight with all your might even though you could not win?
Until you can see the world threw someone elses eyes there will always be this attitude that you can threw force make them see it your way.
The United States is a predominantly Christian country. People do not wish to identify their own religion with terrorism and so one uses euphemisms to disguise their identities. This is no different in the Islamic world. Western troops are called Crusaders, a term that historically denotes the use of terror to achieve political aims in the Muslim world. The terrorists (as I see though I acknowledge other people might think differently) of the Taliban and other such groups are frequently referred to as Jihadi or freedom fighters despite many of their actions being against other Muslims (though not necessarily members of the same sect).
Yet, everyone of these religions has followers who will defend their religion as the one being "forced" (best case) or flat out denying (worst case) perpetrating these vicious evil acts. In the USA, there is a rampant industry of evangelicals and apologists that spend billions convincing us that ALL Christians are good and ALL others are evil. By Christians, they mean Republicans, Teabaggers and other right wing bigots, God forbid that a Christian actually talk about helping the poor!
It is time we call ALL these bigots and demagogues out - every time! Without exception, without hesitation. Period!
The reality is this. There is absolutely undeniable proof that many parts of the quran justify and promote terrorism. There is absolutely undeniable proof that many parts of the bible justify and promote violent militia uprisings. But instead of confronting the unflattering facts of their religions, people instead point fingers and try to pretend that there is a singular vision of Christianity or Islam that has been perverted.
Now the reason Christianity is not put on trail is a simple matter of proportions. If Christian fundamentalists were committing suicide bombings on a daily basis there would absolutely be people proclaiming it a deviant belief system.
Religion is composed of the actions of its followers. That is why Islam is more violent than Christianity. You can argue that in there separate books this is not the case. But the simple fact is that adherents of Islam pick and choose to follow the extreme, repressive, and deadly facets of their religion far more frequently than Christians pick and choose the extreme parts of the bible.
It's not a big Western conspiracy. It's the reality of the world today.
Remember christianity is about the Bible - not just Jesus part.
And bible says kill everyone else...
But so does many other religious books - wont mention it here for fear of a fatwa...
Look at the leaders court record and you will see an alarming trend. Look a the leaders religious record and you will find very little of substance.