Thou shalt not kill. Christians and Jews recognize that biblical commandment and understand the massacres in Christchurch, New Zealand, were first and foremost sins against God’s creation of humankind.
Thou shalt not misuse the name of thy Lord your God. Christians and Jews also recognize that biblical commandment, and should recognize that 28-year-old Australian, Brenton Tarrant, was no Christian – and neither are those making political noise out of this terror attack.
When a young man writes an 87-page manifesto filled with anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim hatred, his humanity is all but lost. When he targets congregants in two mosques, kills 50 and wounds another 50, evil has replaced whatever humanity Tarrant ever had. Honestly, I think the rush to rationalize another’s grief and mourning is one of the least civilized things the “civilized” world does after these earth-shattering tragedies.
I have sadly observed this morning’s culture wars: conservative Australians are blaming the attacks on their media and liberal Americans are blaming Donald Trump. The strangest politicization came from a Palestinian student at NYU, who confronted and blamed a very-pregnant Chelsea Clinton at a vigil for the Christchurch victims.
Of course (not), Clinton brought the verbal abuse on herself when she tweeted criticism of anti-Semitism. Because the anti-Semite of the moment was a Muslim Somali-American, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, the NYU students backed Clinton against a wall, jabbed fingers at her, and yelled, “forty-nine people died because of the rhetoric you put out there.” Wrong!
Actually, the Tarrant terror attack was inspired by ISIS, which films its gruesome beheadings and posts them on line…set to Islamic music ISIS hopes will inspire viewers to join the cause. In fact, Tarrant played an ultra-nationalistic Serbian song that glorifies Radovan Karadzic, the Srebrenica butcher of Muslims. Chelsea Clinton was not his inspiration – not at all.
In her defense, Clinton remained calm and collected. Placing her hands to her heart, she apologized: “I’m so sorry you feel this way.” I support Chelsea Clinton and condemn the Muslim students for violating her space with hateful false claims. This is still a constitutional republic and Chelsea Clinton’s tweets are protected by the first amendment. Even in the name of their Lord Allah, Muslims cannot harass an apostate for criticizing anti-Semitism.
Christchurch should not be anything more than an insane killing rampage, but I fear it means the civilized world is no place for Islam. Right-minded Americans agree the Christchurch slayer was evil…just as we agree anti-Semitism is evil, right? This is our humanity at work, and Islam challenges our humanity on many cultural and political fronts.
It is at these times when Americans need to mourn the victims because our humanity is intact. It is at these times when Americans need to abstain from identity politics because our civility is intact. It is at these times when Americans need to cherish life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness – because who has it better than we do? Nobody!