Boston Bombing: Religiously Motivated?

Cross posted @ the Atheist Oasis
It’s usually difficult to ascertain just how much crazy religious nonsense played in a terrorist attack. For instance, anybody with half a brain knows that Timothy McVeigh, despite his claims that “Science is my religion” (Red flag! Smoke and mirrors!) was a very religious individual (he was trying to ameliorate the backlash his actions would cause to his faith).

In the case of the horror of the Boston Bombing, it appears that one of the brothers involved was an Islamic extremist. At least according to the FBI:

One of the two men suspected of being behind the Boston Marathon bombings was under FBI surveillance as a suspected "extremist" for at least three years, according to his parents.

As questions were raised about how well known Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were to federal investigators, their mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, said that the FBI had spoken to the family regularly: "They were telling me that Tamerlan was really an extremist leader and they were afraid of him. They told me whatever information he is getting, he gets from these extremists' sites." She added that the police were monitoring her son "at every step".

The bloody denouement to the hunt for the bombers came four days after the attack and 24 hours after the FBI released surveillance-camera images of two young men suspected of planting the pressure-cooker explosives at the marathon finish line.

The attack killed three people and injured more than 170. Armed guards were stationed at the hospital where Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving suspect, was being held, after being apprehended following a gun battle on Friday evening. Medical staff said he was in a serious condition. A special interrogation team for high-value suspects was waiting to question the university student about the most serious terror attack on American soil since 9/11.

These weren’t some crazy desert assholes with too much time on their hands, sand up their asses, or poverty stricken. These were American citizens (granted, they weren’t 2nd generation), with food on the table and promising futures, privy to all the benefits of this country.

And still they decided to blindly lash out, in the name of Allah (peanut butter and jelly be upon his name), and harm innocents in some misguided delusional effort to make a statement.

We don’t know yet.

But the dynamics of the older-younger brother dynamic is obviously a factor. Why did they do it? Nobody knows quite yet. Not hard to say. Likely it was done in the ‘glory of Allah’ and/or a desperately stupid effort to support Chechnya’s liberation.

So again, Islam, the so-called ‘religion of peace’ is what’s known as (if the kids are still calling it these days) an EPIC FAIL. And we need to stop pandering to these assholes (not just Islam, but Christianity and Judaism) – regardless of their reaction to criticism. Because one litmus test of any civilization is the response to criticism. The response should be reasoned discussion, not violence.

Till the next post, then.