Talk about a (real) war on Christmas! A Muslim 19-year-old, Mohamed Osman Mohamud—born in Somalia but raised in Oregon—tried to take out, with a truck bomb, a whole crowd of human beings—the majority of which were no doubt Christians—gathered for the public lighting of a Christian Christmas tree.
And this was done in the name of “holy war.” Isn’t that pathetic? What mosque in Oregon was Mohamed Osman Mohamud attending—and where is the imam he was sitting under, learning Islam from? Was the imam clueless, looking the other way—or what? Was the imam explicitly teaching pluralism and nonviolence? And I wonder what high school this teenager attended. Was he taking college classes? What, exactly, turned him into such a grotesque monster against humanity?
I mean, what the hell?
Update: Mohamed Osman Mohamud, it turns out, was a student at Oregon State University. Ironic that an irrationalist like Mohamud was taking courses at a Western university devoted to the critical intellect, dialogue, nonviolent civility, and human understanding. I guess he decided that these things weren’t for him. But I wonder what mental and emotional process he went through to arrive at his conclusion, and who assisted him intellectually along the way. Where and how did he arrive at such a degree of hate and resentment—and that wedded to a delusion of righteousness? I’d love to know the memes and syllogisms that took hold of his imagination, and why they did so. It would be informative.
Update II: Carroll County’s Islamic president, Dr. Mohamad Esa, put out an extended and unequivocal statement condemning the actions of Mohamed Osman Mohamud:
Islam does not support, preach, or advocate violence, discrimination, or terrorism in any way, shape, or form. In addition to this, there are clear rules of combat and war, which are taught by the Qur’an and which Muslims must adhere to. Only a legitimate authority and not an individual or group can declare war, and it should be the last and not first resort. Muslims must respond to peaceful initiatives. There shall be no attacks on non-combatants (children, men, women, monks, nuns, rabbis, trees, crops, buildings, natural resources, etc.) and all those who are injured must be treated humanly. We again salute the great work and vigilance exhibited by the FBI and the Portland police in stopping this dangerous young man. We ask our fellow Americans not to collectively associate an entire community and religion with the acts and crimes of deranged individuals and extremist groups. In a news conference, Portland Mayor Sam Adams said “Bad actions by one member of any group does not and should not be generalized or applied more widely to other members of that same group.”
It still doesn’t answer important questions:
- Who educated Mohamed Osman Mohamud?
- What is his psychological profile? Is he a psychopath, or clinically paranoid?
- What was he reading, and who was he in communion and dialogue with?
In short, what temperamental, cultural, and intellectual threads wove him into an attempted mass murderer of Christians on behalf of Allah?
Oh, and another thing. Where is Mr. Mohamud’s imam? If he leads prayers in the mosque that Mr. Mohamud attended, then it follows that he can speak. Where’s his statement?
Prometheus Unbound 
Earlier tonight a suicide bomber blew himself up in downtown Stockholm. Why? According to a email it was a protest against the troops in Afghanistan and the support of artist Lars Wilks (the guy who portrayed Muhammed as a dog).
I doubt they are psychopaths. According to most experts, psychopaths are rarely religious but rather into the worldly pleasures. These terrorist have one thing in common though – they are Muslims. Not Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews or Sikhists etc, but always Muslims. So that would be the obvious starting point for an analysis.
One of the most unusual twist in Islamic teachings is that the only sure way to go to heaven, no matter how you conducted your life, is to be martyred in the name of Allah. Some of these terrorists lived in sin and depravity, and to repent and have a guaranteed pass to heaven, they go and blow themselves up making sure that they take some infidels with them. This makes stopping such acts almost impossible because many of these terrorists did not show any religious attitudes till they went to Hell in a flash. In a way this is the opposite of Christian repentants who usually withdraw from the world and join a religious group, a Monastery, a Convent and spend the rest of their lives serving other human beings. This is the ultimate in cultural divide you could possibly imagine.