The savage murder and mutilation in London by two Muslim men yelling “Allah Akbar” was meant to send a blood-soaked message to England and the world about the treatment of Muslims. The victim was not important to Michael Adebolajo as he paraded before cameras. Yet we owe it to the victim and ourselves not to allow the victim to be an abstraction laying the street. He was a person and his name was Drummer Lee Ridgy, or ‘Riggers” to friends. He was not just a brave soldier but the father of Jack, his two year old son.
Riggers was a member of the proud The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, 2nd Battalion (also known as “Second Fusiliers” or “2 RRF”). He joined the Army in 2006 at the age of 19 and served in Cyprus and later stood guard outside the Royal Palaces. He later served in the prestigious Household Division’s Beating the Retreat – a real honour for a line infantry Corps of Drums. It has been a tradition since it was ordered by James II of England in 1690.
Riggers was deployed in Helmand Province, Afghanistan and later in Germany. He had returned to London, where his posting would allow him to be closer to his son and his beloved Manchester United.
Ironically, while selected at random, Riggers was a true representation of the very best of England’s history and culture. He has left a young boy who will not understand why his father was made such a grotesque symbol by these men in the name of religion. He will eventually learn, I hope, that there was more meaning in his father’s life and his love for his son than the senseless act that took him away from his family.
Islam has become a religion attractive for sociopaths looking for legitimacy. Several of the recent islamic terrorists were recent converts and sociopaths. The Boston animal is now immplicated in a vicious triple homicide w/ no political/religious overtones. This Brit animal is a sociopath, recently attracted to Islam by a hateful Iman. Islam gives “legitimacy” to sociopaths just like the Catholic Church does for pedophiles. Organized religion, “Give me your sociopaths and pedophiles…”
Sling states, “Putting all this terrorism down to religion is just an easy escape for minds too small to trouble themselves with inquiring into why stuff happens.”
Exactly right. Religion is a huge fat distraction, that “get our of jail free” card of the mind. This was a murder. Why is irrelevant. Who did it is irrelevant. What excuses (i.e. religion) they put up is irrelevant. What they scream while they commit murder is irrelevant.
If we treated “terrorists” like the criminals they are, we would not be tempted to excuse our own behavior that we also perpetrated for religious reasons. See: Donald Rumsfeld’s pretty jesus postcards sent to GWB with each mission report to enforce that the illegal invasion of Iraq was at all times to be considered a crusade.
Well, so long as it’s a crusade. we can suspend that pesky rule of law.
Same goes with claiming a murderer is doing anything but committing murder. His religion is not relevant.
America invented the word “terrorist” so that it could also have words like “torture,” “indefinite detention”,”warrantless data-mining”, and “treaty abrogation”. We do not prosecute these crimes why?
Because it’s a crusade and nothing more. Don’t like it? Secret rendition. All it takes is a label from the DoJ without any oversight whatsoever — enemy combatant. Pray they don’t alter this deal any further.
Christians bomb abortion clinics and murder staff.
Christianity is bad?
Listen to the comments and laughs of gun crew in that video above. It’s a game for them.
The miltary asserted that this was a normal engagement. How many of that group standing on the ground looked even remotely like they were thinking about looking around for a weapon and taking up firing positions?
What threat did the bongo truck pose?
If the gunship crew were Christians, then Christianity is bad?
Sling –
Those Christians who kill abortionists have a religious ideology that motivates them to commit these crimes. There is no doubt about that. They quote the Bible and the “Christian Duty” to defend innocent life from certain death. Their actions are definitely religiously motivated.
If Paul Hill did not believe that he would stand before God and be praised for his courageous action of shooting an abortionist, thereby preventing the murder of multiple innocent babies, there is no way he would have done what he did. He knew he would be arrested, and if unsuccessful in court, he would be executed. Hill expected to be exonerated in court, but he did not know that the Judge would not allow him to present his legal theory of justification by defending innocent lives.
The actions of Paul Hill and others like him do not imply that all Christians are evil, but his actions were religiously motivated, and therefore we might condemn the Christian ideology that he followed if we judge that his actions were evil.
So bringing up this example only hurts your case. Nobody is saying that all Muslims are bad. We are saying that these killings are religiously motivated. Was the terrorist in the video with the bloody hands evil? That is the real question. If he was, and he was religiously motivated, then the sect of Islam he followed is brought into question as also being the source of evil in the world.
Right on, Sling. We’re killing innocents all over the world but the only deaths that count, the only ones decried, are those of people “like us”.
Mespo: “The facts don’t match your preconceived notions. The assailant said “Allah Akbar.””
If you ever watch the You Tube videos coming out of Syria, for example, you will hear “Allah Akbar” over and over as explosions happen or someone gets shot at.
It’s the ME equivalent “F**k” or “J*sus H Chr*st” in the context.
The people involved are of a culture that does not include exclamations like “J*sus H Chr*st”.
They don’t have an Oath of Allegiance that ends in “So help me God” or have “In God We Trust” printed on stuff.
Putting all this terrorism down to religion is just an easy escape for minds too small to trouble themselves with inquiring into why stuff happens.
I’ll give you FIVE reason why this is not about religion.
1. “They hate our freedoms”
2. “They hate our freedoms”
3. “They hate our freedoms”
4. “They hate our freedoms”
5. “They hate our freedoms”
Seriously!
Bunch of goatherds sitting around a fire in a Pakistan mountain valley…..
One of them says that his cousin told him about a place on the far side of the planet where the people have Freedoms.
They all decide that this is totally unacceptable and that all those people must die. They have sticks, knives and a few guns. “Kill Them All!” they shout.
Luckily, before they can think of a way to implent this plan, they are all wiped out by a CIA drone signature strike.
slingtrebuchet’s point is entirely invalid……his attempt to equivocate the ideology of Islam with Buddhism, for example, is hillarious given that unlike Buddhism, the followers of Islam are everywhere fighting and killing the followers of every faith they come in contact with. He has it all backwards. Indeed western policies have resulted in deepened adherence to more fundamentalist malignant varieties of that faith, it is the faith itself that is at issue as an anachronistic warrior ideology founded by the bloody hands of a warriorlord and spread by bloody sword, very much unlike Buddhism.
Two comments have vanished. Cleanup is needed!
Many of the recent converts to Islam are really merely sociopaths looking for legitimacy. The Boston bomber is now implicated in a gruesome triple homicide w/ no politcal/religious overtones. This is not unlike the Catholic Church being a haven for pedophiles also looking for legitimacy. Organized religion!!
Many of these homegrown terrorists are recent converts to Islam. The Boston bomber was also a recent convert. With the link of the Boston guy to a triple murder, w/ no religious/political ties, and to watch this Brit’s animal’s rants, it is quite apparent that Islam is an attraction for sociopaths, just looking for legitemacy. Not unlike pedophiles looking for the same in the Catholic Church. Organized religion, “Give me your sociopaths, your pedophiles..”
A little ‘Victim Quiz’
Name the innocent people being slaughtered in this video.
Name the two children that got shot up in the van.
You only get low marks for naming the two Reuters journalists and/or the children.
How many children did the adult victims have?
Do these children under understand why their father’s died?
Do their families, friends and neighbors understand?
Who do you think they would blame for the deaths?
Do you hope ( taking the closing words of this blog posting) that that there was more meaning in their fathers’ lives and their love for their children than the senseless act that took them away from their families.
*Warning to US Gov employees – do not watch this. It’s Classified – a secret – nobody knows*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rXPrfnU3G0
This was all over the TV networks and print media next day – right?
There was outrage – right?
“In God We Trust”
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Prepare for the next Victim Quiz……
Research a list names of all the children killed in drone attacks.
List all the people killed in such attacks.
Get quotes from their families, friends and neighbors.
List the people killed by a drone while attending a funeral.
List the people (aka first responders) killed by a drone as they went to dig people out of the rubble left by a drone attack a few minutes earlier.
Do you think that they might be experiencing feelings of irritation and thinking about how to strike back.
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Michael Moore again: “I am outraged that we can’t kill people in other counties without them trying to kill us!”
Sling:
“This didn’t happen because of religion.”
*****************
The facts don’t match your preconceived notions. The assailant said “Allah Akbar.” That’s religious invocation no matter how you slice it and whether its to muster courage or to promote the cause it really matters very little to the latest in the long line of those who suffer for the religious differences of others, Lee Rigby.
Also, do you not see the difference between a man capriciously running over a soldier and then hacking him to pieces and cutting off his head and soldiers in another land using force to maintain order just like the police do at home? The soldiers in the Middle East are not looking for guys walking on the sidewalk to sucker punch and hack to death and decapitate, are they?
I think Sling’s point is completely valid. It was not the flaunting of Christianity, or Islam’s bitter hatred that was the root cause of this killing. It was the invasion and occupation of multiple middle east (ME) countries, the ongoing murder and assassination, the backing of repressive regimes when it fits our interests and the complicity of our citizens in inhumane acts done in our name.
If the world is a battlefield with decades more of fighting, this is something we’ll need to come to expect.
My heart goes out to ALL people who were murdered yesterday, not just the one white guy.
The terrorist was born in Britain, right? What ties him to the Middle East to attack a soldier from his homeland except religion? Am I missing something? Why do some of you want to claim religion is not involved? Islam is not just spiritual, but political. Islam does not teach separation of church and state like Christianity does. You all understand that, right? Islam is both a religious and political ideology.
As mespo pointed out yesterday…. These atrocities have been going on for century’s…… Why is London an exception…..
Yo Sling,
You’re way off base.
Very sad. Awesome uniform. I put a lot of it on religion, period. I hope the alleged perps get what’s coming to them.
Davidm,
Read the words: “The only reason we have killed this man today is because Muslims are dying daily by British soldiers.”
It is very difficult to kill a few hundred thousand people in the ME without primarily killing Muslims. If the population of the ME was primarily Buddhist, the guy would have been saying “The only reason we have killed this man today is because Buddhists are dying daily by British soldiers.”
If this is about Islam, why are all the Muslims not cheering the killers?
Why did the guy not say: “The only reason we have killed this man today is because he is a Christian / non-Muslim.”
SlingTrebuchet –
What is ME?
The terrorist did say, “We swear by almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you.” Is that not waging war in the name of Islam, considering that he invokes the Islamic name of God here?
Sadness and shock at the violence and brutality. My sympathies to the family.
Now the murderer should be consigned to oblivion. That is we should make sure his name is no longer mentioned and his face is not paraded around. The problem here is that this brutal man will now be the center of attention and will get an opportunity to spout more of his hateful and vile message, His false piety and his claim to victimhood. I don’t care what his grievances, his perceived hurts, are he is a murderer and that is it. If he had accomplices, prosecute them to but give them no opportunity to become “stars”. in my opinion what motivates these killers is a the desire for fame and attention. The media should not give it to them,
SlingTrebuchet –
Why would you think this did not happen because of religion? It seems pretty clear to me that Islamic ideology motivated this political assassination.
Stop with the “in the name of religion” nonsense.
This didn’t happen because of religion.
The killing was indeed horrific – but it is only getting this much attention relative to more horrific deaths, mutilations and tortures because ..
Primarily….it happened in a Western city.
Secondarily… there are images available.
Without in any way taking from the man and his family, he is no more worthy of attention than are the hundreds of thousands of other slaughtered innocents.
Just to be clear… I am not saying that his death is not worthy of attention. I am saying that making a big deal of his death is to dismiss other deaths as irrelevant.