Xenophobic Barbarism.

[den]

Nick Berg was killed, not because he was bad or evil or a criminal, but because he was an American. Hate crimes have no place in a civilized world but I don't have the words to express my feelings about this type of xenophobic barbarism. I haven't seen the videos. I don't want to see them. Just knowing what was done to him makes me ill.

What happened in the prison was nasty and to take photos was stupid, but to kill a man to make a point is evil of the worst sort. As level_head says "al-Zarqawi - remember the name"


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Several scholars from Al-Azhar, the world's highest Sunni religious authority, condemned the decapitation of an American civilian by unknown people in Iraq, saying Islam stands against such acts.

"Islam respects the human being, dead or alive, and cutting off the American's head was an act of mutilation forbidden by Islam," Ibrahim Al-Fayoumi, a member of Al-Azhar's Islamic Research Academy, told IslamOnline.net.
IslamOnline

"Hezbollah denounces this horrible act which does an immense wrong to Islam and Muslims by a group which falsely pretends to follow the precepts of the religion of pardon and essential human values," the party said in a statement.

Ezzedine Salim, this month's chief of the Iraq Governing Council, insisted that "decapitations and mutilations are unacceptable and have nothing to do with Islam".
SMH

Admittedly, Hezbollah are also upset that this barbarism has turned focus away from the prison abuses.

We'll be hearing for years from the talking heads on US cable news about how the Muslim world failed to condemn what was done to Berg. It would be as though a set of high-ranking cardinals in the Vatican condemned something unreservedly and then people kept saying the Church remained silent.
Juan Cole

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*sighs*

I dunno.

*edit* re-reading the condemnations, I notice they condemn the killing's link to Islam first, and the killing second.

Comments

[lonita.livejournal.com]

I might have done the same, given similar circumstances - because you and I both know it'll be Islam as a whole that American talking heads, and others, will slam first - not the killers with no authorised connection to Islam.

[jenny_evergreen]

*nod of agreement* And it's important to remember that they are afraid for all the innocent Muslims out there, with VERY good reason. :( They are effectively saying, "Please, do not use this as a reason to kill or maim large innocent groups of our people. We are as horrified by this as you are."