I just now saw the cellphone video of one of the killers in Woolwich. It is pure barbarism. And all the more weirdly so for taking place on a busy London street, in front of passers-by, just a few yards from a school.
Blood all over his hands, and all over the cleaver and the knife he’s so casually brandishing. None of the distance of guns here, let alone drones. No attempt to hide, or to flee. Instead, a rant into the camera “justifying” what he and his friend have just done: run down a man and then hacked him to death. In the name, good god, of God.
I’ll get to that in a moment, but first, what strikes me is the way this man exults over what he’s done. He’s pacing back and forth like an animal after a kill, like a predator — a lion, say, or even a “domestic” cat when it catches a bat — proud of what he’s done, showing off, all but beating his chest.
And guarding his kill, keeping everyone away from “it.” “No man comes near this body,” witnesses report his friend saying, but you can see a woman calling them on that, then bending down to try to help the victim, then standing up to challenge them over what they’ve done. That’s courage.
As for the so-called quote from the Quran, he’s in fact in direct opposition to it. Sura 5, verse 45, specifically states that an eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth no longer applies. It says that “previously” — in the Torah — “we ordained an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” (see Exodus 21:24) but now, it continues, “if anyone freely forgoes this right, it shall count as an act of expiation for him.”
No expiation for these two men. They are vicious murderers, pure and simple. Nothing more, and nothing less.
And that terrifying ignorance, that self-justifying righteousness, that pure bloody-minded and bloody-handed inhumanity, is the enemy of us all.
expiation is not anywhere near,his mind is definitely clouded….is he on drugs? Myheartgoes out to the victim & relatives……it reminds me of the times of “bloody Mary” & the victimisation of RCs at that time!
Brilliant. Well written and well said.
Reblogged this on Al-Must'arib (the vocational Mossarab).
Well said, Lesley. I keenly follow you posts and I admire the angle from which you observe and analyse this sort of events. Undoubtedly, humanity is in a sad state of affairs. This chap and his friend, have committed a crime, a heinous one. They had confused ideas of Islam.
The real sad thing about the state of humanity in this age, is the fact that the lives of innocent people have become nothing but a battle field for those sick-minded individuals (and government establishments) who seek to expand the scope of their territories at the expense of others rights, properties and lives (be it Muslims or non-Muslims). They have no regard to any sense of moralities, principles or faith.
These two guys have been manipulated and confused by some sick individuals or so-called Islamic organizations. However there seems to be other parties who are trying to take advantage and maximize their gains from this events by stir up the public opinion against Islam and Muslims, perhaps, in order to pass some immigration law or justify some foreign policies.
There are always marginal ‘other parties’ trying to capitalize one way or another on incidents like this, either by denying them (“an-anti-Muslim conspiracy” kind of thing) or by mouthing off on the stale old Islam=terror meme. In fact what strikes me, so far, is the relative sanity of the general response. Mehdi Hasan, former political editor of The New Statesman and now political editor of Huffington Post UK, points to it in this piece published yesterday in the Telegraph (yes, the Telegraph!):
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/10076096/The-Muslim-faith-does-not-turn-men-to-terror.html