As we get closer to September 11th, and stories like people planning Koran burnings become more commonplace, we can look forward to all of this craziness coming to a head. Specifically, I’m talking about violence.
This isn’t a full-on case of Islamophobic violence, but it sure as hell is a harbinger of things to come. Worst of all, the perpetrators are 18 and under.
he same teens, from nearby Holley, had also shouted epithets and honked horns as they drove past the mosque on Friday, Orleans County Sheriff Scott Hess said. District attorney Joseph Cardone said Mark Vendetti, 17, fired a shotgun twice into the ground near the mosque on that occasion.
Vendetti, who hasn’t yet been assigned a lawyer, was charged with felony criminal possession of a weapon and ordered held on $10,000 bail. He told police he fired the gun “because he was afraid that they (mosque members) may come after him,” Cardone said.
In truth, I don’t actually blame the teens themselves. Seventeen year olds were about eight when the planes hit, and at the time didn’t know bin Laden from a Beni Hana. Any opinions they formed about this situation came from someone else, and that means the culture that says Muslims are evil and they will attack you in your sleep. That Osama bin Laden is a ringleader of a worldwide Islamic movement to destroy America and burn our Constitution.
These kids absorbed the hateful rhetoric that Becks and Limbaughs have been slinging for the past near-decade, and now they’re acting on it. I’d like to point out, also, that this was predicted in that DHS report a few years ago. The one that was much maligned as politically slanted and total bullshit.
I’d also like to point out that no left-wing rhetoric either advocated or resulted in violence during the Bush years. Or Bible burnings.
I’d also also like to point out that, as an atheist, the reason this kind of thing bothers me is that the Koran burnings are in the spirit of “our God is better than your god”. I have no particular affinity for Islam, nor do I believe it an especially good influence on any part of the world. Just that this “holy war” bullshit enrages me.
Hanlon\'s Razor 
Agreed! As a western-culture woman I can't imagine anyone WANTING to be a Muslim, but I whole-heartedly support its members right to worship as they choose and be held under the same mantle of religious freedom and protection as everyone else.
Agreed! As a western-culture woman I can't imagine anyone WANTING to be a Muslim, but I whole-heartedly support its members right to worship as they choose and be held under the same mantle of religious freedom and protection as everyone else.