Canada to speed up plans to toughen security laws: PM Harper

[The Magistrate]

5. 'Religious Motivation' And 'Mental Illness', Sir, Are Hardly Exclusive Categories

It is fairly frequent that a person who ascribes a religious motivation to some anti-social action is mentally unbalanced. Religiousity often serves as a sort of 'self-medication' for persons of unsound mind. I suspect few of the people who engage in suicide bombings and similar activities would not, were they placed under a modern secular psychiatric examination, be adjudged to be suffering from serious mental disturbance. None of this alters the influence of a religion's ideas, as apprehended by the person in question, on his or her behavior.

The man did in fact commit a criminal act out of politico-religious motivations, and did so while of an unbalanced mind. While neither part of that can be ignored, it is foolish to pretend the first part of it ought to be ignored and only the second heeded in description of his motive.