Muslims Murder, Christians Don’t: What Went Missing in Analysis of Tiller’s Executioner

[madeline_con]

Muslims Murder, Christians Don’t: What Went Missing in Analysis of Tiller’s Executioner
By Dan Mathewson
June 5, 2009

As the Times headline suggests, there must have been something in Roeder’s background that everyone missed, which would explain why he crossed the line from protest to murder.

Similar questions regarding the motives for murder apparently do not linger around the June 1 killing of an army recruiter, Private William A. Long, in Little Rock, Arkansas. The June 2 headline in the Times purports to give the “Report of Motive in Recruiter Attack,” and introduces the alleged killer, Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, as “an American convert to Islam.”

Details of Muhammad’s connection to Islam punctuate the article: he converted to Islam several years ago, legally changing his name from Carlos Bledsoe to the very Muslim-sounding name the article uses; he recently changed his name again (for unexplained “religious reasons”) to Abdulhakim Bledsoe; he once was detained in Yemen for traveling with a fake Somali passport; the FBI investigated him for possible connections to Muslim extremist groups (which it couldn’t establish); he was angry at the United States for killing Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan; preliminary police investigation reveals “political and religious” motivation for his crime; among his personal possessions were (gasp!) CDs labeled in Arabic and papers with Arabic handwriting on them. What was the “motive in recruiter attack” according to this article? Muhammad’s religion, no doubt.
<snip>
These details about the connection of Mr. Roeder’s violent actions to his Christian faith, however, are glossed over in the Times article devoted to investigating the motivation for his actions. Instead, this article points to various other details (supposedly of the non-religious variety): his prior abortion protests and acts of vandalism at the abortion clinic; his links to the Freeman movement, Operation Rescue, and Kansas’ Patriot movement (all described as either anti-government or anti-abortion); his authorship of articles in Prayer and Action News (about which the Times provides no information); his alleged past mental illness; and his prior arrest for possessing explosives.

http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/religiousright/1533/muslims_murder%2C_christians_don%E2%80%99t%3A_what_went_missing_in_analysis_of_tiller%E2%80%99s_executioner

[babylonsister]

1. Sounds like a lousy title to me. nt

[create.peace]

2. just missing its sarcasm on/off html

[madeline_con]

3. It's good analysis of the way Islam is played up, but Christianity

seldom mentioned when Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad and Roeder’s respective crimes are reported in the MSM. Give it a chance.

[Triana]

4. Exactly! K & R - this is what I've been saying for days - same as the OP

Thanks. Passing it on.

[sinkingfeeling]

5. They have to keep showing us the differences of the 'other'.