To make Comments write directly to Jim at jimt@quixotic.ca
28
Apr
2019
It’s one week after the Easter Day bombings in Sri Lanka, which killed 359 people. It’s two weeks after the Christchurch shootings in New Zealand/Aotearoa, where 80 people were murdered.
I hang my head in despair.
I want to do something about it. I want to lash out, to rid the world of the kind of people who do this kind of thing.
But I don’t know how to identify “this kind of people.” Media reports claim the Sri Lanka bombers belonged to a fanatic Muslim sect, but I’ve seen no proof -- yet. The Christchurch shooter has been described as a far-right white supremacist, which I suppose makes him nominally Christian.
Nor do I know how to define “this kind of thing.” Is it more reprehensible to bomb people at worship than to kill them at work, in the World Trade Centre, for example? Is it worse to shoot people at prayer than to blow them up in a classroom or hospital or orphanage -- as happens in Yemen?
In this storm of wind and fire and earthquake, a still small voice penetrates.: “The real purpose behind these actions is to sow discord and hatred, so that we are all reduced to the same level as the perpetrators of these crimes.”
Categories: Sharp Edges
Tags: Sri Lanka, bombing, terrorists, Mirza Yawar Baig, Countercurrents