The Muslim World Needs Terrorist Qaulity Control

Suicide Blast Kills At Least 88 at Pakistan Volleyball Game | Asia | English

The horrific bombing in Pakistan once again has me shaking my head in a species of disbelief. This is an element of Islamic terrorism that I don't understand. For all the railing against the US and Western "infidel" culture in general, Islamic terrorists kill far more Muslims far more regularly than they do Westerners.

I have a hard time understanding how Muslim publics around the world tolerate these rabid, murderous dogs. Just from a purely pragmatic, practical point of view, what bloody good is it to have terrorists who target you far more than they target the "infidels" they claim to be out to destroy?

I guess I do understand some of it. Though its easy to think otherwise, with the exception of groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, most of these terror movements are not really about taking down the West (the Far Enemy) as they are about taking down their local governments (the Near Enemy).  Its a measure of how repressive and dictatorial many middle eastern governments and societies are that their publics are apparently willing to stand for, tolerate, even sympathize with fundamentalist movements, though from where I sit, the cure seems worse than the disease.

But my God, if you're willing to tolerate these movements, isn't anyone interested in some form of quality control? Are there no rules?  Is nothing off limits? Islamic radicals kill other fellow Muslims in mosques, on city streets and anywhere else.  They kill children, including Muslim children; for crying out loud, that's not enough for societies to call timeout on?  If you are gonna be in the terror business, using violence and murder for political ends, ought the rules be you gotta kill more of them than your own?  I mean, you know somebody should be tallying up the numbers and at year end, if your us vs. them ratio is off, you should get your terrorist card pulled, or a citation or something.

But the lopsided kill stats, the Muslim on Muslim murder ongoing throughout the world really sends a message about this conflict. Contrary to popular belief, it isn't really a war with the West. The Muslim world is at war with itself.

No Quarter

The terror attack in Mumbai and its aftermath has been and will continue to be a major story in the news for at least another week or two. In a world where we have grown accustomed to the presence of the terror threat, as we did with the nuclear threat, it is becoming easier to be unshaken by these incidents. Particularly so here in America, as we enjoy the attack free security of the post 911 years. The Bush administration, with all its faults, has spared us the anguish of a second 911 thus far.

So comes Mumbai and we observe the scale of this chaos and terror, multiple murders purposley visited upon the innocent in what is likely to prove an attempt to goad India into confrontation with Pakistan and destabilize it. As terrible as it all is, it seems easy to turn from our tv sets and in the turning, wipe the horror from the minds eye.

But I found my righteous outrage and sadness at this evil , and my wonder rekindled afresh upon hearing the story of Sandra Samuel, one of many stories beginning to emerge from the three day hell the terrorists created. Sandra, an Indian nanny, and two-year-old Moshe Holtzberg, her charge, were the only ones to make it out of the Chabad House alive after gunmen stormed the house, killing the Chabad House directors Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife, Rivka, parents of Moshe, and four others.

In the midst of that tragedy I thank God for Sandra who retained enough presence of mind and courage to leave her place of relative safety in the Chabad house even as the gunmen were searching and killing room to room. She unlocked her door and dared the gunmen to stop her, ran upstairs to find the Holtzbergs shot dead, lying on the ground with their son crying over them. She picked up the boy and ran out, past the gunmen and fled with him to safety.

As parents, faced with imminent death, if there is a chance to save the children, that becomes paramount. My wife and I have a clear understanding that in any situation where our children can be saved only by sacrificing one or both of us, the children are to be saved. As a parent, I know that the Holtzbergs would have wanted their son to survive and would have been profoundly grateful for Sandra's devotion and courage, risking her life to save their son. A regular woman braved murder and terror everywhere around her, to save the life of a child not her own. Surrounded by evil killers and with a chance to flee to safety on her own, she chose to walk into the danger for Moshe. His mother was murdered and Sandra stepped into the breach to save him. I'm very humbled by the immense courage and love that act required.


The AP: The cries of little Moshe wounded hearts…”Mommy, mommy, mommy!” he wailed, clutching a toy basketball while squirming in the arms of mourners at the synagogue.

Look at his face. Consider his anguish. Still fresh in his barely comprehending mind the terrible memories of mommy and daddy killed before his eyes. I don't have adequate words for the sadness I feel at the breaking of a baby's heart in this way.

Nieither do I have adequate words for the outrage, horror and revulsion I feel towards the people who did it. There is a special place in Hell reserved for those responsible for the look on this child's face.

Mumbai is a reminder that the terrorists are willing to commit nearly any outrage to advance their goal to create a world full of chaos and the cries of a thousand Moshe's which they can dominate. They can be given no quarter.

This is Bullshit. It Should Not Be Allowed To Stand

I don't often use profanity in my postings. My wife frowns upon it and my pastor may read my blog on occasion. But calling the response of the Army in the case of Pfc. Lavena Johnson bullshit is fully justified and was my first, visceral response after listening to the NPR Tell Me More interview with her father recently. For her story, you can view the featured video (top of blog right) and the NPR interview is even more powerful.

Advocacy efforts on behalf of Lavena and her family are growing in momentum and volume. A vile injustice has been done and there should be an accounting. Any reasonable person reviewing the facts will agree. So the issue is really what can we do to raise the volume on this even further? How do we make an effective demand for accountability in this case?

The Army is stonewalling the family, but they are accountable to Congress. Legislators in Congress can ask questions of the Army and of Sec. of Defense Gates, but they won't know to ask unless we tell them to. Over 3,000 people have signed on to just one of the petitions being circulated on Lavena's behalf and its not the only petition making the rounds. If every one of those 3,000 and more also contacted the legislator in their respective districts, that would be a lot of contacts to elected officials on this case. And if people kept doing that repeatedly, it would have an impact.

If this makes you angry (it should) take action. Do something. What can we do to keep putting on the pressure? I urge people to contact their own legislator in the House and the Senate by phone and email, or even a personal visit, and ask them to do the following:

• Request Cong. Waxman call hearings (his committee has jurisdiction)
• Contact Sec. of Defense Gates and ask him to demand accountability from the Army in this case.
• Make a public statement of concern and outrage and a public request that this case be properly investigated.

Assess the results, then repeat. And get as many people as you can to do the same. Until they do something about it.

Because this is bullshit, and it should not be allowed to stand.

Related articles

• Family of Pfc. LaVena Johnson Calls For Truth
• No Justice, No Peace: Remembering Pfc. LaVena Johnson
• LaVena Johnson: Murdered By Her Colleagues, Ignored By The Army
• Family calls for the truth in soldier's death

Black Man Turns Lone Wolf Shooter

Charles Lee "Cookie" Thornton gunned down and killed five people at a City Council meeting and critically wounded the Mayor before police shot him to death on Thursday evening. Previously banned from council meetings for being disruptive, Thorton was apparently angry because of having received nearly 150 tickets for illegally parking vehicles used in his asphalt and paving business. He had disrupted council meetings numerous times to complain that he was being harassed by city officials. When he was banned from the council meetings, he sued in federal court alleging his First Amendment rights had been violated. His lawsuit was dismissed. Thornton apparently believed he was being singled out because of his race for these tickets. He sought redress by disrupting council meetings repeatedly. His brother, Gerald Thornton, repeatedly declined to say that his brother had done anything wrong. He said his brother felt his

"constitutional protection was not guaranteed. The only way that I can put it in a context that you might understand is that my brother went to war tonight with the people that were of the government that was putting torment and strife into his life, and he had spoke on it as best he could in the courts, and they denied him all access to the rights of protection, and therefore he took it upon himself to go to war and end the issue."

I think I would lock his brother up on GP, because if he can't see the problem here, he sounds like he might be the next one to go shoot five or six people dead. I mean, the police shot his brother dead and he doesn't think he did anything wrong, s0 maybe he figures the cops should get taken out. The brother went to war because he was being tormented and his constiutional rights trampled on because he got some tickets? Brother man, why don't you PARK IN A DIFFERENT SPOT! Truly ridiculous and tragic. Meanwhile, five families have lost loved ones, while the sixth is fighting for his life, because you couldn't get a clue about where to park. I used to think this kind of lone wolf killing was not part of the black lexicon of self destruction. I guess I was wrong.

Its Way Past Official: We Have Lost Our Minds

All-Female Street Fight Ends In Murder, Pregnant Woman Killed, 2 Others Injured When Woman Rams Her Car Into Brawl - CBS News

Okay, I'm just shaking my head on this one. Thats really all I can do. I'm trying to imagine 20 young black woman, progesterone raging, lining up on sides to throw down in what sounds like an old fashioned gang fight. What is going on in our communities that we have this kind of nonsense breaking out? What the hell are we doing (or not doing) in our families that we have this craziness happening? Incidentally, I guess its become politically incorrect to say gangfight or something, because every news account I've seen uses this sanitized "planned confrontation" phrase to describe the fight. Thats interesting all by itself.

As we marching in Galveston for Megan and we keep sleeping on Dunbar Village and we mad about Michael Vick and tripping on the Dog, in LA, a 21 year old child of God intentionally got behind the wheel of her car and drove it headlong into another child of God who was eight months pregnant with still another child of God. She didn't care about the girl's life or the baby growing inside her. She just ran her down in the moment. She turned herself in. Maybe later she couldn't believe she had done it. Maybe she feels remorse. I hope so. At least that would signal that she had not left her humanity behind, that we had not completely failed to teach her anything before she made this horrible decision to kill.

A march won't fix this.