Boston Marathon Bombing Suspects Motivated By Religion, Say Two U.S. Officials

Boston Marathon Bombing Suspects Motivated By Religion, Say Two U.S. Officials

God strikes again

zealotry is the root cause, and it comes in many forms, both religious and secular.

One of the brothers been reading the Al-Qaeda publication Inspire.

Is this really a surprise?

No, not really. I suppose that the only remotely comforting fact here is that they appear to have been working alone and not as part of a larger terrorist plot. We've got homegrown religious crazies too. Joy.

calamity said:

Is this really a surprise?

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no, but to such truths have now been labeled bigotry

From what I have read, it's really the older brother who was motivated by the manipulation of his religious beliefs. It makes me wonder, now that the older brother is gone, what the younger brother will be willing to say, if he is able. I am interested to know the story of how two seeming normal, average kids, could take such a left turn.

Dr. Chuckles said:

no, but to such truths have now been labeled bigotry

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Screw that. It is what it is. The ridiculous notion that Islam is the "Religion of Peace" needs to be exposed as nonsense. Like the Constitution, being PC is not a suicide pact.

calamity said:

Screw that. It is what it is. The ridiculous notion that Islam is the "Religion of Peace" needs to be exposed as nonsense. Like the Constitution, being PC is not a suicide pact.

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Yeah, just look at the threads on here about Maher's recent remarks. People have a tendency to view any criticism of a religion or it's followers as an attack on ALL members of that religion, sans christianity

Dr. Chuckles said:

Yeah, just look at the threads on here about Maher's recent remarks. People have a tendency to view any criticism of a religion or it's followers as an attack on ALL members of that religion, sans christianity

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Maher has thick skin. Kudos to him for calling it like it is.

Dr. Chuckles said:

no, but to such truths have now been labeled bigotry

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Not as long as you remember to mention this man too. Christian extremists are murderous cowards as well. I guess it is something about Christianity?

Eric Robert Rudolph (born September 19, 1966), also known as the Olympic Park Bomber, is responsible for a series of anti-abortion and anti-gay-motivated bombings across the southern United States between 1996 and 1998, which killed two people and injured at least 150 others. The Federal Bureau of Investigation considers him a terrorist.[1]

As a teenager Rudolph was taken by his mother to a Church of Israel compound in 1984; it is connected to the Christian Identity movement. Rudolph and his family were connected with the Christian Identity movement, a militant, racist and anti-Semitic organization that believes whites are God's chosen people. He has confirmed religious motivation, but denied racial motivation for his crimes.

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Eric Rudolph - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

iguanaman said:

Not as long as you remember to mention this man too. Christian extremists are murderous cowards as well. I guess it is something about Christianity?

Eric Rudolph - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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It's not really even comparable. Eric Rudolph types are pretty rare and get little or no public support. Groups like AQ get support from a significant amount of the public of a number of islamic nations

Dr. Chuckles said:

It's not really even comparable. Eric Rudolph types are pretty rare and get little or no public support. Groups like AQ get support from a significant amount of the public of a number of islamic nations

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Of course he had support from his church, "The Church of Israel". A denomination that preaches racism and anti-Semitism. I don't see a difference at all. You think his anti-abortion views gets no support here? He blew up 2 abortion clinics and a lesbian Bar as well as the Olympics. His actions were based on religious beliefs just like the Boston bombers . You are in denial if you don't think all religions are capable of inspiring extremists.

iguanaman said:

Not as long as you remember to mention this man too. Christian extremists are murderous cowards as well. I guess it is something about Christianity?

Eric Rudolph - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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He's clearly a scumbag, but he's more like Ted Kaczynsky and Tim McVeigh: rogue agents of a lost cause. Islam actually has a mission called Jihad, and Islamists kill people all the time, from stabbing Theo Van Gogh who made a movie to those blowing up buses in Jewish neighborhoods.

iguanaman said:

Of course he had support from his church

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from above "Eric Rudolph types are pretty rare ***and get little or no public support***. ",

"The Church of Israel". A denomination that preaches racism and anti-Semitism.

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Yes, a christian identity church, which as a movement, represents a pretty insignificant amount of the american population and is pretty much unknown outside our borders.

I don't see a difference at all.

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The difference is the level of appeal such groups have within their home population and the ability to appeal to people outside their immediate area of operation

<<<In most countries, views of Hamas and Hezbollah have changed little, if at all, since 2009. In Indonesia, however, more Muslims express favorable views of both groups now than did so last year; 39% now have positive views of Hamas, compared with 32% last year, and 43% have favorable opinions of Hezbollah, compared with 29% in 2009. And among Nigerian Muslims, favorable views of both Hamas and Hezbollah are now less common than they were in 2009 (49% vs. 58% and 45% vs. 59%, respectively).

While views of Hamas and Hezbollah are mixed, al Qaeda – as well as its leader, Osama bin Laden – receives overwhelmingly negative ratings in nearly all countries where the question was asked. More than nine-in-ten (94%) Muslims in Lebanon express negative opinions of al Qaeda, as do majorities of Muslims in Turkey (74%), Egypt (72%), Jordan (62%) and Indonesia (56%). Only in Nigeria do Muslims express positive views of al Qaeda; 49% have a favorable view and just 34% have an unfavorable view of bin Laden’s organization. (Findings regarding opinions of al Qaeda and bin Laden were previously released in “Obama More Popular Abroad Than at Home, Global Image of U.S. Continues to Benefit,” June 17, 2010.)>>>

and that isn't even getting into the real problem in the Islamic world, rampant fundamentalism

You think his anti-abortion views gets no support here?

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Are you seriously trying to conflate views against abortion and support for blowing up abortion clinics? Those are not the same, at all

He blew up 2 abortion clinics and a lesbian Bar as well as the Olympics. His actions were based on religious beliefs just like the Boston bombers .

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Right, and can you show me any evidence that he received any significant levels of public support? Even if we assume that every member of the church of Israel supported his actions, that would only account for a few hundred people, at most

You are in denial if you don't think all religions are capable of inspiring extremists.

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Then it's a good thing I never made such an argument, and that my claim was dependent on frequency, level of public sympathy, and appeal to the larger religion ...

calamity said:

Screw that. It is what it is. The ridiculous notion that Islam is the "Religion of Peace" needs to be exposed as nonsense. Like the Constitution, being PC is not a suicide pact.

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We have had christian terrorism recently as well. Adam lanza was a christian and attended catholic school.

When Muslims get to the point where the Christians were in the late 1300's let me know.

The difference is people like Rudolph may have considered themselves Christians, but they developed an unhealthy obsession with one thing or another at one point in time that progressed to the point of mental illness.

With the radicals involved in Islam, it is a religious calling and a duty to those misinformed followers. THAT is a BIG problem.

MoSurveyor said:

When Muslims get to the point where the Christians were in the late 1300's let me know.

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That's nothing but ridiculous.

As if that's a valid comparison. :lamo Fortunately we are living in the 2000s and not the 1300s.

ChrisL said:

That's nothing but ridiculous.

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I don't think so. It's similar to people in European countries trying to compare us to them. It doesn't fit because the background is much different and our culture newer, even if we did borrow a lot from them.

MoSurveyor said:

When Muslims get to the point where the Christians were in the late 1300's let me know.

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We are not living in the 1300s. This is the 21st century. They use modern technology including the social media to plan their terror attacks. That means they can read and are not ignorant and unable to think for themslves the way people were in the middle ages or even in colonial times. Moral relativism for events separated by 1000 years in time is a rather ludicrous stance to take.

MoSurveyor said:

I don't think so. It's similar to people in European countries trying to compare us to them. It doesn't fit because the background is much different and our culture newer, even if we did borrow a lot from them.

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It's a stupid comparison that atheists try to use all the time, as if they think it's a "powerful" statement or something. It's just ridiculous. Christians killing in the name of christianity is pretty rare, other than those who suffer from a mental derangement. That is NOT the case with Islamic terrorism. They are NOT all insane. There is the crux of the problem.

And I should add that the comparison is completely invalid with the 1300s because the times were completely different. ALL people were brutal to one another generally. That was the way life was back then. People killing people for stupid superstitious reasons.

Maenad said:

We are not living in the 1300s. This is the 21st century. They use modern technology including the social media to plan their terror attacks. That means they can read and are not ignorant and unable to think for themslves the way people were in the middle ages or even in colonial times. Moral relativism for events separated by 1000 years in time is a rather ludicrous stance to take.

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Ohhh, great point.

MoSurveyor said:

When Muslims get to the point where the Christians were in the late 1300's let me know.

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To be fair, from a historical perspective, Islam is about where the church was in the mid 1500's.
Breaking into groups according to subset beliefs, The Church of England and Lutherans splitting off
from the Roman Catholic church.
The next 100 years, would have the great Armada, and the 30 years war, and a decline in the
absolute power of the Church of Rome.
It would take another 200 years before the Pope was not seen as a major player on the Europe stage.
Napoleon, told his Ambassador to Rome, to "treat with the Pope as if he had a 200,000 man Army".
The problem I see, with Islam, is that violence appears to be acceptable Tenant of their Faith.
I know almost nothing about Islam, so mine is an outside observers opinion.

Maenad said:

We are not living in the 1300s. This is the 21st century. They use modern technology including the social media to plan their terror attacks. That means they can read and are not ignorant and unable to think for themslves the way people were in the middle ages or even in colonial times. Moral relativism for events separated by 1000 years in time is a rather ludicrous stance to take.

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And why do you think people were unable to think for themselves back then? Has the human brain undergone a radical change in the last 700 years?