New convert to Islam turning to violence

I was reading news about the trial of a British officer (Lee Rigby) killed by a recent convert of Islam (Michael Adebolajo). The answers in the trial from this convert are very shocking and chilling. I’m not even able to fathom how someone would start killing in the name of a new religion he just professed a few years ago. Is there a deficiency in his understanding of the Islamic faith or is violence so deeply rooted (ingrained) in the Islamic religion that it’s almost inseparable?

Here’s the court room exchange.

When he was later asked what his defence to the charge of murder was, he said: "I am a soldier. I'm a soldier of Allah".

He also told the Old Bailey he loved extremist network al-Qaeda.

Adebolajo said: "Al-Qaeda I consider to be Mujahideen. I love them, they're my brothers. I have never met them. I consider them my brothers in Islam."

He said he had been brought up as a Christian by his family and his parents had taken him to church every Sunday.

"The memory that sticks in my mind... is probably every New Year's Eve in the evening around 11 o'clock we would gather around in candlelight and read passages from the Bible," he said.

He converted to Islam in his first year as a student at Greenwich University.

Last week, CCTV footage of him running towards the police car with a meat cleaver raised was shown to the court. He said he should be ransomed back to other jihadi fighters, set free or killed if he was found guilty.

The Use and Misuse of the Word Jihad

I was reading this news article today and found an interesting usage of the word Jihad which doesn’t refer to Islam, Muslims or Terrorism.

Anti-Obamacare Jihad May Kill Immigration Reform

The trouble here, in others words, is that House Republicans' hatred of Obamacare is at such deranged levels that it is leeching into even largely unrelated problems. Obamacare is in a different category in their minds — a law so illegitimate and evil that nothing can be allowed to touch it at all.

Dzhokhar (Jahar) Tsarnaev

Jahar Tsarnaev, one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects, scrawled a note at the wall of the boat while hiding at WaterTown, MA before he was captured by the authorities.

His message was

"When you attack one Muslim, you attack all Muslims." He also penned that he was not mourning the death of his brother because he (Tamerlan) was a "martyr in paradise."

His message is pretty standard; something you would expect from someone who has been radicalized with Jihadism.

There also seems to be a new entry about Islamic terrorism on Wikipedia.

A few days ago, I was reading this interesting blog entry about Tsarnaev brothers global Jihad against what they perceive as Islam's enemy.

Tsarnaev's quote seems to be based on the idea of a global Muslim community, called the ummah, that has always been aspirational. The Tsarnaev brothers clearly felt that they were being marginalized, and the fact that they did not belong to an American Muslim community further reinforced that belief. So the brothers turned to the idea of the ummah, a historical fiction that has not existed in practice in all of Muslim history. Muslims are too varied to connect to one way of being a community.

What we are witnessing in Syria, what we saw in Egypt or in Iran during the Green Revolution, is that Muslims kill other Muslims for political gain, and the idea of the ummah is broken. There is no sense from the brothers that they would have been able to understand or choose sides in these conflicts.

Not only does the Muslim Ummah not exist in the current time, but it also has never existed in the past/historical. And then, it gets really interesting.

There is no universal, binding legal command for all Muslims to support each other at all times. Even if there were, throughout Islamic history, it has been observed in its breach rather than in practice. Prophet Mohammed’s son-in-law, Ali, was assassinated while praying, and Mohammed’s favorite grandson, Husayn, was murdered after being denied food and water for days. Both of these acts were committed by people who considered themselves Muslim.

The above are just some examples. Of course you can view all the wars that Muslim fought against each other in the past and also at the establishment of unjust governments (kings or sultans via dynastic rulers/monarchy). This just goes to show how corrupt the Muslim society have been throughout the ages. Not much different than what you have now.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev finally buried

The dead body of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of the suspects of the Marathon bombing, was in a deep freezer at a funeral home in Boston until Wednesday. Apparently no one wanted to bury him at his hometown in Cambridge, MA. The Islamic Center of Cambridge/Boston wanted nothing to do with Tamerlan. They refused to participate or allow burial in the graveyard. Other Islamic centers in Boston have also said No. Not a single cemetery in MA (Muslim or otherwise) was willing to take his body. I can understand why most folks wouldn't want their loved ones buried close to a murderer.

There were some offers from other centers; the Colorado Islamic center and some centers from Canada. But that's not really workable. The funeral director made some inquiries about the logistic at the state and local government but found them unwilling. You can't really post a dead body to random people or places. His family has the final say on where Tamerlan may be buried, of course with the help and cooperation with the local authority. Generally, the will of the deceased is followed but as we all know, this is not a regular funeral.

Tamerlan confessed to being a Muslim when he was alive. Tamerlan's uncle Ruslan Tsarni was in Boston to arrange Tamerlan's funeral according to Islamic funeral rites. His uncle was the only members of Tsarnaev's family who had harshly condemned both of his nephews for their actions. The rest of Tsarnaev's family believed that this whole thing (the Boston Marathon bombing) is just a government setup and that the Tsarnaev brothers were merely the fall guys.

I understand people's anger and outrage at Tamerlan. His actions were inexcusable. He will be punished by God. They don't want his body buried in their backyard. Well, it's good to see Muslim communities standing up and dissociating themselves from sinful people, evil doers and the worse of the worse.

Generally, the state is obligated to provide a plot (I guess a place to dump his body) if they cannot find any takers. There was a bit of drama in regards to the actual burial of Tamerlan Tsanaev. Like always people's emotions got the best of them. They refused to let him be buried in Massachusetts. Some people wanted Tamerlan to be cremated; had his ashes thrown somewhere. Some suggested dumping his body into the sea; just like what they did with Bin Laden. There was also a suggestion to send his body back to his parents in Russia which was also not workable because the Russian authority doesn't really give dead terrorists back to the family. Russian buries them secretly in unmarked graves.


Yesterday, we found out that Tamerlan was secretly buried in a Muslim cemetery in Virginia with the help of a local woman, Martha Mullen.

Martha Mullen of Richmond played a part in the decision to bury Tsarnaev in Virginia. "I was listening to NPR and I heard the story ... that he was unable to be buried and that people are protesting him. And it made me think of Jesus' words: Love your enemies. I felt that, also, he was being maligned probably because he was Muslim."

A lot of people are not happy over this decision to bury Tamerlan in Virginia. I can understand why people are not very happy. No one was consulted or asked. They went quietly and buried him without anyone's knowledge. You can't do that.

The leadership of the Islamic center didn't consult anyone. That's not called leadership.

Martha Mullen was right to point out that Americans were really showing their ugly side by refusing to bury a dead body. Tamerlan is dead. It's over. There's no point to go overboard in punishing Tamerlan's family by denying them a funeral.

I disagree with Martha Mullen when she said we should love your enemies. Why should we like much less love our enemy. In regards to Tamerlan, we are not really talking about something minor like slaps on the right cheeks and turning the other cheeks.

Some people living in the vicinity of the cemetery are outrage. Massachusetts's problem is now theirs. They shouldn't have to deal with the infamous Boston bombers being buried in their neighbourhood.

References
http://denver.cbslocal.com/2013/05/07/colorado-muslim-society-at-odds-with-founder-over-tsarnaev-burial-offer/

http://www.boston.com/metrodesk/2013/05/10/boston-marathon-bombing-suspect-tamerlan-tsarnaev-buried-doswell-virginia-according-two-sources/WJZCb0rTWtLFZTMzKzST4L/story.html

http://www.necn.com/05/10/13/Some-members-of-Islamic-community-angere/landing_nation.html?&apID=109d58ce6f8d4259945831e6df46a08c

http://viableopposition.blogspot.ca/2013/04/chechnya-backgrounder.html

http://www.businessinsider.com/report-dzhokhar-tsarnaevs-repeated-requests-for-a-lawyer-were-ignored-2013-5

Boston Marathon Tragedy Conspiracy Theories

After the Boston marathon blast, the online community started looking for possible terrorists/suspects based on still pictures/images of the event. A number of potential suspects were randomly profiled (identified) based either on their skin colors or the size of their bags. A middle age man in a blue robe who was carrying a decent size bag was immediately picked out. Reasons given as to why this is a suspect? “His bag seems quite heavy. He must be carrying those pressure cookers; His clothing style seems very out of place at the marathon event. He’s definitely a suspect.”

A few more people were identified; those who were not directly gazing at the runners or who seemed quite bored or who are focused on something else. It’s easy to see why the real suspects would be distracted. They would be more concern about the mission than watching a sporting event.

People with brown skin/coloring were the first to be picked out by the racists. Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper published pictures of a 17-year old Moroccan boy with a circle on his face; emphasizing that this could potentially be the suspect the authority are looking for.

Two men dressed in dark glasses, caps and military pants were identified as black-water operative or from a private security firm. Since most of us don’t know who they were and we didn’t know the Tsarnaev brothers, some people believed these men could quite possibly be the suspects. The conspirators didn’t waste much time in connecting the dot. They started selling Boston Marathon tragedy as an inside job by undercover government agents.

I found most of the conspiracy theories about the Boston Marathon Blast from reading users’ comments at online news sites. I guess the official version of the story is just not sexy enough for some people. They must have/seek an alternate explanation/narrative. Every high profile happenings (domestic and international) must be seen as an inside government job. Even seemingly natural events (like earthquakes and hurricanes) are not to be taken at face value.

I generally find most of the alternate theories quite silly. I also can’t imagine the government agencies (FBI or CIA) having that much time and resources at hand to stage ‘undercover operations’ in the United States at this day and age; operations that are immediately exposed by the likes of Alex Jones on his website.

But that’s not all. At the same time with the Boston tragedy, we also saw an explosion at a fertilizer plant/factory in Texas. Some people have rejected the official version of the story that the fire originated from the highly explosive chemical/material, twice the limit allowed by the regulation. They believed that the government fired rockets/missiles at the factory causing the explosion and starting the fire. The conspirators again accused the government of being at the center of mayhems and mischiefs.