Evil Vile Evil
What can one say? They’ve sunk to a new low? It’s laughable to put “new” and “low” together when talking about Muslim extremists.
According to this account, Sunday’s suicide bombing in Iraq, which killed more than 40 people, was carried out by one or two individuals with Down syndrome. No mainstream news organizations are reporting this angle (yet). And, I must add in fairness that a similar story was reported in February of 2008, but later disproved. (The two women suffered from depression and schizophrenia, apparently, which, if you think about it, is just as abominable.)
True or not, I certainly wouldn’t be surprised if this “tactic” has, at the very least, been seriously considered by the scum who plan and perpetrate these kinds of hateful crimes. An individual with Down syndrome would be just trusting and loving enough to do almost anything that was asked of him or her without understanding the consequences.
People with Down syndrome thrive in social environments. They love people, and they love to be loved. They love to be “a part of” something. They are, often, smart enough to know when they are being excluded even when the rejection is subtle. [Here’s a great—and fun—story about a young man with Down syndrome who understands the difference between participating and competing.] So, a “top secret planning session” would have great appeal. There’s nothing my four-year-old loves to do more than to be conspiratorial with her siblings, even if it’s just whispered nonsense.
Many parents of children with Down syndrome will tell you that their child’s EQ (emotional quotient) is right on target – or even advanced. Yet cognitive delays are common. People with Down syndrome are not capable of discerning malice or complex manipulation. To someone who sees the enormous joy in loving, and being loved, the impulse to deliberately hurt someone is alien. There are few grudges in the world of Down syndrome. Life is a great joy. Strange, then, that so many people—both outwardly sane Westerners and outwardly insane extremists—seemingly want Down syndrome erased off the face of the earth. In the West, abortion is the preferred method. In the East, it’s the suicide bomb.
The creeps who plan these suicide missions are, to use a phrase I picked up over the weekend from my fellow Ricochet contributor Bill McGurn, lower than a snake’s belly. Naturally, they’re also cowards. They may believe that their actions put a smile on Allah’s face. I’m pretty sure that they just bought themselves a one-way ticket to hell.
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Comments :
Re: Evil Vile Evil
What's clear, Ursula, is that by ignoring these stories, burying and obscuring the Islamic motive of the murderers, our friends in the left-wing media are doing no favors to those Muslims who want to choose a less atrocity-oriented lifestyle. Only universal condemnation of such killers by name will isolate them from decent people. If our media (and government) continue to appease and protect them, they will add the power of silence to the power of fear and continue to spread like the cancer they are.
Re: Evil Vile Evil
Jesus is considered a prophet in the Muslim tradition. So the following should be of universal interest:
"1Jesus said to his disciples: "Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come. 2It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin." Luke 17:1-2
Jun '10
Re: Evil Vile Evil
I'm with Andrew on this, but I'm getting frustrated. I mentioned to Claire in an earlier thread about not getting into rhetorical boxing matches with haters. We need to get inside the gloves and pummel them into submission. No mercy, no quarter. We have plenty of insights; what we need next is to focus them. We keep poking with fingers when what we need is a fist.
Re: Evil Vile Evil
Ursula, unfortunately, it's not a new low. This practice dates at least from 2005. I wrote about it in Menace in Europe. On the day of Iraq's first multiparty elections, 35 Iraqis were murdered:
I think you said about all that can be said about it.
May '10
Re: Evil Vile Evil
I take a different lesson...not about the limits of evil; I have a feeling we don't want to contemplate a true test of that boundary, rather a lesson on how, in the grips of a delusion, or perhaps "the right delusion", absolutely anything can be justified. I'm confident that the monsters who committed these acts are themselves confident of their own virtue. They've convinced themselves that to become a human bomb is a holy act, and so they tell themselves they are bestowing an honor on someone who, in their twisted value system, has heretofor been valueless.
There are some who will excuse them because they are earnest in their belief, scolding that we should judge them by their own standards, not by ours, or perhaps not judge them at all. Perhaps our own nation/religion/race has committed horrible acts in some other place and other time. Of course, this too is delusion. You cannot really "balance" evils, they don't offset, they add.
I honestly believe that people, in general, are not really particularly evil, but they are dangerously clever. They can twist their minds and souls to do anything and excuse anything.
Re: Evil Vile Evil
I think you are probably correct about this, G.A. All great points. Thanks for commenting because I hadn't thought of it this way. Not that it changes their monster-ness, but just allows me another view that I hadn't considered.
May '10
Re: Evil Vile Evil
Ursula Hennessey
Not that it changes their monster-ness, .... · Jul 20 at 5:14am
At it's root these ideas are really theological or philosophical, paraphrased as "evil is not something men are, but something men do." But of course it is still evil and needs to be named so in loud voices.
Where we go wrong is when we look at such people close up and see that they don't seem like "monsters." They don't have horns or smell of brimstone. Perhaps a journalist reports that the insurgents are genuine in their anger and that they can list many years (centuries even) of abuses against them. They argue their point with apparent reason, and we conclude that it's just a difference of opinion or a "clash of cultures." Madness is what it is, but nowadays such blunt talk is discouraged.
Your reaction was telling, and just the antidote. When one observes from a distance, its clear that any line of reasoning that arrives at the conclusion, "bombs on Down syndrome people." is terribly wrong. There no "good" way to get to that conclusion. It's important to say so, as you did.