Walter_Mitty

<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/10/24/muhammad.profile/index.html" target="_blank">Muhammad</a>

I said it before and I'll say it again: the Nation of Islam is nothing but trouble. Based on my experience with inmates who converted to the Nation of Islam, I'd have to say they'd have been better of being Christian.

Kosh

To be fair, we do not yet know his motives for the sniper attacks. If I go out and ram my truck into somebody, does that automatically mean I did it because of my atheism? Now if it was the pope...

While I would bet money that Islam did have some effect on his decisions, why don't we wait until we hear about the motive?

Walter_Mitty

I'm admittedly jaded so it's hard to be objective. Also, from this guys history it sounds like he had anger issues. Still, the NI and Farakan preach hate so IMO that ideology could have ONLY made a bad nut worse.

I'll try not to get into that whole good Muslim bad Muslim bit. Or who is the "true" Muslim and who isn't. Suffice to say I have a low opinion of Islam but I'll grant you that I probably am jumping the gun.

Cursed emotions!



[ October 24, 2002: Message edited by: Bibliophile ]</p>

Jimmy Higgins

This Pope actually did some good stuff. How about Cardinal Law instead?

As for a muslim attack, weren't the victims across the spectrum?

[ October 24, 2002: Message edited by: Jimmy Higgins ]</p>

Kosh

As were the victims of 9/11, including many muslims. The point of their attacks is not necessarilly to target a specific ethnic group (other than Americans), but to sow terror. They want to cripple our economy, which they believe will force us out of the middle east. Look what this did to DC area businesses. Little do they realize how tenacious we capitalists/materialists are.

Walter_Mitty

Though I do have a LOW opinion of Islam in general, I have a VERY LOW opinion of <a href="http://www.adl.org/hate-patrol/noi.asp" target="_blank">The Nation of Islam</a> due to personal experience.

Putting the whole God issue aside, the NOI basically teaches black supremacy and hate period.

I guess I could have worded my initial post better. Obviously it sounds like Muhammad had anger management "issues" to begin with. Nonetheless, I still stand by my assessment that the NOI could only have made it worse by helping him ratchet up the hatred. At least that was my experience with the inmates who bought into this nonsense. Though making the jump to Islam in general was mistake on my part.

[ October 24, 2002: Message edited by: Bibliophile ]</p>

Rusting Car Bumper

We do not know if the sniper did this out of some sort of Islamic symapthy.

The fact is he could be whacked out of his mind and Islamic. Simply because he is Islamic, we heard hearsay about some sympathy to the 9/11 crowd, or he volunteered for the million man march does not mean he did the sniping because of those things.

If that's true then anytime an atheist commits a crime one could say he did it because he/she was an atheist.

Let's what until the jury is in so to speak.

DC

[ October 25, 2002: Message edited by: DigitalChicken ]</p>

Jamie_L

It's quite possible that this guy gravitated to the NOI because he had some brain-wiring issues, and not the other way around.

Jamie

Walter_Mitty

Atheism does not teach that whites are "devils," nor is it anti-semantic. The "Nation of Islam" (not to be confused with traditional Islam) does.

(The NOI teaches that God was a man. Consequently, traditional Islam denounces the NOI.)

Again, it's just my personal opinion and I cannot say whether the NOI is the causal factor or if he was nuts to begin with and then found the NOI.

Either way, the NOI is hate-based and "in my opinion" could only have made a volatile situation even more volatile.

The NOI also preaches a lot of anti-government rhetoric which seems to be part of J. Muhammad's agenda. In fact, I'd put the NOI up there with the KKK, Neo-Nazis, and other militia type groups.

Just to be crystal clear here but for once, the "God issue" has nothing to do with my assessment of the NOI. Personal experience with the end product of the NOI's hate rhetoric does. Also, the NOI's version of Islam is vastly different from what most Muslims practice.

The NOI= bad mojo.

Suffice to say I'm glad the nut is off the street and as other posters have suggested: "Let's wait 'til the jury is in."

Jolimont

When I heard the bit about "Your children are not safe anywhere" I thought this may be islamist terror because that's a tactic they've used many times. But, being a nice liberal person who doesn't like to think ill of any particular group, I pushed the thoughts away and went on with my life. Hmmm, maybe my instincts work better than my head...