So it’s happened again – this time in one of the most remote, yet friendliest, nations on earth. In two terrorist attacks, it appears that at least 49 people have been killed and another 48 injured. Both totals may rise.
The motivation of the terrorist(s) – their numbers are as yet unclear – is easy enough to discern, based on the evidence they left behind. They claimed to be responding to prior acts of terrorism by Muslim fundamentalists. The fact that no such attacks have ever taken place in New Zealand, and that there’s no evidence whatsoever that their victims ever espoused, encouraged or committed such acts, was clearly not a factor in their considerations.
Several years ago, after the Paris terror attacks of November 2015, I said about the Muslim terrorist attackers:
The perpetrators committed their crimes because they didn’t regard their victims as being human. They were guilty by virtue of not being Muslims, or (in some cases) being Muslims who lived in too close an association with non-Muslims, thereby making themselves targets as well. The victims were ‘guilty’ of being infidels, and paid the price for their ‘crime’. That’s the way it is, for the attackers. We’re justified in what we’re doing, because God as we understand him has authorized and encouraged us to do it.
So, now we see the bitter fruit of such attitudes. The terrorist(s) in New Zealand had precisely and exactly the same attitude, in mirror image. They regarded their victims as guilty by virtue of being Muslims. It’s a perfect illustration of how Newton’s Third Law of Motion applies to politics and philosophy as well as to physics. “Every action begets an equal and opposite reaction.” In Paris in November 2015, the “action” was against non-Muslims. In New Zealand, the “action” was against Muslims. Both were terrorism, pure and simple. Pot, meet kettle. Kettle, pot.
What’s more, I guarantee you that right now, Muslim fundamentalist terrorists are outraged at this attack against their people, and are already planning a response in similar vein. It may be in New Zealand, or it may be elsewhere, but it will involve attacks against innocent non-Muslims in revenge for attacks against innocent Muslims. You can be absolutely sure of that. Goose sauce, meet gander.
Those attacks, in turn, will inspire more retaliatory terrorism . . . and yet more . . . and so the cycle will be perpetuated. At least some of the children’s children of those who died today, and those who react to their deaths, will still be killing each other when we’re all long gone. I warned about that, too, in my earlier article. I urge you to read the whole thing, to better understand the context of these remarks. Here’s how I concluded it.
The attacks of 9/11 merited – required – a response. I have no problem with that at all. However, the response was not carefully planned, or thought out, or targeted. It’s proved to be almost completely ineffective in curbing fundamentalist Islamic terrorism, which was the enemy responsible for those attacks. Instead, tens of thousands of American lives have been lost, or ruined due to crippling injury; entire nations and regions have been destabilized; the forces of Islamic fundamentalism have been galvanized into renewed efforts that have taken on new faces and forms and engendered even more dangerous terrorists; and tens of thousands of innocent civilian lives have been lost, and the lives of literally millions of civilians have been disrupted and uprooted, without any lasting solution having been forthcoming.
The War on Terror could not and did not prevent Paris 2015. It cannot and will not deter similar attacks in future.
And in the end, the bodies lying in the ruins, and the blood dripping onto our streets, and the weeping of those who’ve lost loved ones . . . they’ll all be the same. History is full of them. When it comes to the crunch, there are no labels that can disguise human anguish. People will suffer in every land, in every community, in every faith . . . and they’ll turn to what they believe in to make sense of their suffering . . . and most of them will raise up the next generation to hate those whom they identify as the cause of their suffering . . . and the cycle will go on, for ever and ever, until the world ends.
We cannot ‘kill them all and let God sort them out‘ (and let it never be forgotten that those obscene, inhuman instructions were reportedly issued, not by a Muslim fundamentalist, but by an Abbott and Papal Legate of the Catholic Church). There are too many of ‘them’ to kill them all, just as ‘they’ can never kill all of ‘us’. We cannot kill our way out of terrorism. We cannot kill our way out of the dilemma of being human, with all the tragedy that entails.
May God have mercy on us all.
I have no answers – nobody does. Perhaps the author of Ecclesiastes came close, in Chapter 9, verse 3. I don’t know that it applies to all of us, but it certainly fits terrorists:
This is an evil in all that is done under the sun: that one thing happens to all. Truly the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil; madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead.
May Almighty God, by whatever name we know the Deity, have mercy on all who died in the New Zealand attacks, and also on us, who must strive – sometimes in vain – to make sense of it all. May we not be driven to the same evil as the attackers, in thought, or word, or deed.
Peter
Well thanks for all the sanctimony Pete, but no thanks.
I am perfectly happy with the idea that radical moslem fundamentalists ARE animals, and that if we treat them like men they’ll only strike at us and hide behind our laws until they can do it again. And you can stow that crap about the war on terror too. There was no war on terror, the judiciary (and the entire democrat party) is infested with leftists that are terrorist symps. If we were to actually wage a meaningful war on terror we’d have to hang every second libertardian and liberal just to clean up our own house before we could go after the moslems.
The lesson here is that multicultural society doesn’t work, and either those feral mutts get banished back to their own lands or they will take ours.
"What's more, I guarantee you that right now, Muslim fundamentalist terrorists are outraged at this attack against their people, and are already planning a response in similar vein. It may be in New Zealand, or it may be elsewhere, but it will involve attacks against innocent non-Muslims in revenge for attacks against innocent Muslims."
The Muslims are going to kill or enslave us anyways. Their moon god has ordered them so to do, in no uncertain words. What part of this confuses people?
There are no "innocent Muslims", at least not over the age of eight. There are only enemies of our people, active(20%), supportive (70%), or passive (10%). We did not question the politics of every German soldier killed in the wars, nor of every civilian killed in bombing raids. Why should we be more discerning in an existential war with Islam, then we were in a political war with the Germans?
Oh, and Muslims in New Zealand are by no means innocent at all. They are heathen foreign invaders on Christian soil.
Christianity has been under attack by Islam for 1400 years. What part of this confuses people?
anyone notice that Ilyan Omar called Trump "not human"?
And the first three comments perfectly illustrate precisely what I was talking about. Congratulations, guys. Those are the reactions that will lead to retaliation, and counter-retaliation, and so on ad nauseam. I accept that many will regard that as natural, normal and only to be expected. Sadly, that's why the cycle of violence will never end.
@sdharms: Yes, I'd noticed. Again, a perfect illustration of what I was saying in 2015.
Oh bullchit.
If this hadn't happened first, someone would have drawn a Mohammed cartoon, or offended the religion of peace and it would have been white people getting gunned down instead. And you wouldn't even notice it. You're virtue signalling, Pastor.
This was done by a loon. When they do it, it is organized, it's deliberate, and I will guarantee you right now, Pete, that some moslem mutt in NZ was at the drawing board planning attacks long before this happened.
Spare us.
@Peter
The problem is that the old saying that it takes two to fight is wrong. As long as one side presses the fight the other side can either defend or submit.
In this vein, as long as the radical Islam exists and attacks us, there will be no peace.
So they plan new terror attacks in retaliation of these terror attacks?
Well, at least NOW they HAVE a reason, instead of some imagined slight.
But THAT is the whole difference.
They would have planned the attacks either way.
And until we destroy the resolve of the djihadists they will continue so.
"We cannot kill our way out of terrorism. We cannot kill our way out of the dilemma of being human, with all the tragedy that entails."
All humans are not the same. Different human populations have evolved with different cognitive personality and behavioral traits. The fruit of diversity is ultimately war. In a representative democracy, as Zman said. "It's HBD or diversity, but not both."
Peter, I, too pray for the victims of this tragedy.
I also pray for the perpetrators. Their souls must be so sick and twisted to be able to carry out these acts that only the ever-lasting love of our Savior can rescue them now. Granted, I don't hold out much hope that such monsters will seek redemption; they obviously feel justified in their actions, but miracles can happen.
And Glen, if you want to hang *this* libertar"d"ian, you better bring a buncha friends and a lot of ammo.
The islamists will attack us regardless.
If we don't retaliate they will attack us.
If we retaliate they will attack us.
Retaliation will not make them our enemy, they already believe we are the enemy no matter what we do. It may be possible to curtail their attacks by a retaliatory attack which is so devastating, that the muslims will start to police themselves.
We have the ability to destroy continents and is quite probable this may be the only option left to convince them to stop the constant terrorist attacks against non believers. It should be obvious they do not respect our being "reasonable" as they only respect strength.
It is sad it has come to this but we have had 1400 years of islam attacking the west and trying to convert people by the sword. They must learn to just leave us alone. Then we would leave them alone.
Paul in Texas
it is a fallen world
conflict will continue until the end
Jesus said, 'and yet these things must be.'.
mohammedanism is demonic and the devil never sleeps.
as long as that population remains in their false religion there will always be conflict.
a lady i knew from middle east told me you could be with a moslem as jonathan with daved but if the imam said 'kill your friend.'. the moslem would kill his friend without blinking an eye.
she saw this herself in her country, so it is true.
raise up a child in the way that he should go… those raised in evil usually continue in it, it is human nature
that is why Christians need to fast and repent so that the fallen human nature does not lead us around by the nose, but so that we may do the will of God, instead.
Now, I understand both your's (Peter G) and the other's viewpoints, but…
Part of me is thinking that once all the forensics and deep probing is finished, the shooters will be found to have some ties to islam. I know, so far it looks like 'radical' Christians, but I have gotten very suspicious of the first reports on anything 'terrorist' related. Like it may be a larger, darker version of the many 'hijab grabbing' events that have all been proven to be false…
And, well, New Zealand has been very good at covering up any and all negative reports of Islamic immigrants in New Zealand. So we don't know all the sides of this. We don't know how far the peaceful immigrants have pushed and pulled (and raped, and abused, and and and) the New Zealanders.
We don't have all the facts yet. Yet. Right now, this is a case of everyone needs to hold their horses till all the clues come in.
But, well, the religion of pieces won't.
If this is the pushback from the 'radical Christian element,' then it isn't like it's not expected, considering all the evil the peaceful practicioners have brought to every inch of soil they've set their sights and feet on.
Oops. I'm sorry, I misspoke. The primary shooter self-labels as an 'Eco-Fascist' so according his own definition he is a left-wing nutburger. Ah. Once again a not-conservative uses a gun to get conservatives in trouble.
Dang it. It's like crazy leftists who commit crimes using guns are the problem…
Islam and western civilization are incompatible. The presence of muslims in Europe/USA will cause violence – primarily muslim on western, occasionally western on muslim. There are plenty of non-violent muslims, but they do not police their own population and do not resist or impede radicals who wish to do us harm. There are three paths forward: Returning muslims to their homelands, accepting a level of intermittent violence, or utter submission to islam.
Our first war as a nation was with Islam. This whole subject is really getting old. Ban Islamics in all Western Civ nations and lands. Send them all back to their home land. Let the middle east stew on it's own, we don't need their oil, why give them our money? Multi-culti is an abject failure, with Moslems as the pinnicle of "don't fit". Why keep beating our heads against the wall any longer?
The problem with NZ is the same with most all the British lands, pretty much. To be PC, they will hide evidence of crimes by "others". Actually, this is a common action by most nations, as they don't want to frighten off the tourists, so official crime records are so much hogwash. The US may be the sole exception to this, or nearly.
The Hatfields and McCoys writ large.
Then again, there is a clash of civilizations.
Notice the media is putting this stupid crap about 'white nationalism' to blame. Only a poop head could believe that of course. Look for attacks on gun owners and 'white' nationalist.
The worst part was the nutter invoking popular Youtuber Felix Kjellberg (better known as Pewdiepie), leading to a spate of imbeciles blaming HIM for the shooting. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.
Do you ever get the desire to just lock all the nutbars in one asylum and let them kill each other?
Muslims besieged and conquered Jerusalem in 636-637 in retaliation for what?
Muslims conquered Christian North Africa in retaliation for what?
Muslims invaded and conquered Spain in retaliation for what?
Muslims attacked Vienna twice in retaliation for what?
Muslims conquered India and murdered 600 million Hindus in retaliation for what?
Islam has been at war with the ENTIRE WORLD for 1,400 years. They don't need an excuse to attack us. Their moon god has commanded them so to do, as detailed in their unholy book.
Christ said turn the other cheek. He also said to sell your robe and buy a sword. Our gracious host may be a pacifist, willing to excuse our mortal and spiritual enemies and kneel in submission before them. I am not. I am also not afraid to speak the truth. Islam is evil. Muslims and Christians cannot coexist in proximity to one another.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-47018747
This attack that killed 20 Catholics in a cathedral in the PI is obviously in retaliation to the atrocities committed against Muslims by Christians in New Zealand yesterday. Oh, wait, it happened six weeks ago?
Funny how this wasn't widely reported in the news. It's almost like they have an agenda to hide atrocities committed by the "religion of peace".
I am saddend knowing that Jesus told us to love one another.
However as a pastor I follow said so eloquently… what about the 11 odd Christian martys that die day by day all over the world? The media is horrendously quite about this.
https://www.persecution.org/2019/03/14/boko-haram-attacks-christian-village-destroys-church/
This too…. unreported. More of the same.
Beans: as a Kiwi who reads the news and blogs (both left and right) I'm pretty certain there hasn't been any organised coverup of "negative reports of Muslim immigrants".
Granted, there are very few, but that might be because most muslims in NZ are refugees who just want to get away from the incessant fighting.
I can tell you that muslims who commit crimes get treated exactly the same way (under our law) as any other ethnic/cultural group. NZ society as a whole wouldn't stand for it.
"you cannot kill them all and let God sort them out"
Shh, don't tell Curtis Lemay.
Read the news in Nigeria lately Peter. I like your stuff but at some point Christians fought back in Europe but we cannot? Umm ok.. I must have missed your recipe for integrating Muslims into Christian Societies, I'll wait..