What does the emergence of a man like Norway’s mass killer and self-professed Tempar Knight Anders Breivik mean? This editorial from Germany’s Berliner Morgenpost outlines the striking similarities between two men that would appear at first glance to be polar opposites.
The editorial from Germany’s Berliner Morgenpost says in part:
Although he calls himself a Knight Templar, killing and not the Bible was what mattered to him. The message of Christianity would have hindered him in his need to elevate himself to the imaginary nobility of a murderous “savior.” He ignores the one billion Muslims who are not terrorists and the millions of Muslims who live peacefully in Europe. We may assume that Breivik wasn’t acquainted with Muslims as fellow human beings or friends, but merely as caricatures of his own design.
Osama bin Laden was the same. He once said that Christians, especially American Christians, had killed millions of Muslims. Therefore, several million Christians would now be killed to restore balance. Bin Laden said this at a time that the West, particularly the United States, was protecting Muslims in the Balkans, providing disaster relief to Islamic countries, and supporting the Palestinian desire for a viable state. For bin Laden, it was killing that was important, not the Quran.
For such madmen, individuals with their personal happiness, feelings, tragedy and potential for change do not exist. People like Breivik assume that every child of a Muslim family will automatically become an enemy. Breivik and bin Laden cannot imagine that there are people who grow up and live without hate, because they themselves were incapable of existing without it.
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