An act of terrorism at UNC-Chapel Hill?
Thank God no one was killed on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus today.
Not that the driver of a rented SUV didn't try. He struck nine people, including eight students, near the Student Union this afternoon.
Possible motive, according to the News & Observer of Raleigh: Revenge against Americans for their treatment of Muslims.
The suspect, Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar, 22, is a native of Iran and a December UNC grad.
Why would he target random UNC students? What have they done to Muslims? Carolina is one of the most tolerant communities anywhere in the world. ...
... Although, the Daily Tar Heel recently published a cartoon depicting the prophet Muhammad.
And it ran a column last year that, in a satirical vein, called for ethnic profiling of Arabs. After protests were received, the columnist was fired.
Nevertheless, an act of violence aimed at innocent people with a political objective is terrorism. It's inexcusable for any reason -- even publication of cartoons or articles someone finds offensive.
This wasn't a rational act. But, given the escalation of irrational violence of the world, it must be seen as a warning.
It's time for everyone, especially political and religious leaders, to speak out against violence, revenge and hatred before a lot more harm is done.
Comments (6)
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I hope this gets the press coverage it deserves. It may not be another 9/11, but it's a Muslim extremist attack against those that don't think like he does.
Wake up, folks. It's here and it's gonna be here unless we fight it.
Posted on March 4, 2006 10:38 AM
Doug, Tell this to the Greensboro Muslim community leaders. Who knows that their silly protest over silly cartoons didn’t influence this young man to commit this act. What do they have to say to this? Isn’t their silence on violence in the name of Islam approval after all? Christians and others can not stop this Muslim violence or hatred, only Muslims can police their own and they are failing to do so.
Posted on March 4, 2006 11:40 AM
Pack him up, ship him back to where he came from. That's the only cure for people like him. If he don't appreciate the fact that we have freedom of the press, (well sometimes) and freedom of speech then he doesn't need to be in this country.
Posted on March 4, 2006 12:19 PM
What a silly world we live in when the cartoon is seen as a greater crime than the violent reaction to it. Soon, politically correct censorship will be applauded and encouraged as an accepted method of preventing irrational violence.
Posted on March 5, 2006 1:32 AM
Sam that is just one of the very things the individual in Denmark was testing when he decided to run the cartoons. It seems that the most simple of words can be deemed to be "hate speech" by the politically correct crowd in that country and they have gotten the laws passed. The same type keep trying here but so far they have failed or we will see simular backlashes occuring over the most simple things spoken, written or drawn.
Posted on March 5, 2006 9:50 AM
Authorities now are saying this action was not in response to the DTH's publication of the cartoon but for Muslims in general.
Here's a very basic problem that I see: This young man has lived in the U.S. for many years, and was educated at North Carolina's top state university. From outward appearances, it might seem he was becoming an American. Yet he chose to identify with Muslim causes to such an extent that he would commit an act of violence against Americans just because they are Americans, whom he seems to regard as enemies of Muslims.
This is one reason why it's important for immigrant communities to become as integrated as possible into American society and culture.
Posted on March 6, 2006 8:32 AM