Boston Marathon bombings

photo credit: Werner Kunz via photopin cc

Boston, Massachusetts!  Such a beautiful city, by reputation a highly desirable place to live and its high cost of living doesn't seem to have deterred its 7.6 million inhabitants.  Situated across the river from Cambridge home to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the world famous Harvard, the city this week was marred by a despicable act of terrorism.

Trial by media is a dangerous precedent but all the indications are that two young men, originally from Chechnya chose a despicable path.  The Boston Marathon bombings on Monday were shocking and the motivation still a mystery.  By all accounts, the Tsarnaev brothers were welcomed by America, given scholarships, a home, good education but most importantly a safe shelter away from war torn Chechnya in the 1990's.   The older brother has a history of violence, arrested in 2009 for domestic assault and battery and the media has hinted about him mysteriously spending 6 months in Russia last year and "nobody knows why".  Thereby saying much without saying anything at all and now Russia is guilty by implication too!  Wars and hatred are so easily fed!

photo credit: hahatango via photopin cc

Why perpetrate such a heinous crime? We may never know, there may never be a trial and we may have no choice but to trust the FBI and the media when they tell us these two men are truly guilty and that they have no co-conspirators.  Has it been proven conclusively?  No, but the facts as presented certainly appear to point in that direction.

By the end of the week, one lies in a morgue, first shot by the police, but allegedly dead as a result of being run over by his younger brother.  The second, captured but with a serious throat injury leaving him unable to talk.  Convenient perhaps?

And so to the victims, three dead from the bombings and a young MIT police officer gunned down in a shoot out on Friday.  So many horrifically injured and so many lives ruined.  Jeff Bauman is clearly a hero, a man who lost both of his legs below the knee and yet found time to help the FBI identify at least one of the suspects.  His son too has lost both of his legs in the bombing.  How do you recover from this?  I was disgusted and appalled to see that he will be left to meet his own medical expenses.  WHAT THE?????  Amidst the physical and mental trauma, Jeff and the other 14 victims who lost limbs, are expected to fund their own medical expenses, inevitably hundreds of thousands of dollars each.

The 176 people injured as a result of this terrible crime should not have to face the added stress of finding money for medical treatment.  Surely a country that can spend trillions of dollars on war can find the money to treat these innocent victims!  Will Dzhokar Tsarnaev also have to fund his own medical treatment or will he and his family receive compensation for loss of life at the hands of the FBI?

America, for a country that has so much, surely it is time to reassess some of your values? 

.... and so to next week... no doubt the blame game will commence... it already has.... which Muslim cleric influenced these men?  Which anti-terrorist organisation failed to monitor their email or internet activity?  Why did they let him go when they arrested him in 2011 (after Russia allegedly asked for him to be investigated).  Outside of influence and failure to prevent their actions, if guilty, they made the choice.  They decided to take this action, nobody did it for them.

So now the authorities have yet more reason to curb freedom of the innocent, all in the name of anti-terrorism.......

This is Democracy

What the!!!

Death threats to UK's top Muslim MP who voted for gay marriage

I hope Mr Khan does not fall victim to the pressures brought about by his religious choices.  He is clearly somebody able to separate blind religious belief from political independent choice.  Britain cannot allow Islam, Christianity or any other religious institution, large or small to mandate how people live and Church and State must remain separate.

Issuing a ruling against Mr Khan in the name of his religion attempts to remove his independence when attending Parliament.  I would suggest Mr Bandhalevi should take some lessons in understanding the culture and society he has chosen to be a part of.  If he prefers a society where his fatwa is acceptable, then he must relocate to a country that operates under religious law.  Britain does not, it is a democracy and his attempt to change it through fear is simply unacceptable.  It has taken many hundreds of years and a lot of suffering for Britain to evolve her political systems independent of religious influence.  It is vital that this independence is retained.

What Mr Bandhalevi apparently fails to appreciate is that it is the very nature of British culture that allows extremist websites such as the one quoted in the article to exist and him to speak out.  If I try to imagine a  scenario where an atheist, agnostic or even a Christian expressed similar views, in a country governed by Islamic law I can't help but believe it would result in a quick beheading! 

Bigoted views and sinister death threats contribute to racism.

Multi-cultural societies are the next phase for the human race and the only way this can be achieved is to learn to respect each others ways, not try and force others to live as you do.  Threatening to kill somebody if they don't see things your way is, quite frankly, out dated, antediluvian nonsense and it has no place in the future of the UK or any other Western nation.