Nachtwulf wrote:Don't let the media paint this as a religious terrorist attack.
The guy's father even stated it was purely because he was homophobic. He wasn't observing Ramadan or anything. Because his name is 'Omar' the media wants to report it as religious based terrorism (because YAY MORE WAR LOL) and not as the simple (if horrible) hate crime that it is.
I would take anything the guy's father said with a LARGE grain of salt.
His father once ran for president of Afghanistan and was an avid supporter (it's all on record) of the Taliban.
The son was a regular at the mosque.
he was homophobic.. and guess where he learned to hate LGBT people? it didn't just pop up out of thin air.
it was indoctrinated into him via his religion.
the shooter HAD been investigated for potential terrorist links in the past, but not enough information was available for the police to do anything about it.
There's NO reason to let someone get away with a religiously-motivated terror attack simply because we are afraid to put the blame squarely where it belongs: on religious fundamentalism. And I am not aiming at any specific faith, but at ALL faiths that have fundamentalist factions.
An ultra-orthodox Jew killed an innocent 16yr old girl during pride in Israel. He had already been in jail for violence during previous pride events.
There are innumerable accounts of violence against LGBT people by (so-called) Christian fundamentalists.
Hell, the majority of Republican presidential wannabes in this year's race have at some point or other espoused views that would have LGBT people either jailed or killed.
NO single faith is innocent.
The minute ultra-orthodoxy/fundamentalism is allowed to flourish within the walls of a religious institution, that is the minute that ALL members of that institution must take responsibility for allowing it to happen.