PASTOR MARTIN NIEMÖLLER’s famous quote: "When they came for ...”1 is, sadly, applicable for houses of worship around the world.
After the Chabad House shooting in Poway CA on Shabat on 27 April, police claim to have found a virulently anti-Semitic “open letter” published by the gunman on the far-right forum 8chan. The letter was reportedly similar to a document published on the same platform by the suspect arrested after the terrorist attack inside two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand last month.2
MEANWHILE, in Mount Royal, Canada, a knife-wielding man attacked a Catholic priest as the priest was saying mass. 3 The priest received non-life threatening injuries and was back on the job quickly.
In all the attacks (ibid.), only one person was responsible for killing and maiming innocent people.
Add to the attacks in New Zealand, Poway, and Mount Royal, the attack on the Pittsburgh synagogue.
“Church may be one of our last places of refuge. Now it’s as if that is even being challenged,” said Joey Spann, the pastor of Burnette Chapel Church of Christ near Nashville. Spann was shot in the hand and chest on Sept. 24. That Sunday, a 25-year-old former congregant waited in the parking lot for people to leave the morning service then opened fire, killing a mother of two and injuring seven others. 4
2012 Six people were killed at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin in 2012
- In 2012, a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wis., was getting ready for Sunday services when an armed man walked in and started firing.
Congregants ran for shelter and barricaded themselves in bathrooms and prayer halls, where they made desperate phone calls and sent anguished texts pleading for help as confusion and fear took hold.
The gunman, Wade M. Page, an Army veteran with ties to white supremacist groups, killed himself.
2015 Nine people were killed at a historic black church in South Carolina in 2015.
- In 2015, a white gunman killed nine black parishioners at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston, S.C.
Dylann S. Roof, a self-radicalized white supremacist, confessed to the killings.
2017 26 people were killed at a Texas church in 2017
- Law enforcement authorities have said the shooting might have stemmed from a dispute between Mr. Kelley and his mother-in-law.
Among those killed were several children, the pastor’s 14-year-old daughter and eight members of a single family.
2018
11 Killed in 2018 Synagogue Massacre; Suspect Charged With 29 Counts
- Armed with an AR-15-style assault rifle and at least three handguns, a man shouting anti-Semitic slurs opened fire inside a Pittsburgh synagogue Saturday morning, killing at least 11 congregants and wounding four police officers and two others, the authorities said.
In a rampage described as among the deadliest against the Jewish community in the United States, the assailant stormed into the Tree of Life Congregation, where worshipers had gathered in separate rooms to celebrate their faith, and shot indiscriminately into the crowd, shattering what had otherwise been a peaceful morning.
Preceding from http://tinyurl.com/yb5q8uhq
2019 New Zealand Mosque Massacres
- At least forty-nine people were killed and dozens injured in shootings at two mosques in New Zealand's second-largest city of Christchurch on Friday (March 15) in what Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said was a well-planned terror attack, forcing the government to place the country on its highest security threat level.
ELSEWHERE IN THE WORLD (http://tinyurl.com/y6sqkp35)
- Oct. 31, 2010 - Baghdad : Al-Qaida in Iraq militants attack Our Lady of Salvation Catholic Church in Baghdad during Sunday night mass, killing 58 people in the deadliest assault targeting Christians since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion there. Al-Qaida in Iraq later became the Islamic State group.
Dec. 15, 2010 - Iran: Two suicide bombers from the Sunni extremist group Jundallah blow themselves up near a mosque in southeastern Iran, including six Revolutionary Guard commanders.
July 16, 2010 - Iran: Jundallah group kills 27 and injures 270 after it carries out a double suicide bombing against another Shiite mosque in southeastern Iran.
Nov. 18, 2014 - Israel: Two "Palestinians" using axes, knives and a gun kill four Jewish worshipers and an Israeli police officer in an attack on a Jerusalem synagogue.
Jan. 30, 2015 - Pakistan: Suicide bombing at a Shiite mosque in the Pakistani town of Shikarpur kills 71. Jundullah claims responsibility.
March 20, 2015 - Yemen: Islamic State suicide bombers attack a pair of mosques in Yemen’s capital, unleashing monstrous blasts that ripped through worshipers and killed 137 people.
Sept. 24, 2015 - Yemen: A suicide bomber strikes a mosque in Yemen’s rebel-held capital, killing 25 worshipers during prayers for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.
Nov. 12, 2016 - Pakistan: Suicide bomber from Islamic State group kills over 50 at the shrine of Shah Noorani, in Pakistan’s Baluchistan province.
Dec. 11, 2016 - Cairo: Suicide bomber strikes inside a Cairo chapel adjacent to St. Mark’s Cathedral, seat of Egypt’s ancient Coptic Orthodox Church. The Islamic State group claimed the attack, which killed at least 25 people.
Jan. 29, 2017 -Quebec City: A gunman killed six men during evening prayers at the Islamic Cultural Centre in Quebec City. Alexandre Bissonnette pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and attempted murder charges and was sentenced to serve 40 years in prison before being eligible for parole.
Feb. 16, 2017 - Pakistan: Suicide bomber detonates his explosives vest among the devotees at the shrine of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar in Pakistan’s Sindh province, killing 98.
April 9, 2017 - Egypt: Twin suicide bombings rock churches in the Egyptian coastal city of Alexandria and Tanta, killing at least 45 people. The attack was claimed by the Islamic State group.
June 15, 2017 - Afghanistan: A suicide bomber kills four people at a Shiite mosque in Afghanistan’s capital city of Kabul. Among the dead is a leader of Afghanistan’s ethnic Hazaras, who are mostly Shiite Muslims.
Aug. 1, 2017 - Afghanistan: A suicide bomber storms into the largest Shiite mosque in Afghanistan’s western Herat province, opening fire on worshipers before blowing himself up, killing at least 90 people. Hundreds more were wounded in the attack, which happened during evening prayers.
Aug. 3, 2018 - Afghanistan: Suicide bombers disguised in burqa robes attack a Shiite mosque in eastern Afghanistan, killing 27 people.
Aug. 25, 2017 - Kabul: Militants storm a packed Shiite mosque in Kabul during Friday prayers. The attack ends with at least 28 worshipers killed and 50 wounded, many of them children. Two of the assailants blow themselves up and another two are shot dead by Afghan security forces.
Sept. 29, 2017 - Kabul: A suicide bomber blows himself up outside a Shiite mosque in Kabul, killing five. The attack took place as worshipers were leaving the mosque after Friday prayers.
Oct. 20, 2017: The Islamic State group claims a suicide bomber attack, killing 31 and wounding 29 people, at a Shiite mosque in Kabul.
Nov. 24, 2017 - Egypt: Militants kill 311 worshipers in a mosque attack in north Sinai, the deadliest such terrorist attack in Egypt’s modern history.
Dec. 17, 2017 - Pakistan: Islamic State attack on a church in Pakistani city of Quetta kills 16 people.
Jan. 27, 2019 - Philippines: Two suicide attackers detonate two bombs during a Mass in a Roman Catholic cathedral on the largely Muslim island of Jolo in the southern Philippines, killing 23 and wounding about 100 others. Three days later, an attacker hurls a grenade in a mosque in nearby Zamboanga city, killing two religious teachers.
Apr. 22, 2019 - Sri Lanka: Suicide bombers struck churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, killing more than 290 people in a highly coordinated attack targeting Christians and foreigners that left this island nation reeling. (http://tinyurl.com/y2v99zxc)
The Islamic State claimed responsibility on Tuesday for the Easter Sunday bombings at churches and hotels in Sri Lanka, as the government there raised the number of people killed to 321. The group’s Amaq news agency called the bombers “Islamic State fighters.” (http://tinyurl.com/y2v99zxc)
President Donald Trump offered his condolences and condemned the San Diego shooting. “Our entire nation mourns the loss of life, prays for the wounded, and stands in solidarity with the Jewish community,” he said. “We forcefully condemn the evil of anti-Semitism and hate, which must be defeated.”
This attack, like the attack in Pittsburgh and attacks elsewhere, was preceded by threatening messages on the internet; messages posted by the attackers; messages that apparently — like the 9-11 (2001) rantings and those before mass murders at U.S. schools — went unnoticed or simply were ignored.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) tweeted about the shooting in her home state: “Coming just six months after the horrific mass shooting at Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, we are confronted with what appears to be another anti-Semitic attack. We all stand with the Jewish community against this act of hate.” 2
- I wonder if Ms. Pelosi would call another attack on a mosque (following the attack in New Zealand) “what appears to be” an anti-Islamist attack. It is interesting to note the absolute silence from Reps. Omar, Tlaib, and Ocasio-Cortez, and Sen. Bernie Sanders regarding the attacks by Islamist terrorists against Christians, Jews, and their fellow Muslims.
References
1. First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
2. http://tinyurl.com/y29adf4s
3. http://tinyurl.com/y4rluy9l
4. http://tinyurl.com/yywwf86j
PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.
Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.
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