Jefferson Review

"Your Liberty is Our Interest"

Home /  Archives / Search / Links / Quotes / Book Reviews / Advertise /Contact us / Subscribe / Calendar

Nick Berg’s Murder

By Theresa Fritz Camoriano

Nick Berg’s killers shouted “God is great” and then proceeded to cut his head off.  By all accounts, Berg was an innocent civilian who had done no harm to his killers.  According to World Magazine, a similar situation also recently occurred in Pakistan, where a university student named Javed Anjum died on May 2 at the hands of the leaders of an Islamic seminary.  Anjum had stopped to drink from a tap outside the seminary and was kidnapped by the seminary leaders.  He was beaten and tortured to death after they learned he was Christian. The abuse “included electrical shocks to his ears, a broken right arm and fingers, and ripped-out fingernails.  His death on May 2 was the result of kidney failure from the injuries.”  What kind of “religion” uses God’s name as a basis for murdering innocent civilians?  Where is the moral outrage?

While many in the media think they are being “fair” by pretending that there is some kind of equivalence between fundamentalist Christians and these radical Islamic murderers, it is clear that there is no equivalence.  These terrorists believe that they have a moral right to kill anyone who does not follow Islam, while the most radical Christians risk their own lives seeking to share the “good news” and to convert people voluntarily, without the use of force.  For those who have trouble seeing the difference, consider whether you would prefer to have someone 1. offer you a free bible or 2. beat you and kill you.  The difference is so stark and shocking that most of us really cannot understand it, but there it is.

In all the political posturing and outrage about the sick and shameful occurrences at the Abu Ghraib prison, which have caused tremendous damage, we must not forget that there are many people who will continue to be at war with us, no matter what we do.  They want to kill us.  They would love to poison a water supply, or detonate a dirty bomb, or fly over a large gathering of people with a crop duster spewing poison and kill 50,000 or more innocent people.  It is impossible for us to understand the motivation of such people and how any “religion” could promote such evil deeds.  Yes, the U.S. has made serious mistakes, both at the Abu Ghraib prison and in its many years of intrusive foreign policies.  Certainly, we should strive to correct our errors, but those errors do not justify the killing thousands of innocent people.  While the terrorists may say that Abu Ghraib was the reason for killing Nick Berg, they were killing innocent people before the U.S. invaded Iraq and before the Abu Ghraib pictures, and they will continue to strive to kill more innocent people no matter what we do.  We must not forget all the innocent victims of the terrorists, from the innocent people who were murdered at the Munich Olympics to those who were in the World Trade Center on 9/11, to Nick Berg, Javed Anjum, and many others.  If we think we can just walk away from this war and live happily ever after, we are dreaming.  We can either defend ourselves against the terrorists or see many more innocent people murdered at their hands. 

Weather (Louisville) / Mapquest / Search / White Pages / Business Search / CNN / Dictionary / E-card / MSN