The Boston Massacre & Drone Strikes 4-26-13

26, April 2013 The Boston Massacre & Drone Strikes

The emergence of the Tsarnaev brothers as the architects of the Boston massacre raises troubling questions of their inability to assimilate and the accelerated pace in which they morphed from ‘innocent’ immigrants into dangerous terrorists. There is little doubt that the Imams delivering sermons in Mosques can exert enormous influence on their adherents – good or bad. The deafening silence of Muslim religious leaders to condemn these acts of violence is troubling. Does Islam condone the killing of innocent people?  The concept of jihad has been grossly abused. Surely, its intended meaning is to overcome the evil that resides within each one of us not an external foe.  Islamic clerics need to clarify the concept of jihad to discourage other ‘Tsarnaev’s’ who might be lurking in the shadows. Equally troubling is the tone deaf response from key Senators to Farea al-Muslimi, a young Yemeni activist for his earnest plea to end drone strikes in his country. al-Muslimi presented a searing eyewitness account of the enormous suffering that drone attacks unleash on ordinary people’s lives. His family’s village of Wessab was hit by a drone strike leaving five people dead and a strong residue of visceral hatred of the U.S. The shredded bodies of the victims were beyond recognition. Villagers are now so fearful of leaving their homes lest they be become the next victim of the unmanned monsters in the sky. I urge readers to call the White House and their Representatives and demand an end to these drone attacks.