According to an Associated Press release reported in a local newspaper this morning, "Official: Investigators Know Identities of at Least Three,"1 by Tom Hays and Devlin Barrett, one of the terror suspects, arrested in connection with a bombing plot that seems to have targeted mass transit in the New York area, is "an Afghan immigrant with ties to Pakistan" who "had once worshipped" at a mosque in Queens.Now, prompted by Steven Weinberg's observation that "with or without religion good people will behave well and bad people will do evil things, but for good people to do evil things, that takes religion," I have two questions:
Is this a good man who was [allegedly] involved in an evil deed because of the influence of the Muslim religion?
Or is he a bad man who would have been involved even if he hadn't perhaps read in the Qur'an:God's curse be upon the infidels. [2:89]
They have incurred God's most inexorable wrath. An ignominious punishment awaits [them]. [2:90]
God is the enemy of the unbelievers. [2:98]
Theirs shall be a woeful punishment. [2:175]
Slay them wherever you find them. [2:190]
Let the believers not make friends with infidels in preference to the faithful. [3:28]
Believers, do not make friends with any but your own people. [3:118]2
Actually, a third question comes to mind:Was it merely a coincidence that the 9/11 hijackers seem to have been Muslims or come from an Islamic culture (that of Saudi Arabia)?Similarly,
Were they good men involved in those evil deeds because of the pernicious influence of their religion?_______________
Or were they bad men who would have been involved even if they hadn't perhaps studied their "holy book"?
- Published in The Herald-Sun, Durham, North Carolina
- Thanks to Sam Harris for the five-page list of such quotations provided in his 2004 book, The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason.
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