Mall Shooting

[AlexMack]

Originally Posted by shinerbock

I think it is interesting that the person is Muslim. It may or may not have been the motive, but its amazing how you'll only hear this fact on conservative talk radio. CNN is now reporting that he is a survivor of a travesty in Bosnia. I realize this is an interesting development, but it seems odd to me how they'll go out of their way to discuss someone's troubled past, but skim over a possible motive. PC at its worst.

I've met and hung out extensively with Bosnian muslims. They do not wear their religion on their sleeve like the middle-easterners we're used to seeing. They try to blend in and be as normal as possible. I just cannot see religion as a motive in this at all. He was a very disturbed young man. The stories I've heard about the Bosnian war are a little horrific, so it's possible it affected him more than anyone knew, or he was just going to be like this no matter what or where he was living.

[shinerbock]

Centaur, I'm not saying yes or no, but I think you saying that about an entire branch of a religion would be like me automatically assuming it was his motive. I understand the reasoning behind not painting this person as a violent muslim without the facts, but its almost as though new orgs go out of their way to avoid mentioning that someone is a muslim. Its not the media's job to keep people from jumping to conclusions, its there job to give an unbiased version of the factual information (I know, this is pretty much impossible now).

Even more than this instance, I just think its pathetic how the media tip toes around the fact that a person is muslim. I absolutely guarantee you that if the shooter was a far right wing anti abortion activist, it would be a factor before now. At some point we need to begin having honest dialogue about the dangers involved in parts of the muslim community and stop using kid gloves on everything. God knows we have no problem getting to the core of problems with other religions.

Side note, RA, yeah, tons of Christians go "postal" in the name of Christianity. Happens all the time...

[SydneyK]

Originally Posted by shinerbock

At some point we need to begin having honest dialogue about the dangers involved in parts of the muslim community and stop using kid gloves on everything.

What about the dangers involved in parts of the Christian community? Or the Atheist community? Or the Mormon community?

I don't think the media is using kid gloves here; I think they're reporting only the aspects of the case that are actually factors in what happened. Like others have said, since it doesn't appear that his religion is the motive behind the action, it only makes sense that it (his religion) isn't broadcast.