Tuesday, April 12, 2005

Actually, No

Power Line has a report from the Jerusalem Post about the beating death of Yusra al-Azzami, a 22-year-old university student from the Gaza Strip. Reacting to the horrific sight, one bystander said "This does not represent Islam."

Wrong. In the very first line of the article, Hamas states they are "operating a 'vice and virtue commando' in the Gaza Strip to safeguard Islamic values, Palestinian security officials and residents told The Jerusalem Post." If the group itself claims the name of Islam, their actions do represent Islam. Now it can be debated whether or not it is an accurate representation of the group as a whole, but it is a representation.

There are any number of examples of people "representing" a belief system particularly well (ex. Mother Teresa) or notoriously poorly (ex. David Koresh). I know a couple of environmentalists who represent their ideals in a relatively level-headed manner, but that's not enough to offset the tree-spiking terrorists who also represent environmentalism.

So if this beating was an isolated incident, it could be dismissed as an inaccurate representation. But since this is only the most recent barbaric act in a decades-long campaign of terror, it seems quite accurate. I will be glad to acknowledge any counterexamples if there are any, but I won't hold my breath waiting for them.

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