§ Vignette: A Duet
In 1955 the great English actor Charles Laughton directed his first and only film, Night of the Hunter, starring Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters, and Lillian Gish. The screenplay was written by Pulitzer Prize winning American author James Agee, and is framed by a direction inspired by German expressionist cinema of the 1920s.
In the story we learn that an itinerant “preacher” intends mortal harm to two children in order to steal their dead father’s ill-gotten money, but the children manage to escape him by stealing a boat and taking to the river. In the morning, having drifted all night in their skiff upon the gently rocking waters and been lulled to sleep by the protective movement of the current, they awaken to find themselves cast up on the riverbank by the house of an old woman, who takes them in, bathes them, and begins the long journey of watching over yet two more children roaming around lost against the backdrop of post-depression America.
The Preacher, however, proves to be a consummate predator, and is able to track the children to the Old Woman’s home; but in the open light of day the Old Woman, convincingly spicing up her argument with a shot-gun, successfully chases away the predacious Preacher, who hastens to regain his horse all the while vociferating against her, taking scriptural language—God’s own speech tones, to represent the rightness of his claim to feed on the innocent children, screeching out his protestations on the wing: “The Lord God Jehovah will guide my hand in vengeance,” “You devils,” “You whores of Babylon,” and promising her ominously that he will be back--- “when it is dark.”
The scene: dead of night; the hunt is on. The Preacher-predator waits outside the house for weariness and inattention to lull his intended victims. The old woman sits waiting quietly in a rocking chair on the front porch, silhouetted against the darkness, a rifle at the ready across her lap. In an insightful scene of pure brilliance, Laughton juxtaposes against the vulnerable backdrop of sinister darkness, Good (the protective Old Woman-Lillian Gish), and Evil (the predatory Reverend–Robert Mitchum), one in the foreground and the other in the background, singing together a Christian hymn in a cappella harmony (@ 1:20:39-1:22 in the film the Old Woman gives answer to the hymn-intoning Reverend, singing responsively.) The frail Old Woman freely takes on the burden of becoming the children’s “everlasting arms,” sitting through the night with a rifle to protect the young ones against the coming of the thief in the night, while the Preacher, metaphorically depicted as the deadly, hawkish predator, hunts outside, patiently awaiting his prey under cover of darkness. His song, pitched in a beautiful baritone voice, awakens one of the young girls in the house, who is (ignorantly) drawn to its deadly prettiness. The Old Woman intervenes in the hunt, however, and her voice, which is broken and old, singing the counterpoint to the baritone – to contrast both the beauty, and falseness, of the Preacher’s song of predation, is the truer, because it flows out of an absolute commitment to care for the children.
The story is age-old – the frail and feeble in body, who yet remain strong in their determination to protect the innocent, are pitted against the strong in body, who are moved by a will to harm, to feed upon the vulnerable. In comedies, the feeble vanquish; in tragedies, they all perish miserably. In an irony ultimately as old as the world itself, the weak must prevail over the strong in order for the young and vulnerable to rest in the everlasting arms.
The title of the hymn that Laughton chose for this duet between Good and Evil is Leaning on the Everlasting Arms, which was originally published in 1887, and for which the obvious inspiration was Deuteronomy 33:27, "The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms."
Solo
[PREACHER sings solo: 1] Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms;
Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms.
[PREACHER sings solo: 2] What a fellowship, what a joy divine,
Leaning on the everlasting arms;
What a blessedness, what a peace is mine,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.
Duet
[PREACHER] Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms;
Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms.
[OLD WOMAN] Leaning on Jesus, leaning on Jesus, safe and secure from all alarms;
Leaning on Jesus, leaning on Jesus, leaning on the everlasting arms.
There is something mesmerizing about this duet-dual between Good and Evil. Not only because the Old Woman, feeble in body to stand against the strong young predacious Preacher, determines nonetheless in the midst of great physical isolation and solitude to make her stand, but also because the film-maker chooses, certainly counter-intuitively given the time, to depict Evil as flowing from the religious mind in the speech tones of the Almighty.
§ Vignette: Religion & Republic
It is just possible that the United States of America, which is after all a federal Republic—meaning essentially that there is no monarchy, is misinformed as to the exact nature of its status as a republic. An early and prevailing element of the American foundation myth as a republic is expressed in song, and perhaps nowhere so powerfully as in The Battle Hymn of the Republic. Originally composed in the early 1860s by Julia Ward Howe, this hymn is actually a song of theocracy – the rule of God on earth, and is not in any way, shape, or form a paean in celebration of the rule of enlightened men over an irrational world. That the song continues to have a powerful emotional influence over the hearts and minds of Americans was made evident, yet again, when Andy Williams, together with The St. Charles Borromeo Choir, sang the hymn on June 8, 1968 at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York at the memorial service for the assassinated Robert Kennedy, brother to the assassinated American president, John F. Kennedy.
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:
His truth is marching on.
(Chorus)
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.
He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat:
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet!
Our God is marching on.
(Chorus)
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.
In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me.
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
While God is marching on.
(Chorus)
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.
§ Vignette: Between Herod and a Hard Place
Herod Agrippa (11BC – 44 AD) has a somewhat schizophrenic place in the historical record: Christian historiography (cf. esp. the NT Book of Acts, ch. 12) is rather negative in its view of this monarch, describing him as a cruel ruler who actively persecuted the Church in Jerusalem, had James killed, and Peter imprisoned. Jewish historiography, on the other hand, has a more favorable opinion. Nota Bene: this Agrippa Herod is not the same Herod as the Antipater Herod mentioned in the Gospels, who authorized the execution of John the Baptist as a favor to an indulged daughter, and who played a de facto administrative role in the trial of Jesus. Nor is this first Agrippa-type Herod to be confused with the second of that name, who was his son, and who was asked by the Roman Procurator of Judea to assist in the trial of the Apostle Paul (Acts 25-26). This is clearly another instance of history being stranger than fiction.
Back to our Herod Agrippa, though: Acts 12:20-23 relates that a bunch of sycophants were busy comparing him to a god because he had successfully negotiated a difficult peace treaty; and because he did not give God the glory for the peace, “immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last.”
20 Now Herod was angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon, and they came to him with one accord, and having persuaded Blastus, the king's chamberlain, they asked for peace, because their country depended on the king's country for food. 21 On an appointed day Herod put on his royal robes, took his seat upon the throne, and delivered an oration to them. 22 And the people were shouting, “The voice of a god, and not of a man!” 23 Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down, because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last.
In Jewish Antiquities 19.8.2, 342ff, Josephus provides a little more detail describing the same less-than-charming end for this original King of the Jews:
Herod enters into the theater in Caesarea (circa 44 AD): There the silver of his garment, being illuminated by the fresh reflection of the sun's rays, shone out in a wonderful manner, and was so resplendent as to spread awe over those that looked intently upon him. Presently his flatterers cried out, one from one place, and another from another, (though not for his good) that he was a god; and they added, "Be thou merciful to us; for although we have hitherto reverenced thee only as a man, yet shall we henceforth own thee as superior to mortal nature." Upon this the king neither rebuked them nor rejected their impious flattery. But he shortly afterward looked up and saw an owl sitting on a certain rope over his head, and immediately understood that this bird was the messenger of ill tidings, just as it had once been the messenger of good tidings to him; and fell into the deepest sorrow. A severe pain arose in his belly, striking with a most violent intensity. He therefore looked upon his friends, and said, "I, whom you call a god, am commanded presently to depart this life; while Providence thus reproves the lying words you just now said to me; and I, who was by you called immortal, am immediately to be hurried away by death. But I am bound to accept what Providence allots, as it pleases God; for we have by no means lived ill, but in a splendid and happy manner." When he had said this, his pain became violent. Accordingly he was carried into the palace, and the rumor went abroad everywhere that he would certainly die soon. The multitude sat in sackcloth, men, women and children, after the law of their country, and besought God for the king's recovery. All places were also full of mourning and lamentation. Now the king rested in a high chamber, and as he saw them below lying prostrate on the ground he could not keep himself from weeping. And when he had been quite worn out by the pain in his belly for five days, he departed this life, being in the fifty-fourth year of his age and in the seventh year of his reign.
Now while we may find it perversely satisfying, even if only from our own rather long-in-the-tooth delusion/wish, hope/desire, that there might actually be some divine justice “out there” waiting to punish the bad guys with a jar full of pointy-fanged worms, and that some Just God might actually use malicious and malignant maggots to strike down “the wicked” and other diverse denizens of all the dens of iniquity one hears about, there are still definitely some problems in this scenario.
Perhaps the most significant of the difficulties on our reflective Lazy Susan is that this type of punishment does not reflect any meaningful conception of Justice. The applications of this method of justice are simply too inconsistent in the historical record—for every Herod Agrippa the Hand of God may have swatted down in antiquity, a contemporary Stalin, and Lenin, and Hitler, Himmler, Goebbels, and Mengele, and Pol Pot, and Idi Amin, and Saddam Hussein, and Robert Mugabe, and Ted Bundy, “and the list goes on,” goes to the grave worm free as far as the historical record is concerned.
Another little hitch on the Divine Justice front is that Herod Agrippa is, as far as the Christian record is concerned, supposedly being given the worm treatment because he accepted acclamation from a bunch of toadies, instead of passing that little tidbit of glory on to the Big Guy in the Sky. So, this story is really about a man basking in a bit of ego-feeding applause from a bunch of obsequious parasites, rather than for any prosecution of the young Christian Church in Jerusalem, or the death of James, or the imprisonment of Peter. The story of two ego-tripping losers, however, one mortal and the other Immortal, has little to recommend it as a tale of Justice and morality.
A second difficulty to our Herod Agrippa story is that God’s maggoty punishment, as imaginative and as deliciously agonizing as it may appear at first blush, is not reserved exclusively for the wicked. The divine Apothecary, it would seem, obviously no longer earmarks cancers and other such wormy diseases strictly for wicked folk. Rather, they seem to have become part of a much more democratic and egalitarian, Deity-sponsored misery outreach program. Which means that if this is Divine Justice, which is by definition Justice at its very best, then at the very least it is not justice of any discernible sort. Because Tyranny by any hand—including the hand of God, is still tyranny, and not justice. One can read in a Phrontisterion essay entitled, “On Faith in God; or, The Character of God…”
Those days are long gone when a man could understand and respect the Idea of a Self-respecting God—a God with character. Instead, in our world-become-modern all we have to play with is an anemic cardboard cut-out character/caricature Deity; and this One is never far from His band of earthly authoritarians, who are neither Gods that they should understand the generous nature of the job (per Asaph), nor respectful of the type of duty-bound obligations that once bound Gods to men and vice-versa (per Bacchylides).
§ Vignette: Religion & Terrorism – Between the “Truth” of an Idea and the Reality of Religious Men.
According to Karen Armstrong, Richard Dawkins is absolutely wrong in The God Delusion, and religion is not inherently, i.e., by definition, violent. Now, the critical reader would not wish to dive headlong into a straw man fallacy, heaven forfend, but even on a most generous and superficial viewing Armstrong’s contention is Stuff & Nonsense. Not that religion necessarily starts or finishes every war on the planet, although religions certainly tend to be involved in most conflicts at some level; but rather that the noble-sounding idea of religious conversion, what is in essence proselytizing or making disciples of all nations, is essentially religious empire building. What is Jesus’ Great Commission (Mt. 28:16-20), to “go into all the nations and make disciples,” if not Religious Colonization, the giving of a mission to create theocracy? If this does not persuade us of the danger of Religion to nation-states grounded in Enlightenment, and “of the emptiness in our ‘steep’ heavens,” then nothing will.
§ Conclusion.
If we want democracy to work as an idea and as a political and public reality, then we must force all religious opinions, beliefs and affiliations to check themselves at the door of the public square. Period.
§ Annex.
On the question of religion and violence—allow the sheer number of terrorist events motivated by religious world-views to wash over you and overwhelm your rational mind, and then “‘nuff said.” This sampling of religious terrorisms (Islamic, Christian, Hindu, and Jewish), which is certainly not exhaustive by any means, is provided by the wiki-world:
I. Terror attacks by Islamic fundamentalists to further a perceived Islamic religious or political cause, have occurred globally. The attackers have used such tactics as suicide attacks, bombings, spree killings, hijackings, kidnappings and beheadings. The following is a list of Islamic terrorist attacks that have received significant press coverage since 1980.
1980–1989
· April 18, 1983 – The April 1983 U.S. Embassy bombing, Beirut, Lebanon by the Islamic Jihad Organization. 63 dead, 120 injured.[1]
· December 12, 1983 – 1983 Kuwait bombings. The 90-minute coordinated attack of six key foreign and Kuwaiti installations including two embassies, the airport, and the country's main petro-chemical plant, was more notable for the damage it might have caused than what was actually destroyed. What might have been "the worst terrorist episode of the twentieth century in the Middle East," succeeding in killing only 6 people because of the bombs' faulty rigging.[2]
· July 7, 1989 – Tel Aviv Jerusalem bus 405 suicide attack, near Kiryat Yearim. 16 dead.[3]
1990–1999
· February 26, 1993 – World Trade Center bombing, in New York City. 6 killed.[4]
· March 12, 1993 – Serial blasts in Mumbai kill 257 people.
· July 2, 1993 - Sivas Massacre, Arson attack at a gathering in Sivas killing 35 intellectuals from Turkey, most of whom were Alevis.
· December 24, 1994 – Air France Flight 8969 hijacking in Algiers by 3 members of Armed Islamic Group of Algeria and another terrorist. 7 killed including 4 hijackers.[5]
· June 25, 1996 – Khobar Towers bombing, 20 killed, 372 wounded.[6]
· November 17, 1997 – Luxor massacre, 6 armed Islamic terrorists attacked tourists at the Luxor ruins. 62 killed, 26 injured.[7]
· February 14, 1998 – A total of 58 people were killed and over 200 injured in 12 bomb attacks in 11 places, in the city of Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.
· August 7, 1998 – 1998 United States embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya. 224 dead, 4000+ injured.[8]
2000–2009
· October 12, 2000 – Attack on the USS Cole in the Yemeni port of Aden. 17 American sailors were killed, 39 injured.[9]
· December 22, 2000 – Attack on Red Fort in Delhi.
· December 24, 2000 – Christmas Eve 2000 Indonesia bombings of churches in eight cities, 18 killed.[10]
· September 11, 2001 – 4 planes hijacked by 19 al-Qaeda hijackers: two planes crashed into World Trade Center and one into the The Pentagon. Nearly 3000 dead.[11]
· October 1, 2001 – Attack on the Jammu and Kashmir legislative assembly.
· December 13, 2001 – Suicide attack on Indian parliament in New Delhi by Pakistan-based Islamist terrorist organizations Jaish-E-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Toiba, aimed at eliminating the top leadership of India and causing anarchy in the country. 7 dead, 12 injured.[12]
· March 30, 2002 – Attack on the Raghunath temple
· October 12, 2002 – 2002 Bali bombings in the tourist district of Kuta on the Indonesian island of Bali, killing 202 people and injuring 240.[13]
· November 24, 2001 – Attack on the Raghunath temple
· January 22, 2002 – Attack on an American cultural centre in Kolkata
· May 14, 2002 – three terrorists attacked a tourist bus near the town of Kaluchak in the Indian state Jammu and Kashmir.
· July 13, 2002 – Militants kill 29 Hindu labourers in Qasim Nagar on the outskirts of Jammu in Jammu and Kashmir.
· September 24, 2002 – Akshardham Temple attack
· August 25, 2003 – Twin car bombings killed 54, and injured 244 people in Mumbai.
· August 5, 2003 – 2003 Marriott Hotel bombing in Mega Kuningan, South Jakarta, Indonesia; suicide bomber detonated a car bomb outside the JW Marriott Jakarta lobby, killing 12 and injuring 150
· November 15–20, 2003 – 2003 Istanbul bombings, killed 57 people and wounded 700.
· March 11, 2004 – Madrid train bombings, killed 191 people and wounded 1,800.[14][15]
· September 1, 2004 – Beslan school hostage crisis, approximately 344 civilians including 186 children killed.[16][17]
· September 9, 2004 – 2004 Australian Embassy bombing in Jakarta, Indonesia; suicide bomber exploded a one-tonne car bomb, which was packed into a small Daihatsu delivery van, outside the Australian embassy at Kuningan District, South Jakarta killing 9 and injuring over 150
· November 2, 2004 – The murder of Theo van Gogh by Amsterdam-born jihadist Mohammed Bouyeri.[18]
· July 5, 2005 – Attack on the Hindu Ram temple in Ayodhya, India. 6 dead.
· July 7, 2005 – Multiple bombings in London Underground. 53 killed by four suicide bombers. Nearly 700 injured.
· July 23, 2005 – Bomb attacks at Sharm el-Sheikh, an Egyptian resort city, at least 64 people killed.
· October 1, 2005 – 2005 Bali bombings in Jimbaran & Kuta, Bali, Indonesia; a series of bombings kills at least 20 and injures over 100.
· October 29, 2005 – 2005 Delhi bombings, India. Over 60 killed and over 180 injured in a series of three attacks in crowded markets and a bus.[19]
· November 9, 2005 – 2005 Amman bombings. a series of coordinated suicide attacks on hotels in Amman, Jordan. Over 60 killed and 115 injured.[20][21] Four attackers including a husband and wife team were involved.[22]
· March 7, 2006 – A series of bombings occurred across the Hindu holy city of Varanasi killing at least 28 people and injuring 101 others.
· April 30, 2006 – 2006 Doda massacre: Thirty-five Hindus killed by terrorists in Doda district in Jammu and Kashmir.
· July 11, 2006 – 2006 Mumbai train bombings: Seven bomb blasts over a period of 11 minutes on the Suburban Railway in Mumbai. 209 killed and over 700 injured.[23]
· May 13, 2007 – Jaipur bombings
· June 30, 2007 - 2007 Glasgow International Airport attack, 5 injured.
· August 14, 2007 – Qahtaniya bombings. Dour suicide vehicle bombings in two predominantly Yazidi towns in northern Iraq. 796 killed, 1,562 wounded.[24]
· July 26, 2008 – 2008 Ahmedabad bombings. 56 dead, over 200 injured.[25][26]
· September 13, 2008 – Bombing series in Delhi, India. Pakistani extremist groups plant bombs at several places including India Gate, out of which the ones at Karol Bagh, Connaught Place and Greater Kailash explode leaving around 30 people dead and 130 injured, followed by another attack two weeks later at the congested Mehrauli area, leaving 3 people dead.
· September 27, 2008 – 27 September 2008 Delhi blast: An explosion in Mehrauli's Electronic market called Sarai, killed 3 and injured 23 others.
· November 26, 2008 – Muslim extremists kill at least 166 people and wound numerous others in a series of coordinated attacks on India's financial capital, Mumbai. The government of India blamed Pakistan based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba and stated that the terrorists killed/caught were citizens of Pakistan, a claim which the Pakistani government first refused but then accepted when given proof. Ajmal Kasab, one of the terrorists, was caught alive.[27][28]
· June 1, 2009 - 2009 Little Rock recruiting office shooting by Abdulhakim Muhajid Muhammad. 1 killed and 1 injured
· June 18, 2009 – 2009 Beledweyne bombing by Al-Shabaab. 35 dead.
· July 17, 2009 – 2009 Marriott and Ritz-Carlton Hotels bombing in Mega Kuningan, South Jakarta, Indonesia; suicide bombers hit the Marriott and 5 minutes later the Ritz-Carlton. 9 killed and 53 injured
· November 5, 2009 – Fort Hood shooting, at Fort Hood near Killeen, Texas. 13 dead, 33 injured.
2010–current
· March 29, 2010 - Moscow Metro bombings. 40 dead, 102 injured. Caucasus Emirate claimed responsibility[29]
· May 28, 2010 – Attacks on Ahmadi Mosques Lahore, Pakistan. Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan claimed attacks on two mosques simultaneously belonging to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community, killing nearly 100 and injuring many others.[30]
· December 7, 2010 – 2010 Varanasi bombing, India. 2 dead, 37 injured.
· December 10, 2010 – 2010 Stockholm bombing, Sweden. killing the bomber and injuring two people.
· January 21, 2011 - Domodedovo International Airport bombing. 37 killed, 173 wounded[31]
· March 2, 2011 – 2011 Frankfurt Airport shooting, Frankfurt, Germany. 2 dead, 2 injured.
· July 18, 2011 – 2011 Hotan attack, Hotan, China. A group of 18 young Uyghur men who opposed the local government's campaign against the full-face Islamic veil perpetrated a series of coordinated bomb and knife attacks and occupied a police station on Nuerbage Street, killing two security guards and taking eight hostages. The attackers yelled religious slogans, including ones associated with Jihadism, 4 killed, 4 wounded.
· July 30, 2011 - A series of knife and bomb attacks occurred in Kashgar, China. Uyghur men hijacked a truck, killed its driver and drove into a crowd of pedestrians. They then got out of the vehicle and attacked pedestrians with knifes. On July 31, a chain of two explosions started a fire in a restaurant, 15 killed, 42 wounded.
· December 25, 2011 - Christmas Day bombings were bomb blasts and shootings at churches in Madalla, Jos, Gadaka, and Damaturu. Over 41 people are reported dead.[32]
· 5 January 2012 Iraq bombings, Baghdad and Nasiriyah, Iraq by Islamic State of Iraq. 73 dead, 149 injured.
· February 14, 2012 - A series of explosions occurred in Bangkok, Thailand, 5 wounded.
· 23 February 2012 Iraq attacks, Baghdad, Iraq by Islamic State of Iraq. 83 dead, 250+ injured.
· 20 March 2012 Iraq attacks, Baghdad and at least 9 other cities, Iraq. 52 dead, ~ 250 injured.
· March 20, 2012 – Toulouse and Montauban shootings in France. 7 dead, 5 injured.
· May 3, 2012 - Makhachkala attack. 14 dead, including 2 suicide bombers, 130 wounded[33]
· July 18, 2012 - 2012 Burgas bus bombing - 7 dead, including the suicide bomber and 32 injured at Burgas Airport, Burgas, Bulgaria.
· September 11, 2012 – 2012 Benghazi attack on the U.S. Consulate. 4 dead, 11 injured.
· February 21, 2013. – 2013 Hyderabad blasts, two bomb blasts killed 16 people and injured 119.
· April 15, 2013. – Boston Marathon bombings. Two brothers, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnev, planted two bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. The blast killed 3 and injured 183 others.[34]
· May 11, 2013 – Reyhanlı bombings, killed 52 people and wounded 140.
· May 22, 2013 – Two men with cleavers kill British soldier Lee Rigby in Woolwich.[35][36]
· September 21, 2013 – Westgate shopping mall attack, 67 killed, 175 wounded.[37][38][39]
· September 22, 2013 – Peshawar church attack, 80-83 killed, 250 wounded.
· September 29, 2013. - Gujba college massacre. 44 students killed by Boko Haram
· October 28, 2013 - A 4x4 vehicle crashed into a crowd and burst into flames in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, 5 killed, 38 wounded.
· February 14, 2014. - Borno Massacre at least 200 killed by Boko Haram[40]
· March 1, 2014 - A group of 8 individuals attacked civilians at Kunming Railway Station, 28 dead, 143 wounded.
· April 30, 2014 - Two assailants attacked passengers and detonated explosives at the Ürümqi railway station, 3 dead, 79 wounded.
· May 20, 2014. - Jos bombings at least 118 killed and over 56 injured[41]
· May 22, 2014 - Two SUVs which carried 5 assailants were driven into a street market in Ürümqi and up to a dozen explosives were thrown at shoppers through the windows of the SUVs. The cars then crashed into shoppers and collided into each other and exploded, 39 dead, 90+ wounded.
· May 24, 2014. - Jewish Museum of Belgium shooting. Gunman opened fire at the Jewish Museum in Brussels killing 4 people.
· August, 2014. - Islamic State fighters massacred some 700 people, mostly men, of the Shu'aytat tribe in Deir ez-Zor Governorate.[42]
· September 23, 2014. – 2014 Endeavour Hills stabbings. Numan Haider, an Afghan Australian stabbed two counter terrorism officers in Melbourne, Australia. He was then shot dead.[43]
· October 5, 2014 - 2014 Grozny bombing. 5 officers and the suicide bomber, were killed, while 12 others were wounded.[44]
· October 20, 2014 - 2014 Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu ramming attack. Lone attacker used his car to run over two Canadian soldiers. 1 killed, 1 injured
· October 22, 2014 – 2014 shootings at Parliament Hill, Ottawa. Lone attacker shot a soldier at a war memorial and attacked Parliament. 1 killed, 3 injured[45]
· October 23, 2014. – Zale H. Thomson, also known as Zaim Farouq Abdul-Malik, attacked four New York policemen in the subway with a hatchet, severely injuring one in the back of the head and injuring another policeman in the arm before being shot to death by the remaining officers, who also shot a bystander.[46]
· November 28, 2014. - Kano bombing. Around 120 people were killed and another 260 injured.[47][48][49][50]
· December 4, 2014. - 2014 Grozny clashes. 26 total dead, including 14 policemen, 11 Jihadist from Caucasus Emirate, 1 civilian[51]
· December 15, 2014. – 2014 Sydney hostage crisis. 2 dead, 4 injured.[52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60]
· December 16, 2014. – 2014 Peshawar school attack. Over 140 people dead, including at least 132 children.[61]
· December 16, 2014. - Two suicide car bombers rammed their vehicles into a Shiite rebels' checkpoint killing 26, including 16 students.[62]
· December 18, 2014. - 2014 Gumsuri kidnappings. Boko Haram insurgents killed 32 people and kidnapped at least 185 women and children.[63]
· December 18, 2014. - Mass grave of 230 Tribesmen killed by Islamic State found in Eastern Syria.[64]
· December 20, 2014 - 2014 Joué-lès-Tours attack. A man yelling Allahu Akbar attacked a police office with a knife. He was killed and 3 police officers were injured
· December 21, 2014 - 2014 Dijon attack. A man yelling Allahu Akbar ran over 11 pedestrians with his vehicle. 11 injured
· December 22, 2014. – Boko Haram insurgents bombed a bus station in the city of Gombe, killing at least twenty people.[65]
· December, 2014. - Islamic State militants execute 150 women Iraqi province of Al-Anbar, some of whom were pregnant at the time, who refuse to marry their fighters.[66]
· December 24, 2014. - A suicide bomber killed 33 people and wounded 55 others in Madaen, about 25 km (15 miles) south of Baghdad.[67]
· December 25, 2014. - Al-Shabaab (militant group) attack in Mogadishu leaves 9 dead.[68]
· December 28, 2014. - Boko Haram attacks village in Cameroon leaving 30 dead.[69]
· January 7, 2015. - At least 12 killed in shooting at office of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, Paris [70]
· January 8, 2015. – 2015 Baga massacre. Boko Haram attacks town of Baga in northern Nigeria killing at least 200 people. Another 2000 are unaccounted for.[71]
· January 7-9, 2015. - A series of 5 attacks in and around Paris kill 17 people; plus 3 attackers, and leave 22 other people injured.
II. Terror attacks by Christian fundamentalists. Christian terrorism comprises terrorist acts by groups or individuals who cite motivations or goals that they interpret to be Christian, or within a more basic context of sectarian violence and/or prejudices such as religious intolerance. As with other forms of religious terrorism, they have cited interpretations of the tenets of faith – in this case interpretations of the Old Testament, as their inspiration to justify violence and killing.[1] Christian terrorism may also be linked to anti-abortion and other similar, acts of violence or groups advocating violence for the propagation of their faith.
Historical
· Gunpowder Plot
· Pogroms
· Ku Klux Klan
Contemporary
· According to terrorism expert David C. Rapoport, a "religious wave", or cycle, of terrorism dates from approximately 1979 to the present.[20]
· Anti-Muslim violence in Central Africa
· Anti-Hindu violence in India
· Christian violence arose in various contiguous states in North-East India.[22] In 2000, John Joseph, a member of India's National Minority Commission, described Christian militancy as rampant in the northeastern states.[22]
· Tripura
· Further information: Tripura rebellion
· Odisha
· See also: Religious violence in Odisha
· Nagaland
· Main article: National Socialist Council of Nagaland
· Manipur
· Sabra and Shatila massacre
· Northern Ireland paramilitaries
· Utøya Island killings
· Main article: 2011 Norway attacks
· Lord's Resistance Army
· Christian Identity and anti-abortion killings
· "has a religious (Christian) component".[103]
III. Hindu Terror Attacks
IV. Jewish religious terrorism
Jewish religious terrorism (Hebrew: טרור דתי יהודי) is a type of religious terrorism committed by extremists within Judaism motivated by religious rather than ethnic or nationalistic beliefs.[1][2]
· Historical
o Zealotry in the 1st century
o Main article: Zealotry in Jewish history
· After the creation of Israel
o The following groups have been considered religious terrorist organizations in Israel:
o Gush Emunim Underground (1979–84): formed by members of the Israeli political movement Gush Emunim.[10] This group is most well known for two actions. Firstly, for bomb attacks on the mayors of West Bank cities on June 2, 1980, and secondly, an abandoned plot to blow up the Temple Mount mosques. The Israeli Judge Zvi Cohen, heading the sentencing panel at the group’s trial, stated that they had three motives, ‘not necessarily shared by all the defendants. The first motive, at the heart of the Temple Mount conspiracy, is religious.’[11]
o Keshet (Kvutza Shelo Titpasher) (1981–1989): A Tel Aviv anti-Zionist haredi group focused on bombing property without loss of life.[12][13]:101 Yigal Marcus, Tel Aviv District Police commander, said that he considered the group a gang of criminals, not a terrorist group.[14]
o The "Bat Ayin Underground" or Bat Ayin group. In 2002, four people from Bat Ayin and Hebron were arrested outside of Abu Tor School, a Palestinian girls' school in East Jerusalem, with a trailer filled with explosives. Three of the men were convicted for the attempted bombing.[15][16][17][18][19][20][21]
o Brit HaKanaim (Hebrew: בְּרִית הַקַנַאִים, lit. Covenant of the Zealots) was a radical religious Jewish underground organisation which operated in Israel between 1950 and 1953, against the widespread trend of secularisation in the country. The ultimate goal of the movement was to impose Jewish religious law in the State of Israel and establish a Halakhic state.[22]
o The Kingdom of Israel group (Hebrew: מלכות ישראל, Malchut Yisrael), or Tzrifin Underground, were active in Israel in the 1950s. The group carried out attacks on the diplomatic facilities of the USSR and Czechoslovakia and occasionally shot at Jordanian troops stationed along the border in Jerusalem. Members of the group were caught trying to bomb the Israeli Ministry of Education in May 1953, have been described as acting because of the secularisation of Jewish North African immigrants which they saw as 'a direct assault on the religious Jews' way of life and as an existential threat to the ultra-Orthodox community in Israel.'[23]
o Lehava, an anti-assimilation organization, professing to prevent integration of Jews and non-Jews, is considered by some to be a terrorist organization. It was referred to as an extreme religious minority trying through terror to implements their views of how the society should look.[24] It has been announced that Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon is taking action to have it designated officially as a terrorist organization.[25] Former Justice Minister Tzipi Livni stated that Ya'alon's move to name anti-assimilation group Lehava a terrorist organization should have been made months before. "This organization works from hatred, racism and nationalism and its goal is to bring an escalation of violence within us," she said. [26] Tamar Hermann, a sociologist and pollster with the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI), reports that government action against Lehava has only come following months of petitioning by "left-leaning Israelis and media commentators." [27][28] Israeli rabbi Binyamin Lau, warned that: "Lehava wants to implement a reign of religious terror."[29]
o Individuals
o A number of violent acts by Jews have been described as terrorism and attributed to religious motivations:
o Yaakov Teitel an American-born Israeli, was arrested in the aftermath of the 2009 Tel Aviv gay center shooting for putting up posters that praised the attack. Although Teitel confessed to the gay center shooting, Israeli police have determined that he had no part in the attack.[30] In 2009 Teitel was arrested and indicted for several acts of domestic terror, namely a pipe bomb attack against leftist intellectual Zeev Sternhell, the murders of a Palestinian taxi driver and a West Bank shepherd in 1997, and sending a booby-trapped package to the home of a Messianic Jewish family in Ariel.[31][32][33] A search of his home revealed a cache of guns and parts used in explosive devices.[34] As of January 2011, the case was still pending trial.[35] On January 16, 2013 Teitel was convicted of two murders, two attempted murders, and several other charges.[36][37]
o Eden Natan-Zada killed four Israeli Arab civilians on August 4, 2005. His actions were criticized by then prime minister Ariel Sharon, as "a reprehensible act by a bloodthirsty Jewish terrorist", and author Ami Pedhzer describes his motivations as religious.[2]:134[38]
o Baruch Goldstein an American-born Israeli physician, perpetrated the 1994 Cave of the Patriarchs massacre in the city of Hebron, in which he shot and killed 29 Muslim worshipers inside the Ibrahimi Mosque (within the Cave of the Patriarchs), and wounded another 125 victims.[39] Goldstein was killed by the survivors.[40] Goldstein was a supporter of Kach, an Israeli political party founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane that advocated the expulsion of Arabs from Israel and the Palestinian Territories. In the aftermath of the Goldstein attack and Kach statements praising it, Kach was outlawed in Israel.[41]
o Yigal Amir's assassination of Yitzhak Rabin on November 4, 1995 has been described as terrorism with a religious motivation.[2]:98–110[42][43] Amir was quoted as saying he had "acted alone and on orders from God." and that "If not for a Halakhic ruling of din rodef, made against Rabin by a few rabbis I knew about, it would have been very difficult for me to murder."[13][44]:45 A former combat soldier who had studied Jewish law, Amir stated that his decision to kill the prime minister was influenced by the opinions of militant rabbis that such an assassination would be justified by the Halakhic ruling of din rodef ("pursuer's decree").[44]:48 This Jewish religious concept allows for an immediate execution of a person if that person is "pursuing", that is, attempting immediately to take your life or the life of another person, although the characterization of Rabin as din rodef was rejected as a perversion of law by most rabbinic authorities.[13]:255 According to Amir, allowing the Palestinian Authority to expand on the West Bank represented such a danger.[44]:48Amir was associated with the radical Eyal movement, which had been greatly influenced by Kahanism.[44]:53
(Reprised and reworked from an original essay published on Phrontisterion on May 1, 2015)
