Sharia Law vs. The NRA: The Politics Of Beheading And Guns

The news of a grisly murder in Oklahoma has once again brought out the panic peddlers who are always watching out for any gruesome event that they can exploit to advance their nightmare scenarios. While there is still a deficit of actual facts, knee-jerk Islamophobes leap forward to cast aspersions on people whom they regard as universally barbaric. Therefore, any chance to defame a Muslim is quickly pounced on and embellished in the most hostile manner. However, according to the Washington Post, all that is actually known about the murder at this time is that…

“A man who had just been fired by an Oklahoma City-area food processing plant allegedly severed the head of one of his former co-workers and attacked another before being shot by the company’s chief operating officer, according to police. […]

But the FBI, which is assisting in the investigation, has so far found no links to terrorism, the officials said. There was also no indication that Nolen was copying the beheadings of journalists in Syria by the Islamic State, the officials said, adding that they are treating this as an incident of workplace violence.”

The fact that the investigation is in the early stages has not prevented the Fear Merchants from going totally overboard with their hysteria. Undoubtedly Sen. Lindsey Graham, who warned that ISIL is on their way to America to “kill us all,” is probably thinking, “One down, 359,999,999 to go.” And the folks at Fox News are doing their part by boldly declaring in all caps that “SHARIA LAW IS COMING!!!”

Fox Nation

Fox posted their warning on their community website, Fox Nation (See the acclaimed ebook Fox Nation vs. Reality to learn more). The alarmist story was sourced to the uber-rightist blog, The Daily Caller, which is run by Fox host Tucker Carlson. The exclamation about the coming of Sharia law was taken from the Facebook page of Alton Nolen, the suspect in the Oklahoma crime, but Fox doesn’t disclose that in their headline or their article. They leave it to appear that there is just some sort of impending doom that is approaching that will foretell the end of civilization as we know it.

The Daily Caller’s article was written by Patrick Howley, a disreputable hack who has confessed to unethical and unlawful tactics to smear his ideological foes. Howley includes ridiculous and irrelevant observations such as the fact that Nolen had a tattoo that read “as-salaamu ataikum,” a Muslim greeting meaning “peace be upon you.” Nolen also had a tattoo of Jesus and a pair of Christian praying hands. So what does that say about Christianity?

Of course, it is utterly absurd to imply that a murder, even if it is determined to be related to terrorism, suggests that Sharia law is about to be implemented in America. What happened in Oklahoma was a crime and will be treated as such. It will never be tolerated as lawful in this country under some warped interpretation of Islam. So even if there are additional crimes linked to terrorists, Sharia law is most definitely not coming to America.

If Americans are determined to be afraid of something, they may want to put this recent crime into perspective. In 2014 so far, there has been one beheading in the United States. Compare that to the more than 8,000 deaths by guns this year. [Estimate based on data from 2012]

Guns vs. Beheadings

That’s more than double the fatalities of 9/11. Which makes it all the more ludicrous that right-wingers are now clamoring for unwieldy and unwarranted measures to address their fantastical notions about domestic terrorism. They propose strengthening border security, spying on mosques, prohibiting immigration from Muslim countries, and even building concentration camps.

However, you will not hear any similar commitment to eradicating the true epidemic of deaths and injuries by guns. To the contrary, conservatives are pushing for more guns to be carried and for fewer restrictions on firearms. They are against regulations to keep guns out of the hands of felons or spousal abusers. They fight efforts to prohibit cop-killer bullets. They oppose smart-gun technology that would prevent unauthorized persons from using a firearm. They are even against laws that prohibit people on the terrorist watch list from purchasing guns.

Nevertheless, a single beheading, as horrific as it is, whips wingnuts into a frenzy, while 8,000 deaths, many of them children, doesn’t move them to lift a finger. This leads to a fundamental question that needs to be asked by the American people and the media: Who represents a bigger threat to the country, ISIL or the NRA?

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6 thoughts on “Sharia Law vs. The NRA: The Politics Of Beheading And Guns

  1. Does anyone at Shlox Snooze know anything about Sharia Law? Would they care if they did?

  2. If you own a gun, that is not a clear indication that you are going to go out and kill somebody. But if you espouse the murderous crap that this suspect in Oklahoma did before he sawed some women’s head off, that is a clear indication. This thread is pathetic even by Mark’s previous standards.

    • What “murderous crap” are you talking about? The guy was never noted to be saying anything like “Allahu Akbar” before committing the crime, in fact no evidence was ever found to link this guy to Islamic terrorism. Note that he was fired from his job, and the ones he attacked were his co-workers, implying that the motive was revenge or at least resent motivated, hardly exclusive to any religion, indeed to any sort of ideology at all. He also had Christian tattoos together with the Muslim greeting one, which makes Howley’s article a biased piece of crap (like always).

      As for the beheading itself, there have been other, far more gruesome crimes, such as cannibalism, that has happened in America that were in no way linked to any sort of religion. In fact, even if it was a “copy” of the beheadings by ISIL, it in no way means that the man was driven by extremist Muslim ideology. No link to extremist Islam has been shown as any sort of influence for the murder, even if it did it does not mean that the ISIL ideology is coming to stay. If you want to make that argument, I’ll immediately state that the actions of the two tea partiers who killed a cop are an indication that the entire party are a bunch of extremist cop killers who are going to kill mroe cops in the future.

      That’s the whole point, that you and yours are mouthing of without any proof, even before the bodies are cold, the same way one of your admired idols, Rmoney, did for the Benghazi incident. It’s gotten to the point that it’s hardly news at all that you and yours do this, it’s pretty much synonymous with the entire right wing to jam their feet in their mouths and make hasty comments.

      However, as indicated by your own post, the fact that you did not bother to acknowledge this repeated failing of you and yours shows just how pathetic you are. However sadly, this level of pathetic doesn’t break any new ground. We already know how much you intensely hate this site, and all of your efforts to speak out in slander, motivated by said hatred against it and the one who runs it. It’s also been observed that you you usually do not fail in making a complete fool of yourself in doing so, as you are doing now, and as this post is meant to point out.

      In the end, it’s just another one of Scott’s vitriolic and vindictive yet substantive-free posts. Pointing out the fact that you’re an utter idiot has become so old I’m wondering if it’s even worth doing it anymore. Well it doesn’t cost me a dime to do it so………

      • “…I’m wondering if it’s even worth doing it anymore.”

        Oh, absolutely it is. First off, it’s entertaining and secondly, it is so important that those who choose to be stupid in public have someone point the finger at them and say “hey, look over there–that’s what being stupid in public looks like. Don’t be like that guy.!!!”

      • I am officially issuing a LIKE of this post.

      • Hey, goober, I’m not the one short of brain power. You are. This murderer flashed an ISIS signal with his hands while he sawed the poor woman’s head off. What I posted was 100% true.

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