Who can understand or explain what goes on in the mind of a terrorist?
What is it that creates that lethal blend of hatred, cowardice, vengefulness, self-loathing, disrespect for their Maker, and pathetic self-aggrandizement that makes it seem acceptable for people to guide a jet into a tower full of people or to blow themselves up in a marketplace?
I'm sure I can't say with any degree of certainty.
But today, Cincinnati police are investigating what appears to have been an act of terror in the Clifton area, near the University of Cincinnati.
The mosque of the Islamic Association of Cincinnati was bombed. "Two explosives detonated in the doorways of two adjacent buildings of the Islamic Center..." says the account in this morning's Cincinnati Enquirer.
Police have yet to establish that the bombing was an act of hate and terror, but it seems likely.
After the event, a number of Cincinnati's most prominent religious leaders condemned the act. I'm glad they did so. They were sending a clear message that first of all, not all Muslims are Islamofascists. And secondly, they were telling the bomber, "Just in case you think that you were doing this because of a commitment to the Judeo-Christian faith, you were wrong. You don't overcome hatred or terrorism by becoming a hateful terrorist yourself! This is contrary to everything we believe!"
Sad as it would be, I hope that this act of violence has more mundane causes: a familial dispute, an argument among one-time friends, the act of a disgruntled former participant in mosque activities. All of those would be horrible circumstances, of course. But they would be easier to accept, creating less long-term anxiety.
We simply don't need vigilante contra-terrorists in America.
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