University of California Prof and author calls Sikh temple bombing 'Christian Terrorism'...and I agree

A funny thing happens when people get old, many lose their sense of fairness.  Something you hear from children almost every day is: "That's not fair", and oftentimes they're one hundred per cent right.

Of course they're just kids, and as we grow older many of us come to accept that the world isn't fair, because...well, that's just the way the world is.

Some people are born into wealth, power and influence and can achieve almost anything, even if they're drunken drug users who have bankrupted previous business ventures.  And others of course are born into abject poverty, with only a slim chance of success hinging on iron clad will, self confidence and perhaps a measure of divine providence.

But as I digress, as I so often do.

The words terrorist and terrorism get bandied about a great deal these days in our mainstream media.  And in almost all cases the stories being reported are about adherents of the Muslim faith.

Ask someone what images come to mind with the word terrorist and you're likely to get a description of a male Muslim, probably bearded and wearing a turban.

That's the way the our world is.

Many Muslims will assert that terrorism is against the tenets of Islam.  That those advocating violence or jihad have perverted the teachings of their prophet Mohammed.  Okay, but that doesn't matter, our mainstream press will still brand any atrocity committed by a nominal follower of that faith as 'Islamic Terrorism'.

So what about Wade Michael Page?  You know, the guy who just gunned down six innocent members of a Sikh Temple.

This man has been revealed as a Neo-Nazi white supremacist who was on his own 'jihad', if I may borrow the Islamic term for holy crusade.  A holy war against those outsiders who were polluting his white Christian Ah-Muhr-Ica (that's the way you pronounce it in red neck).

Shouldn't this news story be treated as Christian terrorism?  If Mr Page had been an Arab from the middle east, and had the victims been attendees at a Christian church, do you think the media would have refrained from calling him this an act of Islamic Terrorism?

Yeah right!!!  Let's be fair, what's good for the goose after all.

And I'm not alone in thinking this, Mark Juergensmeyer thinks so too.  He's a Professor of Sociology and Director of Global and International Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara and the winner of the Grawemeyer Award for his book "Terror in the Mind of God".

You can read his piece here:  Christian Terrorism Comes to Milwaukee