Jihad all the way!
Oh what fun is homicide when infidels we slay!
Inga had air fare to bring her home for 3 weeks on Christmas break from the University of Oregon, but the Eugene-Portland-Dallas trip is too expensive and time consuming to be considered for a trip home for the brief Thanksgiving holiday. But while home for Christmas, Inga filled us in on spending Thanksgiving with her good school friend Alex and her family in Portland. As part of her visit to Portland, Inga casually mentioned that she went with Alex's family to Pioneer Square, "Portland's Living Room", to attend the festive tradition of lighting the city's Christmas Tree. "Oh yeah! We were actually walking across the Square at 5:40 PM - the very time when Mohamed Osman Mohamud pressed the switch to detonate what he believed to be a car bomb he had parked near the Square". Only the FBI had the young jihadist under control and had duped him and loaded his car with inert explosives. No boom - just an FBI bust. According to news reports, the FBI agents involved in the sting gave Mohamud many opportunities to change his heart, even informing him that there would be lots of small kids and their mothers at Pioneer Square, a target he himself selected. He was undeterred by the visage of carnage and slaughter of innocents he was expecting to perpetrate, actually saying he wanted to make his attack a "big fireworks show".
As a parent, I have a head and heart full of thoughts and emotions kindled by this plan to attack the festive Portland holiday throng of which my daughter was a part. These thoughts and emotions are not well organized by my mind nor easily categorized in my conscience; but there is in me an abiding residual chill in contemplating the loss and heartbreak, personal and communal, that was the intent of this 19 year old Muslim. Whether he was close to actually accomplishing mass and random slaughter or not, carnage and dismemberment was his intent. Sobering.
I noted news video the following day of Muslims in Oregon handing out propaganda to pedestrians in Pioneer Square proclaiming that Islam is a religion of peace to all who took their tracts. Me thinks the lady doth protest too much. Those proclaiming Islam a religion of peace need to focus their teaching on those in their own mosques rather than whitewashing the reality of the all-too-often headline. Mohamed Mohamud is not alone; Hosam Smadi was also arrested by the FBI after pressing the detonator on a fake car bomb in Dallas in 2009; and of course there is the Pakistani Time Square car bomber who was arrested moments before his flight left the US. A handful of thwarted subway bomb plots and planned attacks makes me skeptical that all those who interpret the Quoran do so as agent of peace. Watching CNN as the Portland attempted bombing story unfolded, Mohamud's imam was shown weeping that the young jihadist had thrown his life away (now that he was under arrest). Was he not moved that that the law had prevented him from actually sweeping the life away of many others, possibly my own daughter's? Is it merely a question of who's ox is being gored? Is evil relative?
Inga is none the worse for being at Pioneer Square and having been one of the possible victims. But I do pause to wonder, do we ever really know how thin is this barrier that keeps us from harm or from evil overwhelming all things? With the headlines of 2011 just 2 weeks old, sadly I see no hope that the world has moved closed to peace. But I give thanks for what I have been granted in life and I thank those who make it their duty to stand for peace, for those who stand vigilant on the wall. Most hours of most days I do not think of calamity, I do not dwell in fear. I am content, if not nearly oblivious to those elements of evil that seek to prevail, but for those who do stand, keeping watch so that the barrier holds and a peaceful and content civil society flourishes. For these things, I am grateful. Peace to All.
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| Festive Christmas Holiday begins in Portland's Pioneer Square With the Lighting of the Tree |
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