{"id":3272,"date":"2014-01-01T23:07:11","date_gmt":"2014-01-02T04:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/nocrossnocrescent\/?p=3272"},"modified":"2014-01-01T23:07:11","modified_gmt":"2014-01-02T04:07:11","slug":"happy-new-year-everyone-except-citizens-of-volgograd-russia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/nocrossnocrescent\/2014\/01\/01\/happy-new-year-everyone-except-citizens-of-volgograd-russia\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy New Year Everyone…Except Citizens of Volgograd, Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"boy\"<\/a>
The boy next door…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You have heard this story so many times, it is now almost boring:<\/p>\n

Once upon a time there was a young, amiable, (raised<\/a> or converted<\/a>) Muslim, who everyone thought was the typical kid on the block. At one point in his life, he got more deeply involved in his faith, spending time reading religious texts. As his obsession with Islamic doctrines (including Jihad, of course) grew further, he communicated with, and ultimately joined, a group of like-minded people, known to the public as “Islamist Militants”. And the next thing his family learned, to their disbelief, was that the pleasant young man they knew had given humanity another lesson in Allah’s boundless love and forgiveness, in the form of charred metal and minced human flesh on the streets.<\/p>\n

(But the story doesn’t end here. Read on.)<\/p>\n

\"...suddenly<\/a>
…suddenly looking a lot scarier.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And what better way to usher in the new year<\/a> than by giving the “kafirs” (the pejorative Arabic word for infidels) just such a lesson?<\/p>\n

On Sunday, a man authorities have identified as Pavel Pechyonkin, a 32-year-old paramedic, detonated the equivalent of 10 kilograms of explosives in the main hall of the Volgograd train station filled with New Year’s travelers. The attack killed 17 people and injured 45 others.<\/p>\n

The very next morning, at rush hour, a tram carrying Volgograd commuters was blown up in front of a busy market, killing 15 people and injuring 23 others.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Wonderful. So what do we know<\/a> about this Pavel guy?<\/p>\n

The\u00a0suspect, identified as Pavel Pechyonkin, worked as a\u00a0paramedic with an\u00a0ambulance service but left home in\u00a02011 and\u00a0joined Dagestani militants after converting to\u00a0Islam and\u00a0changing his name to\u00a0Ansar Ar-rusi.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0a plea by\u00a0his parents recorded in\u00a0March, his father, Nikolai, admonished his son to\u00a0“drop those weapons” before he would become a\u00a0“terrorist.”\u00a0\u00a0“Do all Muslims go around with weapons?” the\u00a0father said in\u00a0the video. “You are the\u00a0only one so stubborn. What harm have people done you? [\u2026] You are going to\u00a0kill children.”\u00a0\u00a0His mother, Fanaziya, said that she was also a\u00a0Muslim, and\u00a0pleaded with her son that he should abstain from\u00a0using violence.\u00a0“What kind of\u00a0the Koran\u2026” she said, apparently too pained to\u00a0finish the\u00a0sentence, before finding the\u00a0strength to\u00a0continue: “I don’t believe that Allah has ever said that one must kill people.”<\/p>\n

In\u00a0response to\u00a0his parents’ video appeals for\u00a0him to\u00a0come home, Pechyonkin posted his own video online this spring, saying he was following God’s will and\u00a0would not turn back.\u00a0“I have come here only to\u00a0make Allah pleased with me, to\u00a0earn heaven,” he said in\u00a0the video.\u00a0“Why should we follow those Christian commandments, when Allah, may he be glorified, urges us to\u00a0fight those kafirs [unbelievers],” he said. “Why shouldn’t we leave their children orphaned?”\u00a0He also brushed off his mother words that the\u00a0Koran does not instruct believers to\u00a0kill.\u00a0“I am not inventing anything from\u00a0the Koran, I am reading,” he said.\u00a0“You say that a\u00a0man has no right to\u00a0kill,” he said. “Those kafirs have occupied radio and\u00a0television, and\u00a0they are making the\u00a0kind of\u00a0religion that they need for\u00a0the Muslims. They are trying to\u00a0convince you that a\u00a0man can’t do this.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Fits the described scenario to a T, doesn’t it?<\/p>\n

Of course, we left the story unfinished. In the final chapter, we have the Islam’s defenders (some of them atheists<\/a>) lecturing us on why we shouldn’t blame religion too much, since this is a response to harsh treatment of civilians by villains like Russia or the US-but failing to tell us why similar grievances by non-Muslims never lead to such responses. Not too far from Muslim Dagestan, where this guy met up with the militants, is the Republic of Georgia, locked in a land dispute with Russia for years (and actually causing a diplomatic flap with the US in 2008<\/a>), but there has never been a train bombing linked to that; is it just a coincidence that Georgia is not majority Muslim? Furthermore, there are no examples of Muslims feeling the need to avenge their Muslims brethren in this particular way, who didn’t go through the profound religious devotion (or “radicalization”, according to the rules of political correctness) phase first. That is also a coincidence, isn’t it?<\/p>\n

It is unbelievable to what length our culture is willing to go to protect religion from criticism.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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