If it makes you happy the BBC don't just accept the word of Muslims. here's a transcript of a programme where Muslims were asked to condem suicide bombings. They all condemn bombings in the UK, but they're not so quick to condem bombings abroad.

There's actually a growing body of evidence that is making investigators think that some of these bombers were tricked into committing suicide missions. I don't know how the hell you'd be a big enough idiot to get duped into this however?

There was an old skit from SNL in the early 80's that spoofed that phenomenon. It aired some time after Hinckley shot Reagan. The fake news crew went around talking to people who knew the killer, and they said the usual stuff

"Nice guy. Kept to himself. Good worker, never caused any problems."

"Are you shocked he shot the President?"

"Oh no, not at all. He talked about it every single day."

The Onion had a great article a while back with the following title: Serial Killer Remembered by Neighbors as Serial Killer.

Is it even comparable?

I don't feel sorry for the bomber, let me get that across. I have pity fo them. The fact that someone who lived a somewhat normal and at times saint like life can do something like these just shows how people can be two things at once.

The people that died and the family and friends of those people have to pay the price of intolerance. Come to think of it when something like these happen we all pay the price.

You're missing the neocon point though. These people were killers. They hate humanity. And the Muslim community can't police their own, so they are obviously an inferior culture. Or something like that.

Just goes to show how devious, scheming and cold hearted some people can be.

Not everyone can be a reprehensible person all the time. I personally take it as a reminder they were human, and not anything to be feared - they were just people. Yes, they did something awful, selfish, and terrible - but they still bled the same color I do, and that everyone else does.

A long time ago I saw a TV documentary about an isolated tribe of "primative" people, living in a jungle. They had almost no exposure to modern day technology and society.

One day the men went to a neighbouring village and murdered the people they found. They killed without mercy, but they did not torture people.

When they came home, they lovingly picked up their children and showed themselves to be very caring and gentle.

These primative people show the paradox of the loving, caring, cold blooded killer. It is part of our nature too.

We are social, but we are built to regard some groups of people as freind and some as competitor / foe. Those we hold dearest are self, family, friends and our "tribe". Other people are outside this collective group.

Nicely put.
xo

I'm sure it isn't, to most people. Having grown up in a fundamental Christian church, however, I see things a little differently than most folks.

Exactly. If you're around these people enough, you tend to find yourself thinking the worst of them later.

Fundamentalism is the problem in itself, not any specific religion. When you believe that anyone who doesn't belive exactly the same way you do is an agent of Satan, you tend to get a little bit dangerous.

I said the same thing about that film that humanized Hitler (I think it was Der Untergang):
If you refuse to accept that someone who commits a despicable crime is a fellow human being with knowledge of good and evil and moral duty, then you are freeing that person from their responsibility. If someone is "pure evil" or "a monster"... well then, you really can't blame them for their actions, can you? You can't really blame a tornado or a rabid dog for their actions, because they are not controlled by free will. If you ignore the essential humanity if one of these bombers, you're relegating them to the category of "force of nature" and you are shirking the responsibility of having to deal with them as humans. It then makes it really easy to say "Find them all and kill them all and that's that" like you would a rabid dog, rather than dealing with the actual human conflict.