I would have to say that the letter which John H. Redekop wrote, after feeling compelled to respond to the earlier 9/11 column by Mark Rushton, could be classified as conflicted: conflicted because his statements totally conflict with each other.
Mr. Redekop certainly proved right what Anne Lamott stated: `That you safely assume that you`ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.`
Mr. Redekop states that Mr. Rushton is wrong to put all believers in the same boat with the religious extremists. And then amazingly proceeds to do the exact same thing with the entire Muslim faith as he claims to know which religion caused the attack of 9/11. Talk about religious profiling the entire Muslim community for the actions of just one fanatical offshoot of Islam.
But if he would like the facts behind the attack on the Twin Towers I`ll be happy to enlighten him as that attack was the direct result of the actions of various Western governments for decades. The sad fact is that the West was not so innocent in what led up to the attack although those people killed certainly were. What Bush did in Iraq and Afghanistan – while being guided by Jesus, he claimed - has directly led to ISIS.
Mr. Redekop oddly throws out the line that if Mr. Rushton really wants to know religious extremists he should read the writings of Mother Theresa and Martin Luther King. Who`s called those people religious extremists except for, perhaps, Mr. Redekop himself?
The only comment I have on Mr. Rushton`s column is that it’s all well and true to say that we must continue to keep the Western World safe from religious extremists but I would have added that we shouldn`t be so willing to give up basic freedoms and privacy rights as we have done because of American paranoia either.
Robert T. Rock
Mission