A 21-year-old Christian man is in custody on charges that he killed a college student in Oklahoma by attempting to behead him. It is a fairly nasty story that, unfortunately, points to the differing ways that we treat violence committed by religious people.
As KFOR in reports, “Isaiah Zoar Marin, 21, is accused of using a ‘long knife or sword’ to kill 19-year-old Jacob Andrew Crockett.” The motive, according to the story, “is still unclear.”
But here is the kicker: Police say “the case is not related to recent beheadings by Islamic extremists and said the case had no religious implications.”
As a friend on Facebook points out, however, the story has religious fingerprints all over it — and not Islam. Police say “Marin is a ‘heavy drug user’ and ‘religious zealot,'” and that he “had been watching YouTube videos related to his Christian beliefs” when he committed the murder.
I have no reason to doubt the Stillwater Police Department’s characterization of this as not religious in nature, but I have to wonder how this story would have played out were Marin a Muslim. Think of the New Jersey case from last year — when a Muslim beheaded two men in South Jersey. The conservative media, especially the blogosphere, ran with it, offering headlines and stories like this one (there are does if you do a simple Google search):
BOMBSHELL: A Muslim Beheaded Two Christians in NJ… And the Media IGNORED ItThe Islamic State in Iraq and Syria recently beheaded two journalists and an aid worker. They followed up this atrocious act by calling on their supporters in the west to carry out attacks and beheadings on non-believers as well.
Perhaps coincidentally, but probably not, there was soon a beheading on a public street in London, as well as the highly publicized beheading in Oklahoma.
Although the connection between these beheadings and radical Islam is so obvious that a blind person could see it, President Obama has repeatedly claimed that the “Islamic” State has absolutely nothing to do with Islam, a foolishly disconnected theme that the liberal media has tried to run with.
The point, according to The Conservative Tribune, is that these kinds of stories are endemic to Islam, which is why it tried to paint the murder of two Coptic Christians last year as a religious crime.
Yusuf Ibrahim was arrested after the decapitated bodies of two Egyptian Coptic Christians were found buried in a shallow grave in the backyard of a home in New Jersey.
The Coptic community was shocked and saddened by the horrific incident, which appeared to be a “ritualistic killing, religious in nature”.
Police described the killer as “ruthless” and “calculating” and said he deserves to be behind bars.
It should be noted that this occurred at about the same time that the Muslim Brotherhood was staking claim to control over Egypt, and were severely persecuting, crucifying, and beheading the Coptic Christian community in Egypt, one of the oldest Christian communities in the world.
Pretty strong stuff. And it is true that the police called him ruthless and calculating — not in a religious way, however. Rather, he was described as a “ruthless and calculating individual.” And police, as NJ.com reported in April, described Ibrahim as “shooting Hanny F. Tawadros, 25, and Amgad A. Konds, 27, in the chest during an argument inside a Mercedes Benz belonging to one of the victims.”
Given Ibrahim’s earlier arrest on car-jacking charges, one can probably assume that the motive for the crime being alleged probably has little to do with religion. But that has never stopped anyone from smearing Muslims to gain political points or to spread a message of hate.
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Hank Kalet 