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Sunday, August 15, 2004

I am an atheist and opposed to the taboo on criticism of religion. Thus there is no risk that I might be offended by the op-ed by Sam Harris (via Kevin Drum). Indeed I agree with his basic argument. However, I do think he should check some facts, since he appears to be some kind of journalist.

Via Drum's excerpt I learned from Harris "there are no Palestinian Christian suicide bombers". My second google search was for (suicide terrorist "christian palestinian")
5th on list http://info.jpost.com/C002/Supplements/CasualtiesOfWar/2003_02_06.html " Bethlehem, special forces arrested senior Tanzim commander Chris Benedict, a Christian Palestinian who coordinated and assisted Tanzim suicide bombers, including the one who carried out the bus attack in Jerusalem's Kiryat Hayovel neighborhood last year. "
Elapsed time less than 5 minutes.

I admit that Mr Benedict didn't personally commit suicide terror.

Now google (secular suicide bomber palestinian) 7th entry http://www.mediareviewnet.com/israels%20guide%20to%20making%20a%20suicide%20bomber.htm "Despite claims by the pro-Israel lobby of brainwashing by Muslim extremist groups, behind many suicide bombers lie real stories of despair, such as that of Wafa Idris, a secular Palestinian with no links to resistance groups. "

The source might be suspect, but the claim that young secular Palestinians are blowing themselve up is not.

also http://www.cdi.org/terrorism/aqsa-pr.cfm "the past six months saw the group [al Fatah affiliated secular al Aqsa martyrs brigade] engaging in an increasing number of suicide bombings inside Israel, literally outnumbering Hamas and the Islamic Jihad's suicide operations. The group was the first to use a female suicide bomber in a Jan. 27, 2002 operation."

While on Harris, he seems to have some other problems with little details as in his reference to "the New Testament book of Romans" which does not exist. He is probably referring to one of Paul's letter to the Romans.

also with reference to 9/11 he writes "Why did 19 well-educated, middle-class men trade their lives for the privilege of killing thousands of our neighbors?

9/11 report pp 231-2

Recruitment and Selection for 9/11
[snip]
Saudi authorities interviewed the relatives of these men and have briefed us
on what they found.The muscle hijackers came from a variety of educational
and societal backgrounds. All were between 20 and 28 years old; most were
unemployed with no more than a high school education and were unmarried.
[snip]
The three remaining muscle hijackers from Saudi Arabia were Satam al
Suqami, ....Suqami had very little education, "

Now shouldn't a journalist check some facts? This took me a total of about 20 minutes.

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