[T]his past Tuesday, the FBI arrested 26-year old Christian radical Justin Carl Moose in Concord, NC for “providing information to create explosives” to “blow up a North Carolina abortion clinic.” Through his conversations with an FBI informant and his Facebook page, Moose expressed virulent “anger at abortion doctors, President Barack Obama’s health care plan, and plans to build a mosque near ground zero in New York city.” He goes on to describe himself as “the Christian counterpart to Osama bin Laden” who “has learned a lot from the muslim terrorists and have no problem using their tactics”
Since 9.11, this country has been rightfully focused of the continued and ongoing terrorist threat we face. We’ve started two wars (only one of which has had anything to do with combating terrorism), and we’ve shed untold blood and treasure to fight terrorism outside our borders…which, as it turns out, is only half the battle. We continue to ignore the other half of the battle against terrorism at our own considerable peril.
Just as there are an unknown number of radical Islamofascist zealots focusing on the destruction of our country, there are also American citizens equally willing, ready, and perhaps even able to effect our destruction from within our borders. One needs only to trot out the usual suspects- Timothy McVeigh, Scott Roeder, Eric Hill, Eric Rudolph, ad infinitum, ad nauseum- to get the idea that terrorism is not a phenomenon limited to Swarthy Brown People who pray to Mecca. Terrorism is not a function of faith or skin color…yet there are far too many Americans who believe that it can’t be terrorism if an act of random, senseless violence is committed by a White Christian. There’s a tendency among too much of the media and the general population to soft-pedal what is in fact terrorism as the act of a solitary, disaffected loner with an anger management problem. This sort of willful ignorance ignores the painful reality that there have been far more acts of terrorism committed on American soil by White Christians than by Swarthy Brown People.
Justin Carl Moose is but the latest iteration of what can only be described as American Taliban, that sick, twisted minority of (otherwise decent) American Christians who claim the right to kill and maim in the name of their flavor of God. That Moose can with no hint of irony compare himself favorably with Osama bin-Laden should prove that his “Christianity” is as much about the teachings of Jesus Christ as bin-Laden’s is about the teachings of Mohammed. Islam and Christianity are not the problems here. Hatred, ignorance, and criminally negligent intolerance are.
“Whatever you may think about me, you’re probably right,” he wrote on his Facebook page, according to the affidavit.
“Extremist, Radical, Fundamentalist…? Yep! Terrorist…? Well, I prefer the term ‘freedom Fighter.’”
I highlight Moose not because I take his beliefs seriously. What I do take seriously is his conviction that his beliefs represent the One, True, and Only Faith © …and his willingness to kill those who would stand in the way of the establishment of a pure dominionist theocracy. I highlight him because there are many other Americans ready, willing, and able to fight and kill for their twisted, bastardized Christianity because they believe they have the absolute right to do so. Moose’s brand of Wahhabist Christianity is a legitimate national security threat…not that anyone in government or the media seem willing to recognize it as such.
9.11 may have focused our attention on the threat we face from outside, but a realistic, informed view would indicate that 9.11 was an aberration. Warning signs were missed, the Bush Administration got lazy, and we were left exposed. As horrible as 9.11 was, I don’t believe that it represents the gravest threat we face. Difficult though it may be to face up to this, the gravest threat to our safety and security doesn’t come from Swarthy Brown Islamofascist Zealots. No, the most serious threat comes from people who look like you and me. Until, and unless, we come to grips with that reality, Homeland Security will remain an oxymoron.
Or do we have to wait for the next Oklahoma City or the next abortion clinic bombing to wake us from our collective torpor?? How many more innocent Americans must die before we wake up and smell the cat litter?
Justin Carl Moose is no more a “Christian” than he is a “freedom fighter”. He’s an intolerant, cowardly zealot who harbors an intense and anti-democratic desire to force his narrow, hate-filled belief system upon all Americans. To Describe him as “American Taliban” doesn’t begin to do him justice. The reality, though, is that Moose and people like him represent a far bigger threat to our security than anything Osama bin-Laden could come up with. It’s long past time that we woke up and recognized this threat.
