T,H.U.G. L.I.F.E, and Terror in Dayton

WARNING: Some profanity.

Tupac Shakur coined an acronym: THUG LIFE. It stands for "The Hate U Give Little Infants Fucks Everyone". I apologize for the language, and I apologize for darkening the beginning of Rosh Hashanah for all of you, but a perfect (and awful) example of this happened on Friday in Dayton, Ohio. And the worst part of all is that nobody heard about it.

Last week, Ohioans recieved thousands of copies of Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against The West, a documentary film that parallels the rise of anti-Semitic Nazism in Germany and the rise of radical Islamic violence, also touching on the relationships between anti-Semitic Muslim leaders like the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, and Nazi Party officials, up to and including Adolf Hitler. The film was produced by the Clarion Fund, a controversial New York nonprofit dedicated "to educat (ing) Americans about issues of national security," with a focus on radical Islam. This Ohio effort was part of a mailing campaign in swing states which sent DVDs of Obsession via newspapers and mail. Allegations on DailyKos and the Huffington Post link these efforts to the McCain campaign; however, no hard evidence has been found.

On Friday, September 26th, about 300 people were gathered at the Islamic Society of Greater Dayton for dinner and prayers celebrating the coming end of Ramadan, a month in the Islamic calendar where Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset in commemoration of the revelation of the Qur'an to the Prophet Muhammad.

A child reported "two men with a white can spraying something into a window." Suddenly, people started coughing and fled the building. Dayton authorities suspect somone sprayed a "chemical irritant" into the mosque, which forced the members of the Society to get treatment for those affected. Further information from DailyKos , Huffington Post, and AfterDowningStreet claims that the irritant was sprayed into a room full of women and children.

Whether this had anything to do with the McCain campaign or not, or with the Clarion Fund or not...this kind of cowardice is disgusting. I will not make any accusations concerning outside players; however, the idea that such terrorism could happen in the United States grieves me to my heart.

Yes, I used the word terrorism. Let me explain. This is nowhere near the horrible morning we faced seven years ago, when we watched as innocent people died in New York, Arlington, and Shanksville. Nor is this close to the horrible suffering that our troops and the people of Iraq and Afghanistan have suffered by the perfidy of cowards abroad. But the goal of these people was the same--to inspire fear, to break resolve, to turn innocent people in a house of prayer into trembling victims in a dangerous place.

And the worst part of all? No major news outlet reported this. I had to go through two major politically liberal blogs (DailyKos and Huffington Post), as well as DemocraticUnderground (AfterDowningStreet's post was from DemocraticUnderground) to get to the Dayton Daily News site. This is domestic terrorism--why aren't CNN, NBC, and CBS covering this? Why are the two men jockeying for the nation's highest office silent?

I close with a passage from Matthew's Gospel:

"And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me. But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea."

-Matt. 18:5-6

For more information on this incident, please see:

DailyKos
Huffington Post
Dayton Daily News
AfterDowningStreet
StreetProphets

-Sam