NIU shooter studied Arabic, sympathetic to Hamas...

[Ed Mahmoud]

I still would say the odds favor a random psychopath who just snapped, but there is a small chance that a random psychopath considered his rampage a terrorist/political act.

[Ed Mahmoud]

To clarify, although "Christian terrorist" attacks are a fairly small minority of terrorist attacks, I believe the Florida abortion doctor shooter claimed he was doing it in the name of Christianity. It doesn't mean any mainstream Christian group would ever encourage that kind of action. (The "Reverend" Phelps of the Westboro Baptist church that started out protesting and screaming homophobic insults at the surviving family and friends of AIDS patients, and has progressed to screaming homophobic insults at the families of Iraq and Afghanistan war dead, for some reason, may consider himself Christian, but I doubt anyone outside his congregation does).

This guy probably had no ties to al Qaeda or any other Islamic terror groups, but may have been motivated as a 'freelance' jihadi. Or, he might have just been a complete nutcase hearing voices in his head he couldn't resist.

[MiamiensisWx]

The point is that religious extremists exert too much political influence.

[Ptarmigan]

A lone wolf terrorist not part of any organization is just as dangerous as someone who belongs to a terrorist organization.

[Ptarmigan]

To clarify, although "Christian terrorist" attacks are a fairly small minority of terrorist attacks, I believe the Florida abortion doctor shooter claimed he was doing it in the name of Christianity. It doesn't mean any mainstream Christian group would ever encourage that kind of action. (The "Reverend" Phelps of the Westboro Baptist church that started out protesting and screaming homophobic insults at the surviving family and friends of AIDS patients, and has progressed to screaming homophobic insults at the families of Iraq and Afghanistan war dead, for some reason, may consider himself Christian, but I doubt anyone outside his congregation does).

This guy probably had no ties to al Qaeda or any other Islamic terror groups, but may have been motivated as a 'freelance' jihadi. Or, he might have just been a complete nutcase hearing voices in his head he couldn't resist.

I have read from families who defected from WBC that Fred Phelps is not a very religious person.

[Cryomaniac]

To clarify, although "Christian terrorist" attacks are a fairly small minority of terrorist attacks.

It really depends where you are.

[Ed Mahmoud]

The IRA are not a 'Christian" terrorist group, even if most of their members are nominally Roman Catholic. They started out as a national liberation organization, and even had Jewish members (there was a Dublin mayor, Briscoe, IIRC, who was Jewish and in the IRA). After they basically got what they wanted, an Irish free state covering all the people living in a majority Irish-Catholic area, they evolved into a Marxist group with ties to the PLO and Libya, and have further splintered now that they are as much a simple criminal enterprise as a terror group.

The Protestant majority in Northern Ireland are "Scots-Irish", moved from Scotland to Ireland after the conquest of Ireland to dilute the population not loyal to the crown. Religion is an element, but it isn't as simple as 'Catholic vs Protestant'.



The IRA never bombed veteran's parades or pubs in the name of the Pope or Jesus.


There is a difference between terrorists who are Christians (at least nominally), and Christian terrorists. The difference being motivation. The PLO, through the 60s and 70s, while being majority Muslim, was not an Islamic terror group. They were nationalists with Marxist leanings, and Soviet support. (And prominent terrorists, such as George Habash, of the PLO splinter 'The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command', was nominally a Christian). Only when they started losing members to Islamic Jihad and Hamas, which were claiming Islam as a motivation, did the PLO, and its succesor political party, Fatah, start taking on the trappings of an Islamist motivated organization.

[Cryomaniac]

The IRA are not a 'Christian" terrorist group, even if most of their members are nominally Roman Catholic. They started out as a national liberation organization, and even had Jewish members (there was a Dublin mayor, Briscoe, IIRC, who was Jewish and in the IRA). After they basically got what they wanted, an Irish free state covering all the people living in a majority Irish-Catholic area, they evolved into a Marxist group with ties to the PLO and Libya, and have further splintered now that they are as much a simple criminal enterprise as a terror group.

The Protestant majority in Northern Ireland are "Scots-Irish", moved from Scotland to Ireland after the conquest of Ireland to dilute the population not loyal to the crown. Religion is an element, but it isn't as simple as 'Catholic vs Protestant'.



The IRA never bombed veteran's parades or pubs in the name of the Pope or Jesus.


There is a difference between terrorists who are Christians (at least nominally), and Christian terrorists. The difference being motivation. The PLO, through the 60s and 70s, while being majority Muslim, was not an Islamic terror group. They were nationalists with Marxist leanings, and Soviet support. (And prominent terrorists, such as George Habash, of the PLO splinter 'The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command', was nominally a Christian). Only when they started losing members to Islamic Jihad and Hamas, which were claiming Islam as a motivation, did the PLO, and its succesor political party, Fatah, start taking on the trappings of an Islamist motivated organization.

I know that, but people always say "oh, you don't get any christians who are terrorists".