Atheist man opens fire on Muslim students at UNC Chapel Hill

[King]

http://www.mediaite.com/online/3-muslim-students-murdered-in-capitol-hill-gunman-turns-self-in/

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http://www.mediaite.com/online/chapel-hill-shooters-facebook-page-full-of-atheist-postings/

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Damn atheists.

[King]

Police are officially calling it a parking dispute

http://news.yahoo.com/man-arrested-3-shot-death-north-carolina-080105974.html

But the sheer amount of anti-Islamic posts on the man's Facebook has me thinking this would not have escalated to gun violence if they were not Arab.

[Miles]

The scary thing for me personally is that I have a few Muslim friends who go there or have recently graduated UNC. This could have been them, assuming it was religiously-motivated. Very sad either way.

[Alcon]

There's almost no part of that Mediaite article that doesn't make me incredibly sad.

[°Leprechaun]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faulty_generalization

[RI]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faulty_generalization

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In-group_favoritism

[°Leprechaun]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faulty_generalization

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In-group_favoritism

Good link.

[DrScholl]

I think the page speaks for itself, if a Muslim had shot three atheists and was found to have a page full of anti-atheists posts, there would be no hesitation to generalize. Atheists can be just as extreme as religious fanatics, it just depends on the person. Extremism is extremism, no matter where it comes from.

[°Leprechaun]

I think the page speaks for itself, if a Muslim had shot three atheists and was found to have a page full of anti-atheists posts, there would be no hesitation to generalize. Atheists can be just as extreme as religious fanatics, it just depends on the person. Extremism is extremism, no matter where it comes from.

Correct. To think otherwise is just plain stupid.

[All Along The Watchtower]

Horrific.

Also, since it seems likely that his actions were motivated by his beliefs...well, I guess we shouldn't judge people by their beliefs, or condemn anti-theism in general for the actions of a minority. Everyone* is a unique individual/special snowflake.


_{*Apart from those scary Muslim fur-en-ers, of course.}

[Rockefeller GOP]

Disgusting, and very sad.

[Beet]

Well, there goes the superiority of the New Atheism.

[All Along The Watchtower]

Though TBF, I suspect that much of the Islamophobia in the US and Europe in recent years isn't really about hatred of religion per se, but the confluence of racism, xenophobia, and generalized fear of the "Other". Since 9/11, that fear has been particularly stark. 

Put it this way: I sincerely doubt that this guy actually knew much of anything about Islam as a religion, other than what the (Western) media reported.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Now this post sounds a bit silly in retrospect.

[Lief 🗽]

Weird that Bill Maher hasn't denounced this yet...

[Sbane]

Weird that Bill Maher hasn't denounced this yet...

I for one think every "moderate" atheist should have to denounce this.

[ingemann]

Now this post sounds a bit silly in retrospect.

I was thinking the same, but as a Christian I thought it would be bad taste for me to bring it up.

[°Leprechaun]

Now this post sounds a bit silly in retrospect.

I was thinking the same, but as a Christian I thought it would be bad taste for me to bring it up.

You thought right. "Thou shalt not kill" applies equally to everyone. There are plenty of atheists whether "moderate" or not (whatever that means) who think that people killing people for any reason, is both stupid and evil. If nothing else, most humans should know right from wrong.

[°Leprechaun]

Well, there goes the superiority of the New Atheism.

I wasn't aware that condoning murder was a tenet of "the New Atheists"

[°Leprechaun]

Carl Sagan was about as tolerant a person as anyone, and he was an atheist.

[Alcon]

err, this thread is getting weird...

Why are we assuming his actions were motivated by religious issues?  This would seem less presumptive if his feed was littered with references to anti-religious violence, or specifically seemed to target Muslims, but as far as I can tell neither is the case.  The one reference to Islam was criticizing "radical" Christianity and Islam together.  The one reference he had to violence I've seen was criticizing religion for causing it.

Of course, that makes him a hypocrite -- considering he murdered three people, probably the weakest charge against him -- but I don't really understand what here is making it so obvious to people that this was motivated by an ideological conviction relating to religion.

[°Leprechaun]

err, this thread is getting weird...

Why are we assuming his actions were motivated by religious issues?  This would seem less presumptive if his feed was littered with references to anti-religious violence, or specifically seemed to target Muslims, but as far as I can tell neither is the case.  The one reference to Islam was criticizing "radical" Christianity and Islam together.  The one reference he had to violence I've seen was criticizing religion for causing it.

Of course, that makes him a hypocrite -- considering he murdered three people, probably the weakest charge against him -- but I don't really understand what here is making it so obvious to people that this was motivated by an ideological conviction relating to religion.

Making assumptions before the facts are in is not a good idea.

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

I think this has a lot more to do with the victims being Muslim than with the perpetrator being an atheist, in that I really do have to admit that I doubt that the perpetrator being Christian or something would have helped.

[TJ in Oregon]

err, this thread is getting weird...

Why are we assuming his actions were motivated by religious issues?  This would seem less presumptive if his feed was littered with references to anti-religious violence, or specifically seemed to target Muslims, but as far as I can tell neither is the case.  The one reference to Islam was criticizing "radical" Christianity and Islam together.  The one reference he had to violence I've seen was criticizing religion for causing it.

Of course, that makes him a hypocrite -- considering he murdered three people, probably the weakest charge against him -- but I don't really understand what here is making it so obvious to people that this was motivated by an ideological conviction relating to religion.

Because for whatever reason we seem to have collectively given up on the idea that when someone goes crazy and shoots people the fault of it lies primarily on the guy who snapped and it's not in a vague sense "society's fault".

Whether he shot the men because of his anti-theist beliefs or not it's not New Atheism's fault he did it unless the New Atheists told him to; it's his own fault. The same applies to Islam, Christianity, or any other religion, ideology, or negation of.