TELEGRAPH – BLOGS – CRISTINA ODONE: Rowan Williams feels “uncomfortable” about the killing of Osama bin Laden. The man was unarmed, says the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the conflicting accounts that have emerged from the White House spread confusion and doubts.Archbishop Williams is a fine man, a good man. But he is dead wrong here. Summary execution, ie killing without trial, is just desserts for some tyrants. And Osama, the hate merchant and death peddler, was a tyrant to rank with some of the worst. His fate should be no better than theirs. Think of Benito Mussolini, who was executed by Italian partisans; he too was unarmed, but only his fellow fascists shed a tear or raised a voice in protest. Adolf Hitler cheated justice by committing suicide, but his death prompted confusion, just as in the wake of Osama’s killing. The febrile atmosphere in 1945, though, did nothing to alter the fact that Hitler was a personification of evil. Continue reading and comment » | Cristina Odone | Thursday, May 05, 2011
My comment:
As hard as it is to swallow, the Archbish had to say what he did because of Christian teachings. We lesser mortals don't want to hear it because it doesn't satisfy our baser instincts. To people who are less than good, sound practising Christians, revenge is more appealing. But for people with a higher calling, his words will find resonance.
In fairness to the man, one could hardly expect him to cheer on the killing of another, however despicable the acts he may have committed. It just wouldn't rhyme with the principles of his calling. Were he to have called for the killing of OBL, he would have been little better than the blood-thirsty imams we read about almost daily, the imams who call for the killing of the Jews and the Kuffaar. © Mark
A variant on this comment also appears here
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