Friday, April 26, 2013

How were the terrorists raised?

After the Boston Marathon Bombings, I am left with the question of where these two young men went wrong.  Why did they believe that harming innocent people somehow proved something larger to the world.  How is this idealism connected to being a "radicalized Muslim".  How can a person indiscriminately hurt and murder innocent people and think that illustrates a religion.  For all they knew, those young men were murdering other Muslims.  If you listen to the media, this somehow had something to do with becoming a "religious" extremist.

I think it has more to do with being young men raised by immoral and disconnected parents.  And this is why I think that.  From the coverage I have heard, the parents of these two young men were in conflict themselves.  It is alleged that the parents argued over the older brother and his boxing career.  The religious mother didn't agree with this practice.  The parents also were so quick to allege that there sons were innocent, and yet they didn't even know anything about the lives of their sons.  The father allegedly thought the older son was a famous boxer and the younger son was in medical school.  The mother is not in the US currently, and doesn't know if she will return any time soon, because she allegedly has a warrant out for her arrest due to a shoplifting charge that she skipped out on.  Who raised these two men?  Who cared about them and taught them right from wrong?

I am not a journalist.  I am not claiming that the above information is completely without error.  It is merely what I have pieced together from media accounts that I have heard.  I am not claiming that the decisions these two men made were completely due to the failures of their parents.  Many people have less that wonderful parents and turn out to be wonderful citizens.  My point is only that the we seem to grab a hold of their religious identity, before understanding their true identity.  These two young men seemed so disconnected and misguided.  It hurts my heart to think of the older brother leaving behind a little girl, who will not grow up with a loving father who could teach her about the world.  And the grieving families who are now missing family members.  And for what?

Teach your children morals.  Teach them to respect human life and care about something other than themselves.  Model love and acceptance along with discipline and self control.  Do your job, parents.  And perhaps we can all create a better world together.

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