Bloody Outrageous!

I know that I am far from the only one person with mixed feelings about what happened in the wake of the killing of Osama bin Laden. I was just as disturbed by the sight of partying Americans in their streets as I was at the sight of similarly celebrating Palestinians etc in the wake of the World Trade Centre attack in 2001. For Barack Obama to be using this as an opportunity to claim that the US can do 'anything' even smacks of an arrogance that the US is not accountable to anyone or anything, although I suspect that was not his intention with that remark.

Things have gotten way out of hand however with some outrageous comments by New Zealand MP, Hone Harawira. Mr Harawira, an indigenous Maori politician, has praised slain bin Laden as a freedom fighter. Quoting from a press report: "We have heard nothing but negative things about him from the Americans, but he fought for the self-determination of his people and for his beliefs," Harawira told Maori-language television on Monday.

This is simply outrageous. Bin Laden was not about 'self-determination for his people' at all. He was a militant religious extremist, who publicly rejoiced in the murder of thousands of innocents. The fact that this phenomenal act of murder actually included fellow Muslims, seems to have been overlooked by the bin Laden apologists. His actions inspired yet more acts of murder by extremist terrorists, including the Bali nightclub bombing in 2002.

Are we supposed to rejoice in all who murder for their beliefs? OK, let's start handing out Nobel Peace prizes to Adolph Hitler, Pol Pot and all the rest of the murdering filth everywhere. What about Ted Bundy - he had the belief that he should be allowed to brutally torture and kill people simply because he liked it. So should we be celebrating his pursuit of his beliefs???

Just as bin Laden did NOTHING to push towards peaceful reconciliation between the nominal Christian world and the Arabic, Harawira is giving his own credibility a shot in the foot and thus doing little for his ability to pursue Maori rights in a meaningful manner.

I am not that naive to expect the world to just simply all start holding hands, sitting in a circle while singing Kum Ba Yah, but wholescale murder by extremists is NOTHING to be praising as Harawira has effectively done.