Don’t give religious legitimacy to violent criminals

Here are three reasons why Anders Behring Breivik should not be called a “Christian terrorist”:

1. For individuals and organizations, religious affiliation creates an air of legitimacy. In addition, because religious faith can give profound meaning and comfort to our lives, religious beliefs are generally afforded deference and respect by society at large. Extremists know this and exploit it. This is why the Ku Klux Klan claims on its Web site to be “bringing a message of hope and deliverance to white Christian America” and why extremist organizations in the Middle East routinely claim to be acting in the name of God. To the extent that criminals attempt to create a religious framework for their activities, the rest of us should refuse to give their religious expression any legitimacy, deference, or respect. In practice, this means that we should strip criminals of the religious affiliations on which they so desperately depend.

2. Calling Breivik a “Christian terrorist” creates a false link between “Christianity” and “terrorism” and defames the good name of an entire religious community. This is how stereotypes are born. Just ask Congressman Peter King, whose ongoing defamation of Islam sows the seeds of religious hatred of the sort that can lead to hate crimes and discrimination against Muslims and anyone ignorantly perceived to be Muslim, including Sikhs.

3. Going a step further than the scope of the question presented, the word “terrorist” seems to give an exaggerated sense of importance to criminal activity and undermines the resilience of a law-abiding society. When you call someone a “terrorist,” it implies that they have something ideologically significant to say and that we should live in fear of them; when you call someone a “criminal,” it implies that they have no respect for human dignity and deserve to be removed from society, but that, in spite of their actions, our spirit will never be broken.

For the foregoing reasons, Breivik should be called a “criminal.”

Rajdeep Singh  | Jul 29, 2011 9:17 AM