Yesterday, in response to the terrorism tragedy in Paris, someone I know started posting tweets about various religious groups not being fanatical enough to commit violent acts.
It’s seems they think only Muslims are terrorists and all terrorists are Muslim.
Something in me snapped so here’s my story:
In my mid 20s I got pregnant accidently. My life really wasn’t sorted enough to raise a child alone and so I made the decision to have an abortion.
I went to one of the well-known abortion clinics in Sydney. In those days there was a little dance you had to do when you spoke to the Nurse/Counsellor to convince them that you were eligible for an abortion.
As the procedure started, a Christian religious fanatic came running into the clinic with a knife or an axe, he was there to kill the doctor. The doctor had to stop the procedure and leave me in the operating room. I wasn’t alone, there was a nurse there, but it really was a pretty low point in my life.
No one was blown up or hurt, luckily. But they could have been, very easily. That was his intent. And it made a rotten experience even more rotten.
In the US, these Christian religious nutcases have murdered, kidnapped, assaulted and bombed many doctors and clinics. The violent domestic terrorism organisation known as the Army of God has been responsible for significant violence. This is a real domestic terrorism issue in the US. Thankfully, in Australia, incidents are much rarer, but you may not know that a clinic was firebombed in Western Australia in 2009. A man was murdered by a Christian fanatic, intent on killing everyone invovled in a Melbourne abortion clinic in 2001.
So the next time you suggest that violent religious fanatics are only Muslims please remember my story.