I call it a cowardly attack of the worst kind. Two men on a motor bike pull up 
alongside a woman on her way to work, one of them jumps off and shoots her at close range. She was defenceless and unarmed. Her crime was to be a Christian woman.
The Taleban claimed responsibility for this despicable murder, accusing her of spreading Christianity. Are they able to hang their heads in shame?
Gayle Williams, 34, leaves behind a legacy of her warm hearted generosity towards her killer’s countrymen in Afghanistan. She continued working there for the Christian organisation Serve Afghanistan, despite the death of three women by the Taleban in August who were judged to be "foreign spies". She knew she was taking risks.
The charity focuses on providing education and training for people with disabilities. Gayle had been there for two-and-a-half-years and was managing a community development project focused on disabled people. She was trying to make a difference to their lives.
How could someone as good as Gayle be considered a threat and executed in such a cold blooded way?
Cowards, cowards, cowards…
That’s really low, Ellee. To think they try and justify it.
That is lower than low. Such a waste of a lovely woman trying to help others.
Very sad Ellee.
Sometimes it just all seems so hopeless and this is one of those times. They would rather be “right” to their way of thinking than allow help for their people, even the most vulnerable.
I quite agree Ellee – quite sickening.
I wonder how the people Gayle had helped and was helping feel about these murdering cowards. I could never have Gayle’s courage to work there.
Alas Elle, not that I condone murder under any excuse or pretext
But in the war for the ‘control’ of people’s minds and/or allegiance
perhaps aid workers should leave the label ‘christian’ or ‘muslim’ or ‘hindu’ or ‘buddhist’ back at home.
Ironically, no matter how many people are willing to die for their faith, there are just as many people if not more willing to kill & die for their beliefs.
Because the Taliban are fanatical and ruthless
Bravo for this one, Ellee.
People must speak out about these atrocities. There is no justification for this behavior, no cultural allowance we can make.
This was an unprovoked cold blooded murder, Ellee. The Taliban crossed the line between choosing to be human beings or murderers without any conscience as far back as the 1980’s when they organized. I only wish we had a president like Golda Meier who could put a stop to this and bring the perpetrators of the attacks on the US and in The Tube in England to Justice. There can be no diplomacy with these terrorists. They are murderers and I am very, very saddened to learn of Gayles senseless and tragic death. Very sorry, Ellee. My thoughts and prayers are with you and her family at this terrible time!
That’s religion, I’m afraid. All very sad.
Far greater atrocities have been committed by Christians, most notably the Catholic Church.
Pardon the jump-in Ellee, but I can’t let Mr. Electro-kevin’s statement slide.
It is not religion. It is crime in the name of religion. Crime wearing a disguise of religion.
You, Mr. Electro-kevin see this as analogous to unfortunate events in the distant mists of history? Certainly, crimes were committed in the name of Christianity, too, by criminals disguised as Christians. And, often, as kings.
What examples would you cite of analogous acts by alleged Christians at present?
Is it OK for people to be slaughtered because some monsters, disguised as Muslims, are three or four or eight hundred years behind their “Christian” counterparts? What are you saying?
This has nothing to do with religion and everything to do with crime. And we in the West, and civilized people all over the world, must not lose sight of that for a moment.
Richard Dawkins puts this far better than I ever could. After reading this book I can see that not only is religion nonsense – it’s also dangerous nonsense.
And before anyone says it …
Hitler was a Catholic and Nazi belt buckles were inscribed ‘Gott Mit Uns’
People DO kill others and themselves purely out of the delusion that is religion.
As for analogous acts by Christians how about anti-abortionists killing doctors outside clinics for starters ?
cowards, cowards, cowards? Indeed they are. I would describe them as scum, scum, scum – evil bigots who hide behind a partiularly twisted interpretation of Islam.
There’s nothing ‘twisted’ about this version of Islam at all.
You don’t need a copy of the Qu’ran – just go straight to the blood thirsty Old Testament from which it is derived.
Another example of where Christianity have committed ‘analogous’ acts:
The invasion of Iraq – perpetrated by a Christian President who admits that “God told me to do it” supported to the hilt by his British lacky who went against the will of his people and came out as a Catholic but only until after his resignation as Prime Minister.
This is a religious crusade in all but name.
The way that Christianity can be said to have evolved further than Islam over ‘eight hundred years’ (as The Curmudgeon states) is that Christians have become less likely to take their scripture so literally – in other words they accept that it is not true.
“Certainly, crimes were committed in the name of Christianity, too, by criminals disguised as Christians. And, often, as kings.”
At the fall of the mighty Roman Empire it was decided that centurions would become priests and that Emperors would become Popes.
At the fall of the mighty Roman Empire it was decided that centurions would become priests and that Emperors would become Popes.
Poor Mr. Electro-kevin. Your grasp of history is as weak as your arguments. But, unfortunately, you are not alone and so must be rebutted.
Persons praying outside abortion clinics, even the ones holding up horrific photo enlargements of the abortionists’ stock-in-trade, may be religious. Anyone who would kill an abortionist or a member of his or her staff, or bomb the building, is a criminal, plain and simple, whatever religious justification the criminals may try and cloak themselves in.
But you seem unable to grasp the distinction.
Nor was Hitler a Catholic in any meaningful sense. While he may have been baptized as a Catholic, Hitler and most of the senior Nazis were trying to invent their own pagan cult of the Aryan. A pseudo-Christianity — properly channeled in Nazi directions — was tolerated but a lot of religious (including Catholic priests) were chucked into the concentration camps. Many did not come out.
To equate the invasion of Iraq with a “Crusade” would ingratiate you with the Taliban… right until the moment they strike off your head for being irreligious. Granted, Mr. Bush’s invasion of Iraq seems today to have been spectacularly ill-advised. At the time, though, the Americans and every other Western nation believed… on the basis of apparently faulty intelligence… that Iraq was stockpiling WMDs. The Americans wanted to enforce UN resolutions… most of the decadent European nations were willing to sit back and do nothing, though they had approved and had helped to craft those resolutions. They believed the same reports but they were unwilling to act in concert with other nations in the name of collective security. Only the British were willing to go along.
All the Western nations were wrong about Iraqi WMDs. The Americans were horribly wrong about what force it would take to occupy and hold the country — and we can certainly debate whether disbanding the Iraqi Army was foolish as well. In fact, I agree that there is a long list of political, military and even cultural mistakes that you can rightfully pin on the United States concerning Iraq — but the invasion of Iraq was no “Crusade” even if Mr. Bush said he believed God had brought him to that moment.
The funny thing about Americans and international agreements: We have (I think for the most part) taken them seriously. Which is why we don’t enter into them lightly. The Europeans can sign the Kyoto Protocol or the Law of the Sea Treaty because they will be ignored the moment it is convenient or expedient to do so. The Americans don’t because they are unwilling to pay the price the documents demand. How charmingly naive those Americans are! They actually think this stuff is on the level. Of course, in America we might think the Men of Munich taught you the folly of entering into agreements that you do not mean to keep.
And, finally, just out of curiosity, with regard to your reference to Mr. Blair’s conversion, all these years after Henry VIII and Bloody Mary and the expulsion of the Stuarts… what do you have against the Catholic Church?