Don’t judge this too harshly. After all, don’t we hear about shootouts in churches all the time, over who has to clean up after the potluck supper, or who gets to be head of the parish council? Don’t Believe Your Lying Eyes, It’s Really A Religion of Peace Update: “Pakistan mosque shootout leaves 18 injured,” from the Associated Press, November 17:
A shootout in a mosque in south-western Pakistan, caused by a dispute over who should lead prayers on one of Islam’s most important holidays, has left 18 people injured, police said today.
Followers of the two rival religious leaders pulled out weapons and began shooting after arguing over which one should start Eid al-Adha prayers at a small mosque in the Khuzdar district of Baluchistan province, Javed Ahmed, a police official, said….
And given the ever-present journalistic imperative to whitewash Islam, AP hastens to assure us that this is not the norm in a paragraph that would never find a counterpart in a story about a pedophile priest or money-grubbing evangelist:
Millions of people throughout Pakistan have been peacefully celebrating Eid al-Adha….
Oh, well, then!