In March of last year, a man named Arid Uka from Kosovo shot and killed two U.S. airmen at the Frankfurt, Germany, airport. His official charges were 2 counts of murder and three counts of attempted murder. According to the record the court ruled that, “on March 2, 2011, the perpetrator -- who was born in Kosovo, grew up in Germany and had no prior convictions -- executed an Islamically-motivated attack on a group of members of the U.S. Air Force. He killed two U.S. soldiers and seriously wounded two other soldiers in an attempt to kill them.” The men he shot were on their way to Afghanistan, were they were subject to open fire from Arid Uka while they were boarding a shuttle to Ramstein air base. The shooter described as an “Islamic extremist,” is denied the potential for bail for 15 years which is a common sentence in Germany.
I chose this particular article because I just read about Ethnicity and Religion in our “Global Problems,” where it introduces us the ideas of religious extremists and Islam. What I find incredible about this is that Islam was founded on a religion that follows Muhammad’s ideas, and follows the holy book of the Qur’an; something that is sacred and follows a strict code of moral rules. Then to compare that to a definition of a religious extremist who “holy very strict interpretations of their faith traditions and sometimes appear willing to use force to enforce these ideas.” Though it seems like these are closely linked by definition, it still confuses me as to why people like Uka would interpret their religions’ teachings into acts of violence and murder.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/10/world/europe/germany-us-shooting/index.html?hpt=wo_c2
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