It’s one thing when you go out and murder people that you don’t know, as happened in Paris. It’s another thing when you decide to go on a rampage to kill your colleagues, people that you’ve worked with for five years or more.

The SUV that Fyed and his wife were driving in after their shootout with police

This guy, this despicable Syed Farook and his despicable wife, shot and killed people that he had worked with for as long as five years.

People whose professional life was devoted to taking care of the disabled.

At a Christmas party, no less.

And yet, somehow, it doesn’t seem to be the kind of workplace dispute, like the 2000 rampage here in Wakefield, that normally is involved when someone goes on a rampage in their own workplace. Although we don’t yet know the precise motives, it is becoming more and more clear that this was an attack animated by religious beliefs, once again.

What kind of religious beliefs can someone possibly have that would make them think that this kind of thing is acceptable? Or condoned by God? Or even takes place in God’s name?

Richard Dawkins[1] recently got himself in a bit of trouble by saying “to hell with their culture” on the Bill Maher show, in a discussion about Muslims. Bill Maher has been pretty outspoken about his views, which has gotten him into the cross-hairs of Reza Aslan, among others. This is part of an ongoing debate whether attacks on Muslim culture should be seen as racist in some way.

Of course, Islam isn’t a race. It’s a religion.

I admire Reza Aslan[2] and have read several of his books, but I think that Bill Maher and Richard Dawkins may have a point. I’m on the fence on this one, but open to persuasion.

What I’m not on the fence about is what kind of an asswipe this Syed Farouk and his despicable wife are. Or were. Because they’re dead now. Good riddance. I’m glad they’re dead.

[1] Dawkins, a British ethologist and evolutionary biologist, is one of the “four horsemen” of atheism.

[2] Reza Aslan is an Iranian-American religious scholar who has recently written well-received biographies of both Jesus and Mohammad. Aslan has become a little bit less credible in his neutrality, from my perspective, since becoming a devotee of Sufism, the “mystical” branch of Islam.