Well.   That happened.

 

(Never fear folks, yours truly and the rest of the DWR crew were nowhere near the downtown where this incident took place.)

I’m used to commenting on and reporting on these types of events when they happen not where I live.  The events that happened on Saturday (September 30th) changed that.  Let’s consult the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation which has, so far, provided the best coverage of what happened and what is happening in Edmonton as a result of the recent attacks.

  “A 30-year-old man is in custody following a high-speed chase just before midnight through streets filled with bar patrons and football fans. A man stabbed a police officer with a knife and deliberately plowed into pedestrians on Edmonton’s busiest downtown strip, police say.

  Abdulahi Hasan Sharif is the man accused in the attacks, multiple sources tell CBC News.

  The chase ended after a white U-Haul van the man was driving struck four pedestrians and flipped on its side. Cst. Mike Chernyk was the officer injured in the violent altercation, sources tell CBC News.

  Edmonton police Chief Rod Knecht confirmed that a black ISIS flag was seized from a car where the police officer was attacked. The officer was not critically injured. The condition of the four pedestrians is not known [two still in hospital, two have been released, officer released home as well].

  “Based on evidence at the scenes and the actions of the suspect … it was determined that these incidents are being investigated as acts of terrorism,” Knecht said.”

I’m so very glad the global news media has repeatedly highlighted how effective vehicular homicide is for visiting death, chaos, and mayhem to innocent bystanders.   Go team sensational media…because ratings ( and bully to the larger picture and consequences).

The would-be murderous dude didn’t seem quite right as reported by his co-worker:

“A former co-worker of the Somali refugee CBC News has identified as the man arrested in a weekend attack in Edmonton says Abdulahi Hasan Sharif was an ISIS sympathizer years before Saturday’s violent events, and that he had reported him to police. 

Terrorism charges are pending against the suspect, who is in custody. Police haven’t identified Sharif by name, but multiple sources have identified him to CBC. 

Sharif’s former co-worker, who didn’t want to be identified out of concern for his safety, said:  “He would rant.

“It was very incoherent. He would just bounce from idea to idea, tangent to tangent, just about what he believed in and he definitely had genocidal beliefs, you could say.

“He had major issues with polytheists. He said they need to die. That sort of thing. I only had a handful of conversations with him about it; those only occurred when there were just two of us in the work room.”

Ah, there we go.  We all have problems with the damn polytheists, they ruin everything.  Sharif was mad as hell and wasn’t going to take any more of their bullshit(?).

There are larger issues colouring the events involved here.  The most obvious, of course, is religion.  So once again here we sit cleaning up after an episode of violence fuelled by delusional belief in a particular sky fairy mixed in, of course, with ideology that glorifies martyrdom and reward in the ‘afterlife’.  So much violence can be traced back to the super-neato fact that basically all religions are essential giant ‘othering’ machines.  Religion allows for easy distinctions to be drawn between those who believe the bullshit, and those who do not.  And of course, as soon as one can make in-group and out-group distinction, the process of changing ones thinking about other human beings (people like oneself) into heretics and unwashed heathens (less human and worthy of killing) can begin.  So, many thanks Religion (and religious belief) for the handy-dandy vehicle for reducing empathy and increasing violence between people in the world.

The other factor involved here (and sadly in Las Vegas), of course, is the way we teach males in our society to deal with problems.  The plague of male violence (and let’s not forget delusional religious thinking/belief) that we suffer through must be brought to an end, we must change the way we socialize the males in our society to not see violence as a viable option for solving their problems.

It is the only way forward.

[Source: cbc.ca 1, 2, 3]