The Limits of Ecumenism
by Paul R. Hollrah
April 17, 2007

 

It was with a deep sense of sadness that the American people watched the convocation held at Virginia Tech’s Cassell Coliseum on Tuesday, one day after a troubled student, South Korean immigrant Cho Seung-Hui, calmly and deliberately murdered thirty-two students and faculty.  

 

The killing brought back memories of October 16, 1991, when a man named George Hennard crashed his 1987 Ford pickup through the front wall of a Luby’s Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas.  He stepped from the cab of his truck with two handguns and opened fire on the lunchtime restaurant patrons, killing twenty-three and wounding twenty others before taking his own life.

 

And it brought back memories of October 2, 2006 when a heavily-armed milk truck driver, Charles Carl Roberts IV, entered a one-room Amish schoolhouse in the village of Paradise, in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and took thirty-three hostages.  After releasing twenty-three hostages – the adult women, the boys, and the infants – he proceeded to shoot all ten of the remaining girls, execution style, before taking his own life.  

 

Such acts of wanton killing are relatively rare in our country, but they are nearly an everyday occurrence in other parts of the world, especially in the Middle East, where the forces of Islam use terror, and the threat of terror, to impose their will on others. 

 

So it was also with a deep sense of foreboding that we watched the Virginia Tech convocation, realizing that, in places like Iraq, Israel, and Afghanistan, such events could easily be a daily occurrence.  Our perspective on suicide bombings and mass killings has much to do with where we happen to live.

 

The official party at the convocation included President Bush, First Lady Laura Bush, Governor and Mrs. Tim Kaine, several senior university administrators, two representatives of the local Jewish community, a representative of the local Buddhist community, a Lutheran minister, and Dr. Sedki Riad, director of the Islamic Center of Blacksburg.
  
In his prepared remarks, President Bush said, “It’s impossible to make sense of such violence and suffering.  Those whose lives were taken did nothing to deserve their fate.  They were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time…”  He concluded by saying, “… on this terrible day of mourning, it's hard to imagine that a time will come when life at Virginia Tech will return to normal.  But such a day will come.”

 

As Dr. Riad followed the president to the podium just minutes later, he invoked the name of Allah, saying, “Death strikes every day and we hear and read about it in the media.”   Then, after quoting from the Koran, he said, “The Islamic faith reminds us... that to Allah we belong and to him is our return.”

 

Yes, the president was right; the 32 dead at Virginia Tech were in the wrong place at the wrong time… just like the 187 innocent men, women, and children killed that same day by an Islamic suicide bomber in Baghdad, and the twelve Iraqi policemen killed by Iraqi insurgents in a separate incident.   The policemen had their hands tied behind their backs and all twelve were shot in the back of the head.  Then, after severing the head of one officer, the insurgents paraded it before the video cameras for broadcast on Arabic television. 

 

So, will life at Virginia Tech ever return to normal, as the president suggested?  The mosques of Virginia are a hotbed of Islamic fanaticism.  And so long as they continue to preach the politics of hate and the destruction of western civilization, there will never be another “normal” day in Blacksburg, Virginia.  From the radical Muslim point of view, Cho Seung-Hui was only doing Allah’s work… the same Allah invoked by Dr, Riad, just feet from where the President of the United States sat.  

 

When Dr. Riad said, “Death strikes every day… ” and that, “… to Allah we belong and to him is our return,” his words were truly prophetic.  The Islamic insurgents in Iraq that day did their part to give true meaning to his words.  All of their wanton killing was done in the name of Allah.

 

Apparently it had not occurred to the university administrators, or to the convocation planners, that if Dr. Riad offered a prayer to Allah on behalf of those killed in the slaughter at Virginia Tech, millions of Muslims around the world, including many in Virginia, would be rejoicing at their deaths.

 

And while the Virginia Tech convocation was a fitting memorial to those who died at the hand of Cho Seung-Hui, and a necessary first step in the healing process, requiring the President, the Governor, and representatives of the, Jewish, Christian, and Buddhist faiths to share the stage with Dr. Riad was stretching the limits of ecumenism much too far.