Death to Moussaoui?
I’ve been listening to a lot of the arguments, both pro and con, of putting Zacarias Moussaoui to death. While I understand the calls for a life sentence from the group that does not believe in the death penalty and the calls for the death penalty from all those who support the death penalty there is a group that I don’t understand. There is a group who otherwise believe in the death penalty that argue for life in prison for Moussaoui because death is what he wants.
What Zacarias Moussaoui wants is not death. He wants the results of martyrdom, which to him is a special place in heaven with a passel of virgins to care for him. The people who want to deprive him of his wishes don’t believe that he will be rewarded so why do they want to “deprive” him of his wishes when they don’t believe those wishes are achievable by him even in the death that he wishes for?
Homeland Security | Larry D. Burton | 12 April 2006 |
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By Dan Lyke, 4/12/2006 @ 6:15 pm
Or, he’s a true believer and overestimates his own import, and not only wants his post-martyrdom result, but the change that being a martyr could bring. He’d like to be a catalyst, a rallying cry, whose name is used to inspire acts which further his cause.
If David Koresh hadn’t gone down in flames, if Randy Weaver had been quietly arrested, perhaps (although not as definitively) if Jesus hadn’t been nailed up then they’d be footnotes to some government papers somewhere.
And though I’ve no belief in Moussaui’s afterlife and in an individual case think the world would be a better place for his absence, I too have some reservations about the symbol he could become. Although at this point given some of the looniness he’s exhibited, I’m not sure if the truly whacked out will notice the addition or absence of one more symbol.
By Dan Lyke, 4/13/2006 @ 6:16 pm
I take it back. According to news reports today, in testifying on his own behalf he’s making the argument that it’d be wrong to kill him because he wants martyrdom.
I say we call his bluff.