# Christian Terrorists? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 25, 2001, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-terrorists/83635 "2001-09-25T04:31:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![nani](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/58956e/32.png) [@nani](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nani)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-terrorists/83635/1 "2001-09-25T04:31:50Z")
I know weve been hearing so much about these fundamentalist Islamic (well, I guess that’s debateable) terrorists, who were almost certantly behind the attacks and who have been stirring up so much trouble the past few years. Well, what about the other side of the spectrum? Aren’t their any Fundamentalist Christian or Jewish or Buddhist or whatever terrorists? I vagualy recall something about the Irish Republican army, and of Course their are the Right-wing Moral-majority oddballs like Buchanan(Or maybe he is atheist… That will be my second question. 😉 ), Fallwell,Robertson, etc., but have any serious crimes been done recently? and if so, why haven’t we heard about them? ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-terrorists/83635/2 "2001-09-25T04:38:58Z")
Abortion clinic bombings. Murder of OB/GYN doctors who perform abortions. That probably fits your definitions. Keep in mind that the WTC terrorits don’t represent the teachings of islam “christian” terroritst don’t represent the teachings of Christ. ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-terrorists/83635/3 "2001-09-25T04:39:42Z")
Remember the Crusades? Those were pretty much the doing of Christian terrorists, or by those who carried out their atrocities in the name of Christ. They were no more Christian than the WTC terrorists were Muslims. ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-terrorists/83635/4 "2001-09-25T04:45:44Z")
I’m working hard on the **Buddhist** terrorist angle. It just doesn’t fit. I can remember some self-immolation protests, but none of that can be considered terrorism. ---
**Author:** ![nani](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/58956e/32.png) [@nani](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nani)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-terrorists/83635/5 "2001-09-25T04:56:06Z")
Well, all this is true. However, Just to Say, in case i was misinterpreted in my OP, Islam is a religion of peace and is one of the most tolerant of all faiths. these terrorists who claim to follow Allah actually are sinning against Allah and all of Islam blatently, as stated in the Qoran. Also, I said RECENT crimes. The Crusades and Inquisition and other such things while terrible and against the common sense, happened hundred of years ago and cannot be compared to the latest attacks. Also, don’t bring the Holocaust into this. Several relatives of mine died in that, so I may be a little biased against it, but Hitler and the nazis were NOT Christians or any other self-respecting church. They were pagans and atheists. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-terrorists/83635/6 "2001-09-25T04:57:58Z")
**beatle** : Can’t think of anything recent, but there were some unusual permutations of Buddhism in pre-modern Japan that generated activity that I would consider terrorist. - Tamerlane ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-terrorists/83635/7 "2001-09-25T05:00:44Z")
It’s important to distinguish between terrorists _for_ a religion and terrorists _who happen to be of_ a religion. The Irish Republican Army, and the other paramilitaries in Northern Ireland, fall into the latter category. They are no more “Christian terrorists” than the FARC or ETA. I do recall reading something about Buddhist terrorism not long ago. Can’t remember what it was though. ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-terrorists/83635/8 "2001-09-25T05:01:08Z")
There are so many examples of this. One of the most infamous is surely the slaughter of the French Huguenots on St. Bartholomew’s Day, 24 August 1572. In Paris, and the provinces, some 50,000 people are thought to have perished at the instigation of Catherine de Medici, mother of Charles IX. In addition to a wealth of reading matter which refers to this incident, the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre is graphically depicted in Patrice Chereau’s excellent film _La Reine Margot_. ---
**Author:** ![schplebordnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/91b2a8/32.png) [@schplebordnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/schplebordnik)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-terrorists/83635/9 "2001-09-25T05:01:52Z")
and of course… Nobody escapes the the Spanish Inquisition! ---
**Author:** ![Bob\_Scene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Bob\_Scene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bob_Scene)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-terrorists/83635/10 "2001-09-25T05:05:04Z")
Some of the unpleasantness that has happened in the former Yugoslavia in the past few years was done by Christians, with Moslems as a target. That’s a drastic oversimplification of the situation, but it shows that there are still atrocities being committed by Christians, with at least some of the motivation being religious. ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-terrorists/83635/11 "2001-09-25T05:07:23Z")
Oh, and the murder of Matthew Shepherd. ---
**Author:** ![Punoqllads](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@Punoqllads](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Punoqllads)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-terrorists/83635/12 "2001-09-25T05:14:55Z")
Didn’t folks in Aum Shinrikyo (of the sarin-in-the-subway attacks) consider themselves to be a sect of Buddhism? I’m sure all mainstream Buddhists wouldn’t consider them so, of course. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-terrorists/83635/13 "2001-09-25T05:25:06Z")
If the question is limited to recent (say, in the last 50 years) terrorism (a small group using random violence as opposed to majorities executing pogroms or genocide), I would say that the easiest to find would be various incidents in the former Yugoslavia (Catholics on Orthodox and Muslims, Orthodox on Catholics and Muslims), a very few incidents in the Biafran rebellion against Nigeria, several incidents in Lebanon (Christian on Muslim), the Ku Klux Klan of the 1960s, and some rather unsuccessful attempts by the Aryan Brotherhood or related hate groups. The Northern Ireland situation has very little to do with religion–OTOH, it could be argued that most/all of the other situations had way more to do with culture or politics than religion. ---
**Author:** ![portajon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c0e974/32.png) [@portajon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/portajon)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-terrorists/83635/14 "2001-09-25T05:31:41Z")
Nearly the entire population of native americans were wiped from this continent. They were seen as godless savages and killed in the name of god. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-terrorists/83635/15 "2001-09-25T05:59:18Z")
Lebanon Christian Phalangists and their massacre of Palestinian refugees at the Sabra and Shatillah refugee camps on 16-17 September 1982. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-terrorists/83635/16 "2001-09-25T06:01:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Punoqllads \* > \*\*Didn’t folks in Aum Shinrikyo (of the sarin-in-the-subway attacks) consider themselves to be a sect of Buddhism? I’m sure all mainstream Buddhists wouldn’t consider them so, of course. \*\* A blend of Buddhist ideas with a very strong Hindu flavour. (_Shiva_ is central.) The nasty stuff is all pretty original. ---
**Author:** ![Earthling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/90db22/32.png) [@Earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earthling)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-terrorists/83635/17 "2001-09-25T06:14:51Z")
Speaking of Hindus, the Tamil Tigers’ activity in Sri Lanka is either ethnic (minority Tamils against majority Sinhalese) or religious (Hindu against Buddhist) in origin. It gets really murky, and I think I’ll stop here 'cuz any more and it’ll go straight to GD-land. ---
**Author:** ![Chief\_Crunch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e8c25b/32.png) [@Chief\_Crunch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chief_Crunch)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-terrorists/83635/18 "2001-09-25T07:56:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Padeye \* > \*\*Oh, and the murder of Matthew Shepherd. \*\* I didn’t know Christianity is an indelible prerequisite for homophobia. If the thugs had been affiliated with Fred Phelps or were spouting off verses of Leviticus as they commited the horrible crime I could understand citing it as a Christian terrorist act, but there’s no evidence of that. ---
**Author:** ![11811](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/9d8465/32.png) [@11811](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/11811)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-terrorists/83635/19 "2001-09-25T11:20:43Z")
You run into the same conundrum that we are currently facing: Terrorists who call themselves Christian dishonor their faith as surely as do those who call themselves Muslims. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2001, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-terrorists/83635/20 "2001-09-25T13:35:20Z")
What? You sure about that Chrome? I was pretty sure that the Sermon on the Mount ahd something about “Blessed are those who massacre innocents in My Name, for they judge right from wrong better than God does.” It came right after the bit about “blessed are the peacemakers”, I think, and right before the bit about “blessed are the televangelists, for to them is the money.” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christian-terrorists/83635.md?page=2)