In the U.S., “such hatred for Muslims”—the kind that would lead someone to kill a teenager—is, thankfully rare. Of Americans who express hatred of Muslims, I do believe most profess to be Christians, just because it’s by far the most common religion in the U.S.
In Somalia, I don’t know what the situation is, except that most Somalis are Muslims.
Nor some Hindus, nor some of the other sorts of Muslims.
The headline seems a fair account of this particular man’s history of expressing Muslim-hate. And the victim was a Missouri teen. The OP guess that the murderer would prove to be a self-described Christian remains a reasonable one, all things considered, though as yet unconfirmed.
Thank you for the correction. I would be somewhat surprised still but less so now.
America in general isn’t very warm toward Muslims. Some polling data on American attitudes toward Muslims shows no major religious group with a positive attitude toward Muslims.
In order from least positive attitude to most, white Evangelicals, Jews, and white mainline Protestants are at the bottom. Catholics rate Muslims somewhat higher but still negatively overall, and Black Protestants, “nothing in particulars” and atheists are tied with each other above Catholics but see Muslims more negatively than positively. Agnostics rate Muslims the highest but still have slightly negative attitudes. No data is give for the feelings towards Muslims of minor groups like Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, Traditional African Religions’ practitioners.
Without more evidence of the religious identity of the killer, I can’t really be sure where he would be. Somali non-Muslims in the US, in my anecdotal experience, tend to be atheists or non-religious (like Ayaan Hirsi Ali). But he could have been Christian, why not.
I take it you’ve never heard of the War on Christmas or various other accusations of “persecution” Christians claim they face? “My god’s better than your god” is exactly the way a lot of Americans think it’s supposed to work. Provided, of course, that works that way for them and only them.
Thanks for that article. It does say that the killer is a Somali Christian, though the killing is not thought to be demonstrative of a deeper communal problem. Regardless, a very sad story.