Some of the infamous violent people who give religious ‘fundamentalist’ people a bad name are drinkers themselves – not teetotallers! Yet certain media reporters may have forgotten this. If a terrorist be Islamic and a non-drinker, then secular media may be tempted to sneer at teetotallers generally or Christian ‘fundamentalists.’ Many Christians frown on drinking (not only Moslems). Besides, alcohol often leads to wives being beaten up by their husbands – a more common tragedy than the terrorism of those who drink the same thing. This violence is always tragic. It was never justified – whether the perpetrator be drinking or not, male or not, terrorist or not, Islamic or not. (Clearly, the final example below was not associated with Islam.)
Drinker arrested for stabbing a French soldier
PARIS – French police arrested a young man Wednesday over the weekend stabbing of a soldier in Paris… Paris prosecutor Xavier Molins said the man, named as Alexandre D. and who turns 22 on Thursday, was a convert to Islam who had bought two knives and said a Muslim prayer shortly before stabbing Private First Class Cedric Cordiez in the neck on Saturday.
‘People in the neighbourhood found him a bit weird because sometimes we’d see him at the mosque, but on the other hand he drank alcohol. He was lost,’ local resident Kader Dahamni said.
Etienne Fontaine, 29 May 2013, France holds man for ‘religiously motivated’ soldier stabbing, AFP.
Mohammed Atta and friends splurging on alcohol – a week before September 11 attack
Atta’s bill for three hours of vodka drinking came to $48 (£33). When he drunkenly disputed the charge, Mr Amos intervened. ‘Of course I can pay the bill,’ Atta told him. ‘I’m an airline pilot.’ [Of course we all know the reports of Mohammed Atta’s terrorist role on September 11, 2001.]
Ian Ball in Miami, 14 Sep. 2001, FBI tracks down the Florida lair of flying school terrorists, The Telegraph.
Al Qaeda’s Disguise – Terrorists that Drink
JEAN-LOUIS BRUGUIERE, Chief Anti-Terror Judge, France: We have a lot in Europe, many, many cells. Many groups belongs to Takfir or share the values of Takfir- very, very, very radical. And all the members are living look like undercover. They are no Islamic-looking, you know? They have no beards. They have just a tie. They drink alcoholic beverage. They can-
LOWELL BERGMAN: They drink-
JEAN-LOUIS BRUGUIERE: If necessary, yes, have a sandwich with pork inside is no problem. So the visible signs, it’s quite impossible to discover. But they have, you know, two caps, two lives.
25 Jan. 2005, Al Qaeda’s New Front, Produced & Directed by Neil Docherty, Written by Neil Docherty and Lowell Bergman, Correspondent, Lowell Bergman, PBS.
Drinkers of Saddam Hussein’s government
The report, the details of which were confirmed by the [British] Foreign Office to ABCNEWS.com, claims Saddam’s government has been buying an average of 10,000 bottles of alcohol – much of it Scotch – and 50 million cigarettes – mostly U.S. brands – each week for the dictator’s military and political elite circle.
Leela Jacinto, 4 Oct. 2000, Saddam Imports Alcohol and Cigarettes for Food and Medicine, ABC News.
1880s: Early magistrates refused to prosecute mob violence against Salvation Army victims
In many places the publicans stirred up violent opposition against the Salvation Army, ‘who, like the silversmiths of the ancient story [Acts 19:23-41], could not help seeing that the hope of their unholy gains was going, if not already gone.’
The Christian, 6 Jan. 1881.
‘It was an open secret that the financial backers of these bullies were the owners of the brewing trade.’ Bramwell Booth, Chief of Staff, complained to the Home Secretary in 1881, ‘In nearly every town where there has been any opposition we have been able to trace it more or less, to the direct instigation, and often the leadership of either individual Brewers and Publicans, or their employees. The plan adopted is by treating and otherwise inciting gangs of roughs … to hustle and pelt, and mob the people.’
Cited by Clifton Shaw, 1999, Who are these Salvationists?, Salvation Army National Publications, ch. 8: Going to the People – Early Outreach, p. 134.
Catherine Booth noted the good fruits of the Army’s teetotal rule: ‘We have hundreds of men in The Salvation Army who have been the veriest slaves of drink for years, living and working only to get drink.’
Catherine Booth, 1883, Save Thyself.