When is it not an ideology?
It wasn’t ideology, it was jihad. Ohhhh ok then, that’s completely different.
A man who stabbed three people to death in a Reading park believed he was carrying out “an act of religious jihad”, a court has heard.
Khairi Saadallah, 26, stabbed to death James Furlong, 36, David Wails, 49, and Joseph Ritchie-Bennett, 39, during the attack in Forbury Gardens in June.
As part of his sentencing, a hearing will decide if he was motivated by a religious or ideological cause.
Ok, seriously, what is the difference? One has a god (or gods) involved and the other doesn’t, but is that a distinction that makes any difference? I don’t see it, myself. Theocracy is an ideology, and Islamism is both theocracy and (surely) an ideology.
Saadallah has admitted three counts of murder and attempted murder, but denies he was motivated by an ideology.
Prosecutor Alison Morgan QC told the court he “executed” his victims and intended to “kill as many people as he could” in the name of violent jihad.
Doing something in the name of violent jihad is doing it at the behest of an ideology. Isn’t it?
Which is worse and what’s the difference in the sentence? if it’s religious are the victims considered almost dead?
If it’s ideological, that’s just common, grubby, human poltics. If it’s religiously motivated, then that’s lofty, principaled and much, much nobler. As an added bonus, God ends up being an unidicted co-conspiritor.
I think “if he was motivated by a religious or ideological cause” in the article is misleadingly ambiguous. I think the question being decided is whether his motivation was any one of religious/ideological (/political), without distinction.
From https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jan/11/reading-attacker-khairi-saadallah-given-whole-life-prison-sentence (written after sentencing)
Sweeney added: “During the course of the attack and afterwards, and because he was seeking to advance a political, religious or ideological cause, the defendant was shouting in Arabic, ‘God is the greatest’ and ‘God accept my jihad’.”
Please, don’t give our own religious zealots any ideas.
This feels sinister. First, draw a line between religious and ideological motivation. Then file murder under “religious freedom”?