Unless that religion could somehow disappear.
Posted on 03/30/2005 12:42:26 PM PST by quidnunc
The issue of a possible conspiracy in the murder of Senator Robert F Kennedy in 1968 has once again been resurrected with the publication of Peter Evans's book Nemesis and the recent calls from Hollywood celebrities and magazine writers to re-open the case. [1]
-snip-
Intriguing as Evans's thesis is, there is no credible evidence that a hypnotized Sirhan had been directed to kill Kennedy by the PLO — apart from hearsay and second-hand accounts by a number of individuals who were close to Onassis. The record indicates that Sirhan was indeed motivated by political considerations but he was an "unaffiliated terrorist" rather than someone who had plotted with a terrorist group.
Sirhan may have been mentally unstable and angry at a society that had relegated him to the bottom of the heap but there is sufficient evidence, originating years before the shooting, that Sirhan clearly saw himself, like today’s suicide bombers, as an Arab hero. The PLO and most Palestinians certainly judged him this way. And Sirhan’s lack of remorse is entirely in keeping with the terrorist way of rationalizing political murder.
Sirhan and his brothers could not, or would not, assimilate into American society. They abhorred U.S. culture, disliked the mores of the American people and, most importantly, hated the support Americans gave to the state of Israel. The family felt they were part of a minority group alienated and misunderstood within the larger community.
As most Americans were unaware of the Palestinian issue in 1968 very few journalists examined Sirhan’s background as a Palestinian Arab in an attempt to explain the tragedy. Instead, commentators wrote Sirhan off as yet another misfit with a gun who stalks and then murders a leading public official with no apparent motive except his own demons.
The Palestinian/Arab cause is the sine que non of the assassination. As a poor working class immigrant Sirhan identified with his downtrodden people living as refugees in Jordan, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon. The period 1967-68, the year following the Six Day War, became a crucial time in Sirhan’s life because it was the time when Israel became dominant in the region having successfully defended itself against Arab aggression. Having failed to eject the Jews from Israel/Palestine, Arabs throughout the world felt powerless and weak and Arab pride had been severely damaged. Their condition exaggerated Sirhan’s feelings of inadequacy even though he lived thousands of miles away from the conflict. Many "exiled" Palestinians, like Sirhan, sought retribution and began to formulate plans to kill innocent civilians and hijack planes. Sirhan’s answer to these problems took the form of killing a major American politician who advocated support for Israel. Sirhan said, “ … this momentum just took hold of me and by June 5th 1968 [the first anniversary of the Six day War] I couldn’t control it [anger] anymore.”
To the Western mind terrorists are deranged and evil. However, their acts are not the product of insanity but possess a logic all their own. Terrorists have rational, if sometimes bizarre, motives. It is also true that many terrorists (like Al Qaeda’s Ramzi Youssef) display symptoms of a psychopathic nature — they are cold blooded and carry out their acts of terror unremorseful. But their acts are not the products of delusional or irrational minds. Nor was Sirhan’s. He did indeed crave attention and success. He was depressed that society had relegated him to the bottom of the heap.He felt an allegiance and empathy with assassins of the past. And he dreamed of infamy. But without his sense of Arabness and without his hatred towards Jews that had their roots in his childhood indoctrination, it is unlikely Sirhan would have assassinated Robert Kennedy. All the hatred that spewed forth from Sirhan’s gun can ultimately be traced back to three sources — Anti-Americanism, Palestinian nationalism and anti-Semitism. And this may have been the first act in an international political drama that culminated in 9/11.
He was an Arab but not a Muslim.
http://www.danielpipes.org/comments/1928
Of course if you believe the conspiracy theorists then Sirhan was a fall guy anyway, his actions ever since have been weird to say the least. TBH there were plenty of people out to get the Kennedys, the Mafia were still pretty pissed at them.
http://www.crimelibrary.com/terrorists_spies/assassins/kennedy/4.html?sect=24
"Religiously, his doctrines changed often, the ones holding the longest interest being Baptist, Seventh Day Adventism and several forms of occultism."
He seemed like a messed up kind of guy.
Nah, it was Bush's fault.
Too bad your long, repeatedly shared, post is completely off topic. Kingsurfer's research really does show he was a Christian.
Muhammad advocated assassination to get rid of those who mocked him and Islam has been heavily into assassinations ever since then. As a way of political change and killing off kings,leaders and dynasties.
At one of his parole hearings, Sirhan told the panel he had been reading all of Robert Kennedy's books and that he felt like if he were alive today, that Robert Kennedy would want him to be released.
That night Jay Leno (I think) said, "Talk about bad luck; the one guy who would want him out and he killed him."
Agreed,something special is going on with Sirhan, he's getting special attention from Hyannisport, if you ask me.
Please also note my tagline
--the laast press release I saw on a Sirhan parole hearing noted the presence of Kennedy family lawyers--
LOL. Leno has some great writers. Do you ever check out the 'Late Night Jokes' on Newsmax? It's pretty funny.
PLO has always had *some Christians* and they had a lot more back then. Back in Sirhan Sirhan's day the PLO was primarily a national liberation movement, secondarily a Muslim Jihad movement
A Christian he was not. It appears he dabbled in more than just Christianity and never really settled on anything. But it's true he wasn't a Muslim and it's wrong to lay the assassination at Islam's feet.
People forget Pan-Arabism, Marxism, wounded pride and so on can be just as much a motive as religious zeal.
The "occultism" came after the killing, not before.
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