Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Why I Still Talk to Jesus -- In Spite of Everything

Home
Politics and Religion
Breaking NEWS: Bill Maher, Dawkins Fan ‘New Atheist’ Charged with Shooting Three Arab Students Execution Style– Hicks Loved Guns and Richard Dawkins

Breaking NEWS: Bill Maher, Dawkins Fan ‘New Atheist’ Charged with Shooting Three Arab Students Execution Style– Hicks Loved Guns and Richard Dawkins

Last updated on: March 12, 2015 at 5:34 pm by Frank Schaeffer

Breaking NEWS: Bill Maher, Dawkins Fan ‘New Atheist’ Charged with Shooting Three Arab Students Execution Style– Hicks Loved Guns and Richard Dawkins 2015-03-12T17:34:52-06:00 Frank Schaeffer

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

So do we have our first New Atheist-motivated sectarian killing? According to Zaid Jilani of Alternet (@zaidjilani)– Yusor Mohammad as well as her sister Razan Abu-Salha – were brutally murdered, with execution-style shots to the head. The same day, a self-identified Bill Maher, New Atheist fan, Craig S. Hicks, was arrested and charged with three counts of murder.

And if you are an atheist and angry that your good movement is being dragged into the blame game about this killing– now you know how religious people feel every time some religious person kills in the name of God and the story breaks blaming religion for all the evils in the world before all the evidence is in.

No national media outlet reported the story, provoking the hashtag #ChapelHillShooting, which soon trended worldwide. Finally, after midnight, Buzzfeed became the first national outlet to report on the killings.

Craig Hicks has been identified as a 46-year-old North Carolina man, and as of this writing, his apparent Facebook page is still up. Perusing the page reveals the fact that Hicks was both a fervent New Atheist – his page is littered with references to Bill Maher and disdain for religious belief – and a gun enthusiast.

Here he is showing off a pistol he owned last month:

Click to enlarge.

Here he is quoting Richard Dawkins about how 9/11 made him hate religion:

Click to enlarge.

And here he is proclaiming his fears of gun control:

Also, an apparent Amazon wishlist for “Craig Hicks” shows off a variety of armaments, including sniper scopes and a ghillie suit – a kind of camouflage suit.

Although the students appear to have been targeted for their religion, police officials are saying that the motive for the shooting has yet to be determined.

Here are some other offerings from Hicks’ his apparent Facebook page is still up as I posted this :

Crai

United Atheists of America

Radical Christians vs Radical Muslims, do you see any difference in both sides? (Dustin)

Craig Hicks

January 30 at 7:57pm ·

My thoughts EXACTLY!!!

TV host asks atheist Stephen Fry question about God, you have to watch what happens next

Gay Byrne’s face is priceless

GAYSTARNEWS.COM

Share

Craig Hicks shared Transcend Politics, Embrace Humanity‘sphoto.

January 27 at 9:46pm ·

Share

Michael Sherlock:Author

Atheism & The Middle East Problem. ~Jr Grover

Share

As the Muslim community in the area mourns, they’ve set up the Facebook page “Our Three Winners” to commemorate the lives of the three young souls taken from them far too soon.

Zaid Jilani is an AlterNet contributing writer. Follow @zaidjilani on Twitter.

Maybe — was a fan of Sam Harris too:

As Glenn Greenwald wrote in the Guardian: “Sam Harris, the New Atheists, and anti-Muslim animus”

Two columns have been published in the past week harshly criticizing the so-called “New Atheists” such as Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens: this one by Nathan Lean in Salon, and this one by Murtaza Hussain in Al Jazeera. The crux of those columns is that these advocates have increasingly embraced a toxic form of anti-Muslim bigotry masquerading as rational atheism. Yesterday, I posted a tweet to Hussain’s article without comment except to highlight what I called a “very revealing quote” flagged by Hussain, one in which Harris opined that “the people who speak most sensibly about the threat that Islam poses to Europe are actually fascists.”

Shortly after posting the tweet, I received an angry email from Harris, who claimed that Hussain’s column was “garbage”, and he eventually said the same thing about Lean’s column in Salon. That then led to a somewhat lengthy email exchange with Harris in which I did not attempt to defend every claim in those columns from his attacks because I didn’t make those claims: the authors of those columns can defend themselves perfectly well. If Harris had problems with what those columns claim, he should go take it up with them.

I do, however, absolutely agree with the general argument made in both columns that the New Atheists have flirted with and at times vigorously embraced irrational anti-Muslim animus. I repeatedly offered to post Harris’ email to me and then tweet it so that anyone inclined to do so could read his response to those columns and make up their own minds. Once he requested that I do so, I posted our exchange here.

Harris himself then wrote about and posted our exchange on his blog, causing a couple dozen of his followers to send me emails. I also engaged in a discussion with a few Harris defenders on Facebook. What seemed to bother them most was the accusation in Hussain’s column that there is “racism” in Harris’ anti-Muslim advocacy. A few of Harris’ defenders were rage-filled and incoherent, but the bulk of them were cogent and reasoned, so I concluded that a more developed substantive response to Harris was warranted.

So do we have our first New Atheist-motivated sectarian killing?

Like I said: And if you are an atheist and angry that your good movement is being dragged into the blame game about this killing– now you know how religious people feel every time some religious person kills in the name of God and the story breaks blaming religion for all the evils in the world before all the evidence is in.

Frank Schaeffer is a writer. His latest book —WHY I AM AN ATHEIST WHO BELIEVES IN GOD: How to give love, create beauty and find peace

Available now on Amazon

Follow Frank on Twitter www.twitter.com/frank_schaefferSee Frank’s paintings http://www.frankschaefferart.com/Follow Frank on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/frank.schaeffer.16Contact Frank at http://www.frankschaeffer.com/

Previous Post

February 11, 2015

Dear Patheos Reader: If You Are Running an "Ad Block" While Reading This You Are Stealing From Writers Like Me

Next Post

February 12, 2015 Proof Positive that Fundamentalist Home School Families Create a Private HELL and Must be Regulated

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Art children Christmas family parenting political humor politics religion sex Uncategorized

Select a Month May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz