Osama bin Rudolph?

After seven long years on the lam, Eric Robert Rudolph has finally been captured for his purported lead role in the Centennial Olympic Park bombing at the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta, a bombing of a health clinic in Birmingham, Alabama and other acts of terror attributed to him. As the Justice Department now searches for credible evidence linking him to these acts of terror, information is now beginning to spring forth about Rudolph's ties to Christian "terrorist" groups.

According to a recent Washington Post article, federal investigators believe Rudolph has had a long association with the radical Christian Identity movement, which asserts that North European whites are the direct descendants of the lost tribes of Israel, God's chosen people. Some investigators also think he may have written letters that claimed responsibility for a gay nightclub and abortion clinic bombings on behalf of the Army of God, a violent offshoot of Christian Identity.

According to Professor Michael Barkun, author of "Religion and the Racist Right: The Origins of the Christian Identity Movement", the apocalyptic and ethnocentric philosophy Rudolph adhered to "is practiced by over 50,000 people in the United States alone; [and] is prevalent among many right wing extremist groups and has been called the 'glue' of the racist right." Many of these groups view the Jewish people as descendants of Satan and African-Americans as descendants of apes. Followers tend to be involved in political movements opposing gun control, equal rights to gays and lesbians, and militia movements. Many of these militant apocalyptic groups are not even waiting for the "End Time" to occur. As published in "The Watchman", a publication of the Pennsylvania Christian Posse Comitatus quite proudly extols, "We are going to build the Kingdom of our God on this continent if we have to turn it into a Bosnia first!" A simple Internet search of the term "Christian Identity" will produce a startling number of offshoot groups proselytizing a similar racist and militaristic ideology. 

Although the vast majority of Muslims in the world would categorically detach the tenets of Islam from the acts of Osama bin Laden, it seems as though many within the government and media today are incapable of making that distinction. As unfortunate as it may seem, the reality is that Eric Rudolph used his religious beliefs as the fiery springboard for his horrific acts. In essence, Rudolph's actions were just as "Christian" as Osama bin Laden's actions were "Muslim". Furthermore, just as there are those in the world who may support bin Laden's actions against America, so too are there those within our own borders who encourage Christian militants like Rudolph.

If indeed this is truly a "war on terror" and not on Islam, President Bush and others within his administration must waste no time in condemnation and distancing themselves from Rudolph's ideology. For if they fail to adequately do so, the clear message that it sends to Muslims in America and worldwide is that "terrorism" shall only be applied to those with olive skin.

Arsalan Tariq Iftikhar serves as Midwest Communications Director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).