Blame The Beheading Of Lee Rigby On Madness Not Muslims- Says Russell Brand

In response to the beheading of Lee Rigby in Woolwich, England, actor Russell Brand (who himself looks a bit loony) posted on his Twitter feed:

“That bloke is a nut. A nut who happens to be Muslim. Blaming Muslims for this is like blaming Hitler’s moustache for the Holocaust.”

As a result of some Twitter flak for his comment, he wrote a piece for The Sun, explaining why he feels we need to blame the barbaric act on "madness not Muslims." Acknowledging his "Hitler's moustache" analogy was "glib" and "imperfect", he goes on to justify why we shouldn't blame this on religion.

There is something about the arbitrary brutality, humdrum High Street setting and the cool rhetoric of the blood-stained murderer that evokes a powerful and inherently irrational response.

When I heard the word “beheading” I felt the atavistic grumble that we all feel.

This is inhumane, taboo, not a result of passion but of malice — ritualistic. “If this is happening to guiltless men on our streets it could happen to me,” I thought. Then I watched the mobile phone clip.

In spite of his dispassionate intoning the subject is not rational.

Of course he’s not rational, he’s just murdered a stranger in the street, he says, because of a book.

In my view that man’s severely mentally ill and has found a convenient conduit for his insanity — in this case the Koran.

In the case of another mentally ill and desperate man — Mark Chapman — it was The Catcher In The Rye. This was the nominated text for his rationalisation of the murder of John Lennon in 1980.

He claims he's read Catcher in the Rye and some of the Quran and nothing in either compelled him "to do violence." That's because he says he's not nuts, but it's also because he's not Muslim. I understand his appeal for calm to prevent retaliatory attacks, even Rigby's family said as much, but denying it has anything to do with religion is very dangerous. The hundreds of thousands of militant, radical extremists around the world (some of whom live in England) who incite violence, or kill in the name of Allah can't all be mad.

So maybe we shouldn't blame it on Muslims, but we sure as heck can blame it on  Islam.

Read his whole commentary here.