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Editorial

Free Speech and Mass Crimes

Just a few days ago, a 28-year-old man used military class automatic weapons to kill 50 people while injuring dozens of others in two mosques in New Zealand.

And that was not enough for him. He wanted his success to be immortalized over the centuries. He delivered the carnage live on Facebook and also released a fascistic ‘manifesto’ of dozens of pages. He was, he declared, “a real fascist.”

Although Facebook rushed to delete the crime-related texts and images as quickly as possible, it is estimated that over one million people have seen them all over the world.

On March 17, a 37-year-old Turk opened fire on a tram in a Dutch city killing 3 people.

Both New Zealand and the Netherlands are among the most peaceful states in the world.

And yet…

What is happening? Has the world gone crazy?

But this also happened related to these events:

The White House on Sunday rushed to clarify that the President is not a supporter of white supremacists. Any attempt to connect President Trump with the killer in New Zealand is “absurd” said Mick Mulvaney, Acting White House Chief of Staff.

On the same day, on Sunday, President Erdogan, in his pre-election speech in southern Turkey, showed images of the mayhem in New Zealand and declared, “Together with all Moslems, our country, our nation, and I personally are targets.”

Are Trump and Erdogan responsible for these hideous acts?

Of course not.

But it is obvious that people who commit crimes of this magnitude do not have internal brakes.

These are extremely disturbed individuals who seem to believe that with these acts they are performing a great service, to a higher cause and ideology, something very important for themselves, their nation, their religion, and their gender, which in their view are threatened.

Thus, one murdered Moslems, the other murdered Christians…

We must point out that everyone who speaks publicly, in whatever capacity, but especially the leaders of countries, ought to be more cautious today about how they express themselves than in the past.

Because their words reach every corner of the Earth like flashes of lightning.

Because extremist elements all over the world are looking for an opportunity to be caught up in some cause that promotes violence.

And political leaders are often the role models they rely on to justify their insane actions.

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