Good riddance to Faisal Shahzad
Faisal Shahzad is guilty of ruining the lives of his wife and children permanently. They have lost a father, and they have gained a label which will haunt them forever.
Faisal Shahzad, the man who tried to set off a car bomb in New York’s Times Square was sentenced to life in prison, and one can only thank the US Court for putting him behind bars and (hopefully) closing the door on yet another messy chapter in our two countries’ fatally conjoined history.
I don’t care if Shahzad, the self-proclaimed 'Muslim soldier' was a mere pawn in a larger conspiracy and therefore deserves some form of leniency. I also do not buy the argument that a man who travels to Fata to give Hakimullah Mehsud a brotherly hug was a ‘confused soul’ who spiralled down a path of extremism which had less to do with him and more to do with the anti-Muslim global climate and his own sense of alienation in a hostile country. Hogwash.
We are talking about a man who sat in front of his computer using Internet webcam sites to monitor Times Square, trying to calculate where a bomb would be most likely to cause maximum bloodshed. A man who, on the day of his sentencing chooses his moment in the limelight to say, "the war with the Muslims has just begun".
This same individual on his ‘noble mission’ to slaughter civilians is also guilty of ruining the lives of his wife and children permanently. They have lost a father, and they have gained a label which will haunt them forever. While the court does not count this as one of his criminal offences, I do, and for that reason I believe Shahzad deserves a life sentence and then some. Lock the gate, throw away the key, and lets all hope this will be among the last headlines we see regarding this tragedy.
I don’t care if Shahzad, the self-proclaimed 'Muslim soldier' was a mere pawn in a larger conspiracy and therefore deserves some form of leniency. I also do not buy the argument that a man who travels to Fata to give Hakimullah Mehsud a brotherly hug was a ‘confused soul’ who spiralled down a path of extremism which had less to do with him and more to do with the anti-Muslim global climate and his own sense of alienation in a hostile country. Hogwash.
We are talking about a man who sat in front of his computer using Internet webcam sites to monitor Times Square, trying to calculate where a bomb would be most likely to cause maximum bloodshed. A man who, on the day of his sentencing chooses his moment in the limelight to say, "the war with the Muslims has just begun".
This same individual on his ‘noble mission’ to slaughter civilians is also guilty of ruining the lives of his wife and children permanently. They have lost a father, and they have gained a label which will haunt them forever. While the court does not count this as one of his criminal offences, I do, and for that reason I believe Shahzad deserves a life sentence and then some. Lock the gate, throw away the key, and lets all hope this will be among the last headlines we see regarding this tragedy.