REALLY? I vehemently disagree with Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton, who uttered this fatuity in her tribute to the “10 medical aid workers who were killed in the northern Badakhshan Province,” among whom were six Americans.

TERROR, THY NAME IS ISLAM.

The deceased were members of the International Assistance Mission. According to Dirk Frans, the organization’s director, “The team had trekked about 100 miles into the mountains of one of the poorest and most remote areas of Afghanistan. The Americans were identified as Cheryl Beckett, 32; Brian Carderelli, 25; Dr. Thomas Grams, no age given; Glen Lapp, 40; Tom Little, 61; and Dan Terry, 63.”

CHARITY IS EUROPEAN AND PREDOMINANTLY CHRISTIAN.

“Also killed were Mahram Ali, 50, and man identified only as Jawed, 24, both of Afghanistan; Daniela Beyer, 35, of Germany; and Dr. Karen Woo, 36, of Britain.”

HILLARY: “Before their deaths, they had spent several days treating cataracts and other eye conditions in Nuristan Province. At their next stop, they planned to run a dental clinic and offer maternal and infant health care. They were unarmed. They were not being paid for their services. They had traveled to this part of Afghanistan because they wanted to help people in need. They were guests of the Afghan people.

CLEARLY NOT VERY WELCOME GUESTS.

As columnist Krauthammer said on FoxNews, this act was about destroying The Other, by which Chuckie meant the non-Muslim, the Christian.

And I would add that the “despicable act of wanton violence,” which sundered such gifted lives was about destroying goodness and nobility—qualities that are thin-on-the ground in that blighted part of the world.

An irony: I am quite positive that these good people were also extreme liberals who believed that the societies to which they took their good works were better than the ones from which they came.

Being someone who, contrary to what Glenn Beck preaches, does not believe in giving up her life so easily—or perhpas it is part of the extreme value we Jews place on life—I think it’s a sin not to protect your Mission with zeal. It’s a sin to be cavalier with the life of The Other, all the more so with your own life.

Let’s say these saintly Christians cared less about those who depended on them back home, as compared to their Christian love for The Other. What good are you to those you serve if you don’t guard your invaluable life and scarce skills and abilities with the zeal with which you serve G-d and The Other?

Beats me.

UPDATE (Aug. 10): Myron, did Hilary say that “the Quran teaches that taking one innocent life is like killing all humanity, and saving one innocent life is like saving all humanity”?

That Quranic verse (5:32) “once piqued my curiosity because of a similar sounding Talmudic saying.” As its official version has it, this ayah declares that, ‘Whoever kills a person [unjustly]…it is as though he has killed all mankind. And whoever saves a life, it is as though he had saved all mankind.'”

Prompted by Dr. Daniel Pipes, I examined (and wrote about) the context of the passage in The Meaning of the Qur’an by Abdullah Yusuf Ali, only to find that the” likes of Hillary, and other fans of Islam, routinely ‘”decontextualized” it. The Qur’an actually says the following:

“On that account: We ordained

For the Children of Israel

That if anyone slew

A person—unless it be

For murder or for spreading

Mischief in the land—

It would be as if

He slew the whole people:

And if anyone saved a life,

It would be as if he saved

The life of the whole people.

Then although there came

To them Our Messenger

With Clear Signs, yet,

Even after that, many

Of them continued to commit

Excess in the land.”

The verse apparently concerns the dread-Jew. At the very least it’s fair to say this Quranic ayah is considerably less humanistic and universal than depicted by Madam Secretary, as “The Whole People” refers to the Ummah only.

“Devoid of the killing component, the Talmudic version simply and unequivocally states that, ‘To save one life is like saving the world.’ Contrary to the Quranic Ayah, it doesn’t whittle down humanity.” There is no ambiguity about the Talmudists’ use of “the world.” They meant humanity. Islam reserves the ruling for its own.

The column quoted here is “More Fatwa Fibs.”