Boston bomber sparks outrage

For broadcast on 2CH Sydney, 21 July 2013.

According to media reports, the August issue of Rolling Stone magazine hasn’t hit the newstands yet, but already it’s stirring up controversy on social media.

On the front cover is an image of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving member of the duo of brothers alleged to have carried out the attacks on the Boston Marathon.  Three people were killed and more than 260 injured in the blasts.

The cover story tells “how a popular, promising student was failed by his family, fell into radical Islam, and became a monster.”  The news has triggered claims that the magazine is glamorising terrorism, and there are calls for a boycott on sale and distribution, especially in the Boston area.

But as Yale Professor Miroslav Volf points out, “We don’t like the evildoer looking like one of us.  Perhaps because all of us are a bit like him?”

I’m Rod Benson for the NSW Council of Churches.