Bristol Palin blasted noted British evolutionary biologist and outspoken atheist Richard Dawkins after he told an Irish news station that he did not believe the 9/11 hijackers were inherently evil, arguing religion makes good people do bad things.
“I think the 9/11 hijackers all sincerely believed that they were doing the right and proper moral, religious thing,” Mr. Dawkins told Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ) host Gay Byrne this week.
“They were not in themselves evil. They were following their faith — and faith is pernicious because it can do that to people. It can do that to otherwise decent people,” Mr. Dawkins said.
The comment struck a chord with Ms. Palin, daughter of former GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who took to her blog to criticize Mr. Dawkins.
Ms. Palin noted that evidence now proves that the 9/11 hijackers were involved in a highly coordinated terrorist operation and trained for years to carry out their mission to kill American “infidels.”
“And yet, in the aftermath of such an obviously evil act, militant Atheist scientist Richard Dawkins has the gall to say that he does not believe that the 9/11 hijackers are actually evil,” Ms. Palin wrote.
“This is the problem with radical atheists like Richard Dawkins. Their agenda is to attack people of all faiths. And Dawkins has to fit even something as obviously evil as the terrorist attacks on 9/11 into his own radical agenda,” Ms. Palin continued.
“So the radical atheist ends up defending the radical jihadists, because according to his crazy ideas, they aren’t evil – they were just brainwashed.”
She called Mr. Dawkin’s comments “disrespectful” to the American families who lost their lives and loved ones in the attack and said such talk helps “the terrorists’ agenda.”
• Kellan Howell can be reached at khowell@washingtontimes.com.
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