A CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE ON THE EXECUTION OF THE SMILING ASSASSIN [CHRISTIAN ARTICLE FOR THE DEATH PENALTY ~ SUNDAY NOVEMBER 3, 2013 TO SATURDAY NOVEMBER 16, 2013]

On this date, 9 November 2008, the Amrozi A.K.A the Smiling Assassin was executed together with Imam Samudra and Ali Ghufron Mukhlas by firing squad in Nusa Kambangan Island, Indonesia. They were involved in the 2002 Bail Bombings.

Amrozi the Smiling Assassin being escorted by police officers.

I write this article not to make fun of Islam or any Muslims (I do have Muslim friends) but to share my Christian perspective on why I feel that Amrozi must die for his crimes. I would also take this opportunity to rebut that nun, Helen Prejean who has a great habit of asking people to oppose capital punishment.

As I felt for the 202 victims and survivors of the 2002 Bali Bombings, I thought of this bible verse:

So you shall not pollute the land where you are; for blood defiles the land, and no atonement can be made for the land, for the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of him who shed it.
– Numbers 35 verse 33 (NKJV)

I felt that Amrozi and the other two Bali Bombers must pay with their lives of there will not be any justice at all. He had caused the death of 202 innocent people who did not deserve to die.

From left to right: Ali Ghufron Mukhlas, Imam Samudra & Amrozi

INTERNET SOURCE:http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/08/07/1060145807584.html

Grief will remain, says sister of mercy

By Penelope Debelle August 8, 2003

It would be natural, said Sister Helen Prejean, for families of Bali victims to want the convicted bomber Amrozi to suffer a painful death.

"Every one of them would want to take that person with their bare hands and kill [him]," said Sister Helen, an opponent of capital punishment who gives spiritual counselling to those on death row in US prisons. Her book Dead Man Walking inspired an Academy Award-winning film starring Susan Sarandon and now a contemporary opera, performed in Adelaide yesterday.

"It is the expression of their loss, their confusion, their grief, maybe even part of their feelings of guilt as parents," she said.

But Sister Helen, who has counselled six men before their execution by injection, warned that Amrozi's death would not meet the emotional needs of families affected by the bombing.

"When we have lost a loved one and it was done by another, it is easy to focus the anger on the one who did that," she said in Adelaide, where she met and counselled magistrate Brian Deegan, whose son Josh died in the Bali blast.

"But killing them is an act of despair that says, 'The only thing we can do with you, since you did this, is to imitate you'. It shows that we as a society have sunk to their level."

Sister Helen, who attended the State Opera of South Australia performance last night of Dead Man Walking, said the execution of the Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeigh, who killed 168 people, showed that capital punishment of offenders did not offer healing for victims' families.

"[They] were allowed to watch through closed circuit television while the state killed him. By then over half the families knew that it would bring them no satisfaction, that they still had to deal with the loss of their loved one. One man whose daughter was killed said they could kill Timothy McVeigh a thousand times but when he came home he still had to deal with the empty chair."

Mr Deegan opposed the death penalty for Amrozi because it would not bring his son back and would turn Amrozi into a martyr.

<<"But killing them is an act of despair that says, 'The only thing we can do with you, since you did this, is to imitate you'. It shows that we as a society have sunk to their level.">>

REBUTTAL: No way, as a Born Again Christian and a former opponent of the death penalty myself, I used to agree with Helen Prejean, but not anymore. The execution of the Bali Bombers was one of the many reasons that caused me to change from a strong opponent to a supporter of the death penalty. From November 8 to 9, 2008, I did not see Helen Prejean holding a candlelight vigil and protesting the Bali Bombers’ execution at the Indonesian embassy in Washington DC. All she does is talk and talk but no action if she really means that she is against the execution.

The Indonesian Justice System is not imitating the Bali Bombers when they executed them by the firing squad; they are meting out justice and protection. They have not sunk to the level of the Terrorists.

The Bali Bombers now belong to The Legion of Doom: The 13 Dead Terrorists. The 13 evil men were either executed or killed by military action. Are the soldiers or executioners all stooping to their level?

Helen Prejean, was the Prophet Samuel sinking to the level of King Agag the Amalekite King (who was a murderer) when he executed him? No, the Prophet Samuel was obeying God in following Genesis 9 verse 6.

Please read I Samuel 15 of the Bible.

Mr Deegan opposed the death penalty for Amrozi because it would not bring his son back and would turn Amrozi into a martyr.

REBUTTAL: I do not buy that at all, as usual, Helen Prejeanonly speaks about Bud Welch who was the only one of the victims’ families who oppose the death penalty. Most of those whose loved ones were killed in the Oklahoma City Bombing wanted Timothy McVeigh to pay with his life. Helen Prejean, why do you not care for them too?

Amrozi was all along a coward and he did not want to die at all. He died a coward as he was pale faced and shaking moments before he was shot. Amrozi did not die a martyr but a coward.

If Amrozi was allowed to keep his life, there could be a strong possibility that he might get only 20 years in prison like Umar Patek. No way, it was justice that Amrozi paid with his life.

In conclusion, Please see this blog post from Philip Jensen who agrees that the death sentence was part of the justice and mercy of God. At the same time, Helen Prejean should be making fun of Satan the devil than making fun of Jesus Christ (by saying that we made him into a poodle). She was quoted in the BBC:

'We've made Jesus into a poodle'

The nun who inspired the Oscar-winning film Dead Man Walking is in the north-east of England to talk about the death penalty and Christianity.

Sister Helen Prejean has been invited over from America by the Hexham and Newcastle Catholic Diocese to talk about her inspirational life.

Sister Helen writes and visits prisoners on death row in America.

She says Christians have "domesticated" Jesus and forgotten that he was often in the company of sinners.

Sister Helen said: "Often we made him [Jesus] like a French poodle, with a rhinestone necklace and painted his toenails because it's all very comfortable and doesn't rock the boat.

"But Jesus was with the marginalised and the cast-offs and the people who had no voice."

Sister Helen was speaking to BBC Newcastle's Alfie Joey and also described how she sits with prisoners while they are given the lethal injection, and why she is so against the death penalty.

I will post a quote from the 20^thPresident of the United States, James Garfield who spoke out against Satan. I find it sick that Prejean can make fun of Jesus Christ by saying that we made him like a poodle. No way, Amrozi the Smiling Assassin cannot be compared to Jesus Christ, he should be compared to the devil instead.