Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

July 20, 2012

Anwar al-Awlaki, the New Mexico-born Islamic cleric who was the first U.S. citizen specifically targeted for assassination by presidentially ordered drone strike, is frequently described as a proponent of terrorist attacks against American citizens.

If Awlaki had committed an actual criminal act, he should have been taken into custody and put on trial. Instead, Awlaki was assassinated without trial or formal charges, as was his 16-year-old son, who had gone to Yemen to find his father.

As it happens, Awlaki was a passionate critic of U.S. foreign policy ? and also a forthright opponent of terrorist attacks against American civilians. In a typical address he stated that the U.S. government?s role in invading and occupying Muslim countries ?does not justify the killing of one U.S. civilian in New York City or Washington, D.C.,? just as the murder of thousands of civilians in New York and Washington do not ?justify the death of one civilian in Afghanistan.?

Awlaki believed that all people -- including Muslims -- have the right to defend themselves against aggressive violence, and was not shy about saying so. By presidential decree, the expression of those views was made a capital crime.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.