I decided earlier to join the day of reflecting and not do any blogging beyond the Candlelight Vigil Post, but I have decided that I needed to say something about what happened in Salt Lake City.

First and foremost, my heartfelt condolences go out to the victims families: 

Killed in the attack were:

Jeffrey Walker, 52

Vanessa Quinn, 29

Kirsten Hinckley, 15

Teresa Ellis, 20

Brad Franz, 24

I had earlier in the day made the following comment at New West Salt Lake City and feel that I can’t say it any better than this:

This is truelly sad.

As a Bosnian, as an American, but most importantly as a human being, I am offended that people are jumping to the use of the war as an excuse for this young man’s actions. No one really knows what was going on in this young man’s mind. He could have been devastated by being dumped by his girlfriend, which is probably more likely to be the cause than his “Muslimness”. There is no excuse to what this boy did, just as there is no excuse for Columbine or for terrorist actions.

However, as I read through these articles and blogs I can’t help but shake my head at the jump to blame it on Islam. From analyzing his name – which is a big joke, let me tell you that right now – to how the Bosnian genocide was really a war between Islam and Christianity. Bosnians were pretty much secular, many of them had allready given up religion before the Serbs started their campaign of ethnic cleansing.

Bottom line: A tragedy happened, people died. Let’s not use this tragedy to politicize ourselves.

I will tell you what I know of the incident.  None of this is intended to explain or excuse what happened.  The shooter happens to be from my mothers home town.  The town is so small that just about everyone knew each other.  Chances are that I knew his family. 

• Earlier today, I recieved an email in which I have discovered that Sulejman Talovic will be burried in Vlasenica, my mothers home town.  The town where I lived for one year.  He is specifically from a village called Talovici.
• Sulejman was 4 years old when they fled the village and became refugees within Bosnia from the years of 1993 to 1998.
• Some of that time was spent in Srebrenica although the family left two years prior to the massacre.  This is where the war comes into play.  Some of the aquaintances are convinced that this has to be the reason.
• At the age of 11, Sulejman suffered trauma, however, I do not know the details of that trauma. 

Hadzialagic, a Salt Lake City Bosnian states: “We’ve had enough of shooting and arms.  Think about it, you find a new home, a new life and then you take arms and go kill people…Unbelievable!”