Lockerbie: Ripping open a tragic wound

Abdel Baset Al-Megrahi received a hero's welcome when he set foot on the soil of his native Libya. He had been residing in Scotland. No, not as a guest. Not as a tourist. Didn't get to play St. Andrews or Troon. Nope, he was residing in Greenock Prison for the murder of 270 people which blew up in 1988 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

A hero's welcome?

Really, from what has spewn from the Muslim world, such a spectacle should come as no surprise. The celebrants were not the lunatic fringe. Muammar's own son, Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, welcomed the man back to his homeland amidst wild crowds waving Scottish flags. The US and UK suggested the Libyans had "overstepped their bounds."

While as vile as the Islamic response may be, the true atrocity in this nightmare came at the hands of the Scottish government: they let a murderer go free. Not of one, not of two, not of dozens, but of 270. In trying to be compasionate to a man dying of cancer, the Scots ground the scales of justice into a pile of haggis.

Such an aggregious abrogation fair play seems obvious to the masses. The families of the victims cannot believe what they are hearing (here). What a disgrace to the memory of those who died so horrifying a death. The Scots are embarrassed about their government (here). Civilized humanity cries out for justice.

The problem is that justice was never served.

Really, it's not that this human stain was let go, it's that he is still alive. Within the nature of man, with the marrow of his soul, life calls out for life. This is not surprising either for God created man uniquely, "in his image" is how God created man, Genesis declares. That same God announced to Noah after the flood that if an individual shed the blood of another, that man's life would be forfeit. Within the fabric of the cosmos, blood cries out for blood.

The Scots, by banishing capital punishment, rather than showing a higher level of humanity, have shown themselves to have a blatant disregard for the sanctity of human life. The crime itself was a horror. The sentence for the smudge was worse.

To release him is surreal.