As Reuters reports, a group of extremist Islamists has called upon all muslims to pray for an earthquake in Sochi to kill everyone and ruin the ‘games of the atheists and pagans’.

A couple of things. First, to quote Ambrose Bierce:

PRAY, v. To ask that the laws of the universe be annulled in behalf of a single petitioner, confessedly unworthy

Praying never accomplished anything, and won’t help here. Then again, I much prefer an extremist wasting his time on prayer than spend his time wasting people, so maybe in this case, praying does accomplish something.

But is praying for a calamity to befall, and kill, scores of people just harmless idiocy? After all we know that praying won’t change a thing. No, it’s not harmless. Unfortunately, intent does matter. And for all intent and purposes, these Islamists believe they have their hands on a weapon of mass distruction: Allah. And they want to use it.

If Allah did create an earthquake that hit Sochi, it would end the lives of hundreds, if not thousands people, many of them innocent. This callous disregard of human life permeates the belief of whoever prays for earthquakes. A belief, we should remind ourselves, that their practitioners call the ‘religion of peace’.

If you are religious, pray thanks to your god that these extremists are really, really stupid.

… you moran!

(Image credit: St. Louis Indymedia Center)