Radical American Preacher Shot Dead by Sentinelese Security Forces.
NORTH SENTINEL ISLAND — An American preacher who made repeated illegal incursions across the border into Sentinelese territory has been shot dead by Sentinelese security forces over the weekend. Sources who knew him personally indicate that John Allen Chau, 26, had become self-radicalized several years ago and expressed a strong desire to convert the island nation to Christianity as early as 2015.
In the last diary entry he penned while hiding from Sentinelese border patrol, Chau wrote that he hoped to establish a religious caliphate in the sovereign island state which he called “Satan’s last stronghold”, saying that he was “doing this to establish the kingdom of Jesus on the island”. Chau’s diary entries also suggest that he harbored hopes of becoming a martyr of the cause of his Christian caliphate.
Speaking to foreign press, a spokesperson for the Sentinelese Security Forces (SSF) defended the use of lethal force against Chau. “The individual had had made several successive attempts at trespassing the border illegally. During one such incident, a member of our border patrol discharged a warning shot which struck his personal effects, yet he showed no indication of leaving the country. Given the grave public health risk, and the history of illegal incursions, the decision to deploy lethal force was made”.
In response to criticism by religious activist group International Christian Concern that the shooting was religiously motivated, the SSF spokesperson denied such allegations. “We did not know at the time that the individual had intentions of entering the country illegally in order to proselytize. Our border patrol officers were simply responding to the pattern of persistent illegal incursions that the individual displayed, and the threat the foreign individual posed to our public health system. We couldn’t afford to jeopardize innocent Sentinelese lives”.
This parody article was written as a response to the media’s framing of the incident as an innocent, well-meaning tourist being slaughtered by savage tribesmen. John Allen Chau’s missionary zeal is only one step removed from the theocratic zeal of radical Islam. He admitted the illegal incursions risked the lives of islanders who have little resistance to many diseases. “A simple thing like flu can kill them,” he wrote in his diary. The North Sentinel island is considered a de facto sovereign population by the Indian government, and this article was written in a way that reflects the sort of response we would expect from any other incident of illegal incursions across sovereign state borders.
