This book creates tragedy upon tragedy.

Here’s another story of a member of that section of the community which is sad, bad and mad, suddenly killing after taking an interest in Islam.

The Independent newspaper of Ireland has reported the tale of a man who was quite obviously mentally disturbed, someone who was seeking a spiritual path that would give him some comfort, but instead found Islam, the religion of death and destruction, and then beheaded his mother. Sadly, this is a tale that we are beginning to see more often recently. There are those whose illnesses cause them to have voices in their heads, but if they discover Allah, all too often they find that the voice of that deity tells them to kill or maim. Islam seems to be the religion of choice for the catastrophically and murderously, mentally ill.

The Independent said:

“James Dunleavy, 40, had been showing a keen interest in Islam, after also experimenting with Buddhism and New Age beliefs.

He told a pal that he had been hearing voices in his head and that the Koran would not protect him.

Shop manager Mohammed Razaq – who used Dunleavy’s bedroom to pray when he could not get to his local mosque – told the High Court in Edinburgh of their conversations – just weeks before the dismembered remains of Dunleavy’s mother were found in a secluded woodland clearing.

Mr Razaq, 40, said there was a bond between them “like brothers” and he had a set of keys for Dunleavy’s flat, which was above in shop in Edinburgh’s Balgreen Road.

He went on to tell how their friendship broke down soon after Dunleavy’s mum, Philomena, 66, came from her home in Marino, Dublin, to visit her son in late April last year.

Mr Razaq witnessed a conversation when Dunleavy was angry and agitated because his mum had split with his dad and moved in with another man.

Dunleavy claimed she had been “brainwashed” by a group of women he called “the witches”.

“I was concerned I had left them in a state of not being friends,” said Mr Razaq.

When he tried to visit again the following evening, Dunleavy would not let him in. “I put the key into the door of the house. I had opened the door barely a foot and James stood in the house and blocked it with his”

It is possible that the familial stresses coupled with the effects of Mr Dunleavy’s illness meant that he may have killed anyway, but it is becoming increasingly apparent that when mad people study Islam, if makes them worse and not better. I’ve met plenty of people with various mental illnesses in my life, some of whom have had a religious aspect to their delusion and others who have not.

For example, I’ve met quite a few people who have taken most of their Christianity from the book of Revelation and their disease has manifested itself in the form of an unhealthy obsession with eschatology. Such people may have read too much into this, the most ‘acid trip’ book in the Bible, but were often no danger to anyone but themselves. However there seems to be something in Islam that encourages outward violence, violence against others, rather than self-destruction.

Islam has clocked up another two victims, first Mrs Dunleavy, and secondly James Dunleavy, whose fragile grasp of reality was prised away by those promoting Islam to him as a suitable spiritual path.

All evangelical religions, such as Islam and Christianity, have the need to convert people to their way of thinking. In this case I cannot help but feel that those who evangelised Mr Dunleavy for Islam, had no care or concern for his mental state. Also I wonder why Mohammed Razaq, if he was so close and familiar with Mr Dunleavy, did not try to do more when it must have been apparent that Mr Dunleavy was having mental issues? Maybe the time has come for those with relatives and friends who are mentally ill, to see taking an interest in Islam as a worrying symptom that a person’s condition may have taken a turn for the worse.