No one is defending the people responsible for this - but it's wrong to jump to conclusions about who they were.

What I mean is, it's not clear if it's a case of a brutal regime using terror as a way of maintaining control, or of a fanatical mob.

To take jimmyt's parallel with the Crucifixion, there's a difference between seeing it as the act of a brutal occupying regime, with the collusion of some collaborators, or as the work of "the Jews".

A horrible thing like this killing should provide an occasion for people to come together - the truth is, it is as detestable to Muslims as it is to Christians or Jews or atheists.

But it gets used to divide instead. There are people who would seek to use this horrible murder as a way of generating hatred against Muslims as a whole. Just try hunting around on the Internet and it takes no or than a few seconds to find websites where it is being used in precisely that way.