Just got back to this one - nicely put Peter.

Robo - you seem to have fallen into the usual mistake made by vengeance-freaks, in making the assumption that forgiveness trumps justice, and somehow removes responsibility from the perpetrator.

Completely wrong!

Forgiveness is not perpetrator-focussed, it confers nothing on the perpetrator (except possibly, and perversely in the case of a 'jihadist' as you call al-Megrahi, the knowledge that his crime failed to make its intended mark). Justice still prevails, forgiveness does not seek to remove responsibility from the perpetrator, nor to replace due process of law, indeed it relies on that process to support the forgiving and healing process - "do the crime, do the time" - it still prevails.

Forgiveness is victim-focussed, it provides a means for the release of the victim from the constant destructive cycle of rage and lust for vengeance which boils up in him/her over and over and over again - for ever, unless they come to the realisation that there is a route out of their misery.

Forgiveness isn't a betrayal, it's an awakening. It doesn't seek to deny the crime, it faces and accepts it. It doesn't remove the responsibility from the perpetrator, it doesn't release him from prison - he stays there and faces due process - but it does release the victims from their own prison of rage and vengefulness, and gives them a means to live at peace. Most importantly, it doesn't seek to minimise the enormity of the crime, nor wipe out the memory of those who died, nor blot out the pain of loss - but it allows those who still live to go on through their lives without the burden of rage, self-guilt and vengefulness which, on top of everything else they have suffered, often makes life intolerable.

I don't know whether al-Megrahi is innocent or as guilty as sin, and I'm not sure whether I support his release or not - it was within the law of Scotland and therefore it's their right to do it. But I do know that I care far more for the victims than I do for the perpetrator(s), whoever the perpetrator(s) may be, and I'd bet my lifetime-earnings plus my pension that those victims who forgave are having a much better life than those who are still filled with rage, bay like hounds for blood, and refuse forgiveness.