By contrast, at noon on November 13, people were eating in a food court at a Philadelphia mall. Suddenly, an organ could be heard introducing Handel's Hallelujah chorus from "The Messiah." Then a pretty woman with a red Christmas scarf stood up and pretending to speak on her cell phone, burst forth in a powerful soprano, "Hallelujah."

A young tenor with a hooded sweatshirt stood up on a chair and sang, "Hallelujah."

Indeed, Yoshino's posting brings to mind points developed in a recent paper by Yoshino's colleague at NYU, Professor Jeremy Waldron-one of the world's most eminent legal philosophers.

Are you starting to sense a pattern?

Then there's Nidal Malik Hasan, a U.S. Army major and psychiatrist who murdered 13 people and wounded 30 more at the Fort Hood Army base on November 5, 2009. Hasan earlier had told an associate that "you're not supposed to have alliances with Jews or Christian or others, and if you are killed in the military fighting against Muslims, you will go to hell."

Are you starting to sense a pattern?

Then there's Nidal Malik Hasan, a U.S. Army major and psychiatrist who murdered 13 people and wounded 30 more at the Fort Hood Army base on November 5, 2009. Hasan earlier had told an associate that "you're not supposed to have alliances with Jews or Christian or others, and if you are killed in the military fighting against Muslims, you will go to hell."