List of Mass Shooters and their religious beliefs

Dylan Klebold: Jewish

Charles Whitman: Christian

Sebastian Bosse: Atheist

George Sodini: Christian

Alvaro Castillo (not a mass shooter): Christian

Baruch Goldstein: Jewish

Pekka Eric Auvinen: Atheist

Eric Harris: Atheist?

Luke Woodham: Satanist

Chris Harper Mercer: Luciferist

Randy Stair: ??????? A GHOST SQUADIST? (how the fuck would we name his delusion???)

Kimveer Gill: Satanist

Omar Mateen: Muslim

Seung Hui Cho: Christian

Adam Lanza: Atheist?

Wellington Menezes de Oliveira: Muslim?/Christian?

Nikolas Cruz: Christian

Devin Kelley: Atheist

Dylann Roof: Christian

San Bernandino shooters: Muslim

Charlie Hebdo Shooters - Radical islam
Paris November 2015 Shooters - radical islam
Jiverly Wong - Aethiest
Jared Laughner - Aethiest
Tunisian beach Shooter - radical islam

Dylan wasn't into Judaism at all. He was embarrassed he was part Jewish.

Him and Eric were atheist.

Anders Breivik - Odinisme (in prison)

In his manifesto he wrote in a Curriculum Vitae:

Quote :

Religion: Christian, Protestant but I support a reformation of Protestantism leading to it being absorbed by Catholisism. The typical “Protestant Labour Church” has to be deconstructed as its creation was an attempt to abolish the Church
Religious: I went from moderately to agnostic to moderately religious

I think he would also describe himself as a Cultural Christian.

TheOne99 wrote:

Sebastian Bosse(Not a mass shooter): Christian

But he literally said in his journal:

edgy kraut pirate man wrote:

Don’t you dare have any of these spiritual dick-faces open their mouths at my funeral! THERE
IS NO FUCKING GOD

InsaneIntruder wrote:

TheOne99 wrote:

Sebastian Bosse(Not a mass shooter): Christian

But he literally said in his journal:

edgy kraut pirate man wrote:

Don’t you dare have any of these spiritual dick-faces open their mouths at my funeral! THERE
IS NO FUCKING GOD

Ok maybe he was Agnostic then. Because in one of his home videos theres a Cross in the background. I can't tell if thats his bedroom or parents room or whatever

(Deleted)

humanity_is_overrated wrote:

Adam Lanza was a satanist.

Any evidence to back that claim up?

(Deleted)

Adam was satanist? What a obvious lie.

Russianman wrote:

Adam was satanist? What a obvious lie.

I also doubt that he was a de facto satanist. As Adam himself put on the second page of the "me" document: "Why am I an ATHEIST?" - even going as far as posting in the ShockedBeyondBelief forums that he isn't even remotaly supertitious. There just isn't any credible sources that paint him as an actual satanist. The most reasonable hypothesis is that Adam, after feeling disgruntled by religion, got somewhat interested in anything that could present itself as contrary to religion.

(Deleted)

Aaron Ybarra, the Seattle University shooter was a Christian but had a pretty distorted view of it. As in he believed that he was destined to go to hell and God and Satan were going to use him as an example of what not to do in life.

Well as I said in my introduction (which only dates back from yesterday), I was born and "raised" (before my family and I came to the U.S. when I was 5) in Algeria, which is an Arabic / Muslim country in North Africa. The fact that I've also lived in France for a little while (from age 16 to 18, before coming back to America) and being now back, residing in France again ever since the summer of last year (away from my fiancee & kids for now...) well I can tell you that Islam, I won't say "radical Muslims" or anything like that, because being from Algeria and residing right now in France where Islam is heavily present, there are LOTS of mass shooters / murderers who kill in the name of God ("Bismillah", which means in Arabic : "in the name of Allah"...) I know that in North America there's no such problems with Islam and Muslims causing trouble, mayhem or even massacres... Although it did happen I'm not saying it has never existed in America, but whether it's Algeria or where I'm at right now in France, there's at least one or two MAJOR mass shootings (or massacres) every year in the name of their God... And if I combine the two countries (France & Algeria), we get from 3 to 4 massacres every single year and it's always Muslims who take their religious beliefs to this kind of level... I don't know I could mention the "Charlie Hebdo massacre" which was a mass shooting in the name of God (sorry, "Allah") that took place in January of 2015 I think, so I was still in America at the time but it's probably the most notorious, as it's the one that caused the most deaths and carnage... Since I've been here, well I can name the one that took place in Paris in the summer of last year, which was a mass shooting, then the one in December that took place at the "Marché de Noël" which means "the Christmas Market", both of them were Islamic attacks, the one for Christmas had more victims than the earlier one of that year which wasn't really a mass shooting as it was a guy stabbing people, like "how many people can I stick and kill before I get to heaven? Screaming of course "Allah Akbar ! ("!الله أكبر")" (which means "God is the greatest !") so I guess that one doesn't really count... This year we had a huge one in Lyon but it wasn't a mass shooting neither, it was a bomb explosion, I think there were up to 15 or 20 deaths... Last year, before I came to France and before the stabbing massacre that took pace in Paris in the summer, there was a guy, another Muslim... Who held a few people hostage in a supermarket in southern France and he shot I think 5 people. All those mass murderers I just talked about all screamed "!الله أكبر" ("Allah akbar !")... This year in 2019, there was one huge mass shooting that took place in Lyon, not only did he shoot people but he also had bombs and explosives... I don't remember how many people died in that one...

Now let's talk about Algeria (which is my "native country", as I call the U.S. of A my "home country"... For the record, I have the Algerian citizenship, of course, and obtained a full American citizenship when I was a kid, I think it was after 5 years of residing there, so I musta been 10... I lived in France between 2009 and 2011, from age 16 to 18, then went back to my family, my fiancee and my children in America and ever since June of 2018, I'm now currently back, living in France but once again it's not for long, as I do NOT have the French citizenship, just a "residence permit" which will expire in a few years... (It can be renewed though). With that being said, the reason I'm mentioning Algeria this much here is because, well, I was born and "raised" there till I came to America, I still go there once or twice every year because I have family members and stuff, but as I haven't lived there since the age of 5, of course I don't know much about what's been going on over there so I can't really tell much about mass shooters and their religious beliefs, or should I say mass shooters who did it in the name of their religious beliefs... But ONE mass shooting that took place in recent memory, can't remember what year tho but it was 2 kamikazes (of course, Muslims...) who took over a military facility (if I remember correctly, it was a military academy or something like that) and they shot everybody there, I think there were up to 20 deaths... It was in a city called "Cherchell".

So I mentioned mainly terrorist attacks, mass shooters (or just killers who used whether it was a knife, bombs...) who did it in the name of their religious beliefs. So it's not about mass shooters and their religious beliefs, it is "mass shooters doing it as a result of their religious beliefs"... I wanted to point out mostly the fact that ever since I've been living in France, whether it's currently or 8-10 years earlier. Well, mass shootings happen A LOT, and there's NO school massacres, no such things happen here, never ever heard of a mass shooting taking place in a school in France (it might've happened in Algeria though, but it's surely NOT a common thing either...) Also wanted to point out the fact that I was born there in 1993, so it was during the "Algerian civil war" (that took place from 1991 to 2002) so during those 5 first years of my life there, from 93 to 98, within the civil war... I witnessed mass shootings myself and although I was really young, I've got some memories of such things happening in front of my eyes that are still fresh to this very day..! So I can't name or list the mass shootings from the 90s that took place when I was a small child but all I can say is, growing up in a war zone, war time... I can vividly recall TWO mass shootings that took place, which I did witness with my own eyes and what stands outta my memory about those two incidents in Algiers (capital city of Algeria), was the "smell" of blood... I know, I know, some of you might wonder or / and ask me, "what do you mean by that?" Or "What does blood smell like?"... Well I don't know but honestly, when you've smelled it at least ONCE in your lifetime... It just never goes away, it's a smell that you will recognize decades and decades later if you're in a situation or in a place where there would've been a lot of blood spilled, you'd recognize that odor instantly ! The first mass shooting that I vividly remember seeing didn't really "traumatize" me... Maybe as I was living in a war zone as I said... Violence was more than common and usual so that first mass shooting that I recall, there's this one guy with a chachia on his head and a qamis (to make it short..: religious clothing), he fired at a bunch of people who had gathered on the boat boarding platform because they were Jewish Algerians and they were waiting for a boat to help them flee Algeria, heading to France or maybe another country (Italy, Spain... I don't know). I saw a dozen people falling down as a result of the bullets, maybe more or maybe less, but about a dozen... Some of them died (which I had learned a bit later) and as I said, I never really was traumatized witnessing that... What "shocked" me the most was the heavy SCREAMING that I couldn't stop hearing of course... Even though I was scared shitless as any little kid would be ! If some of y'all wonder why "Jewish Algerians", well in that time period (the Algerian civil war) only the radical Islamists were "running everything" and if you weren't Muslim, if you weren't a "sympathizer" or a "supporter" of them, of course you were a target. The second one, which took place just about a couple of weeks before we left for America, so I can tell I was already 5, I was walking to school and I saw 3 guys (also wearing religious clothing) running into a church (not a lot of Christian churches or Jewish temples in Algeria lol but like everywhere, especially in the capital city, there are still a few..!) and they started firing at everybody in there... I couldn't see much at first because it all took place in that church and then I saw people running out, coming out of that church, most of them wounded, bloodshed everywhere, some of them were running and all of a sudden they were falling down, so there were about I don't know probably 15 people on the floor who weren't moving no more... I was hiding in a nearby park behind a tree but I could clearly see what was going on ! And some more people started to fall down, even more blood, blood and at least 15 or 20 people on the floor, lots of SCREAMING too of course... That lasted probably 3-4 minutes before the shooters ran away, therefore some members of the church who tried escaping or hiding were okay, I mean they hadn't been hit by the bullets, some had minor injuries like a bullet in the leg or in the arm / hand but like I said there were about 15 to 20 people on the floor who were apparently dead, the UNBEARABLE screaming stopped bit by bit and I just went back home, like fuck school I ain't going. That second one had more of an impact on my mind than the first one... Was it because I could see it more kinda "clear"? Was it because it lasted a bit longer than the first one at the boat boarding platform? That second shooting was surely way more violent... The first one, the Jews awaiting that boat, I was hiding behind cars and then ran to another street so in the second massacre that I witnessed, I saw a lot more deaths, a lot more screaming (a really unbearable part of it... Alongside the shooting sounds !) A whole lot more bloodshed, also more random people so everybody was running, screaming, there were lots of people. Whereas the first mass shooting I had witnessed, really not that much people around (it happened on a boat boarding platform...) So a couple of weeks later, here I am in the United States of America... I do speak a little English at the time, thanks to my parents for having taught me as a very young kid, but I wasn't fluent tho. It was early June so summer vacation, plus in Arizona so being in such a nice environment, the "American dream", I had just gotten the f*** away from that war zone... The weather was so great, the landscape was amazing, and I remember repeating out loud "Yuma, Arizona. My hometown ! Yuma, Arizona. My hometown ! Yuma, Arizona. My hometown !..." And so on lol, I quickly became fluent in English and adopted an American accent, trying my best and doing everything I could to NOT sound like a non-native, so I quickly got rid of my Arabic accent while I was in 1st grade... Then growing up, if you saw my introduction post, I quickly developped a huge interest (a passion) for languages, which is why I learned so many of them wanting to become fluent...

I was raised a Muslim of course so I attended the Madrasa ("school" in Arabic) which is situated inside the Masjid ("mosque"), there's the mosque and there are 2 or 3 classrooms in the "Yuma Islamic Center" so I was in school (public school) from Monday to Friday, then on Saturday and Sunday, I was attending the Madrasa... Learning how to read and write in Arabic (because when I left I could speak like a native of course, but I was way too young to be able to write or read at the time). The Madrasa's Arabic classes were only on Sunday, on Saturday we would (all kids aged from 5 to 12) be inside the Masjid ("mosque"), sitting down on that mat which people would pray on. We were being taught the Qur'an and overall about Islam. We were learning parts of the Qur'an (in Arabic of course) and then we would be reciting it out loud... I know I'm totally off topic and not talking about "mass shootings / mass shooters and their religious beliefs" but this is gonna lead me to talk about the actual topic... So from age 5 to age 8 I was attending the Yuma Islamic Center, its school, its mosque etc... Learning not only how to write and read Arabic but also learning about Islam. To me it had to be the only truth as I was both worshipping God (well, "Allah") and fearing him at the same time... The Qur'an (and other Islamic books, such as "Sahih Al Bukhari", "Sahih Muslim", "An-Nawawi" etc...) which are all about the prophet (Muhammad), his life, what he did and most of all, the "hadiths", which is a collection of "legal rules", "holy rules to follow" and "sayings" from the prophet... They all go together with the Qur'an. Anyways, the fact that the Arabic language hasn't changed a bit ever since the 6th century, those writings have never been "replaced" or "changed" etc... Which is why the Qur'an (and Islam overall) is SO violent... I'm not gonna give you examples but okay just look this up : Surah 4, Verse 34, basically women are inferior to men, therefore they must obey their husband and if not, he has got the right to HIT her ! Yeah whatever English translation you read... I'm giving you the real thing, originally written in Arabic which is my native tongue, so yeah if a wife (out of the others... Because as you may know in Islam a man can marry up to 4 women...) does not obey her husband, he's got the right to physically hit her. This is just one example I could give you so many but I've been off topic for a while now so I'ma finish what I have to say. So I was growing up, at the age of 8 I was "questionning" Islam because of its content which seemed inappropriate to me in today's society... The "Shari3a" (which is the "Islamic law(s) to follow) and so many other things about it, whether it's in the Qur'an, the "Hadiths", the history of how the Muslims invaded and colonized so many countries, converting people by force or just spilling tons of blood just to develop their territories and shit... Every time I had a question, I was questioning Islam, the Qur'an, the prophet, God... Either the Imam (or my parents) would tell me "if you're questioning your own faith, it's not good for you Allah will punish you" or the answer that I'd get would be "well, it is what it is because Allah (or the prophet) said so"...

Okay, then all of a sudden, I was 8, entering 4th grade, and 9/11 happened in September of 2001... Well that marked the beginning of me rejecting my religion, my beliefs, my faith... Everything regarding Islam ! I have very comprehensive parents so they were "disappointed" but they didn't reject me at all (whilst every single Muslim who decides to stop being one, rejecting Islam, should be rejected by the community and severely punished in hell, but as I don't believe in God no more, I don't believe in a heaven or a hell neither, what I'm trying to say is, whenever someone stops being a Muslim, it's said and it is crystal clear in the Qur'an, not only should he (or she) be rejected by the Muslims he used to be with (family, friends...) Allah also orders his believers to "kill them" (well, that's another example for you guys !) So I'm almost done with that off topic bullshit about Islam, myself etc... With comprehensive and caring parents like mine, they "allowed" me to read the Bible (cuz honestly I wasn't believing no more, so I already knew even at the age of 8 that reading the Bible was not going to make me a Christian... But I remember someone advising me a version called "The Revised English Bible" because it's not a Catholic Bible, not a Protestant Bible, not an Orthodox Bible, but a Bible called "ecumenical" (meaning that it's been revised and written by all three of them, Catholics, Protestants and Orthodoxes) full of side notes explaining everything... So after reading it, of course I didn't find anything "spiritually" in it and remained a non-believer ever since 9/11 happened basically (so yeah I was 8, over 3 years after arriving in the U.S. of A).

I remember the year I did arrive in America from my native country, the Kip Kinkel story / Thurston High School shooting even though it took place a couple of months before I got here, the media coverage was LARGE..! So, when Columbine did happen... Holy F***ING shit brah ! I was 6 and I had spent my first 5 years in a country that was in the middle of a civil war, and I'm seeing BIG ASS media coverage for that one... Everyone who is "old" enough to have been able to witness it, when it happened, no matter what state you lived in at the time..! The media coverage was just humongous ! As I said in my presentation / introduction post, I first got interested in serial killers as a teenager, especially the "profiling" part of it. Then I turned into mass murderers around the time I became an adult, reading a lot and spending a lot of time watching stuff about it. Me facing mental illness and struggles, I think this is what led me to the "killer kids / killer teens / school shootings etc..." Not just mass murderers anymore, now it's more "kids / teenagers facing mental issues (often being prescribed meds, anti-depressants in most cases) who kill, even if it's not many victims", but yeah those who are facing mental issues and who are prone to suicide as much as homicide in certain cases... So I'm "fascinated" by that now, and Columbine really was my 1st "case", the very 1st one that attracted me, interested me, I spent loads of time reading about it, collecting information about it, reading Brooks Brown's book, watching documentaries and here in this Forum there's even more ! There is EVERYTHING !!

Even though it's a very long ass post, even though I spoke A LOT about off topic stuff like myself, my life, terrorism, Islam. I just hope that explaining the two mass shootings that I witnessed when I was a young kid will be interesting to you guys ! Really I enjoyed talking about it here because it's such a part of my life, though it did not "traumatize" me that much as I said... But although I spoke a lot about stuff that was kinda off topic, as it leads to something, well each time I feel like I had to anyways... I hope I did bring something to the table ! ^^


Jordan

TheOne99 wrote:

InsaneIntruder wrote:

TheOne99 wrote:

Sebastian Bosse(Not a mass shooter): Christian

But he literally said in his journal:

edgy kraut pirate man wrote:

Don’t you dare have any of these spiritual dick-faces open their mouths at my funeral! THERE
IS NO FUCKING GOD

Ok maybe he was Agnostic then. Because in one of his home videos theres a Cross in the background. I can't tell if thats his bedroom or parents room or whatever

could've had it as a kid and just never took it down

N/A

Nikolas Cruz said he believed there is "something" (i.e. an afterlife, deity, some other super-natural notion) out there.  

Also, while on suicide watch he requested to read a bible.

N/A

John Earnest - Christian
Robert Lewis Dear - Christian
John Salvi - Catholic
Elliot Rodger - Agnostic (said so in his dating profile)

Eden Natan-Zada - Judaism
Brenton Tarrant - Unconfirmed (when asked if he was Christian he said he would “think about it”)
Eric Rudolph (serial bomber) - Christian
John Earnest - Christian
Terry Ratzmann - Christian

Jožef Meneder - Satanism
Ahmad Al-Issa - Islam

Robert Aaron Long - Christian

Carnifex879 wrote:

Robert Aaron Long - Christian

Was this in a news article? I need to catch up with this case- apparently 2 more mass shootings happened following RAL's shooting spree... I hope this doesn't mean all the shootings are back?

DF978 wrote:

Carnifex879 wrote:

Robert Aaron Long - Christian

Was this in a news article? I need to catch up with this case- apparently 2 more mass shootings happened following RAL's shooting spree... I hope this doesn't mean all the shootings are back?

He was part of an evangelical church with his family. The Church released a statement on the shooting
here

lognifiiskurk wrote:

DF978 wrote:

Carnifex879 wrote:

Robert Aaron Long - Christian

Was this in a news article? I need to catch up with this case- apparently 2 more mass shootings happened following RAL's shooting spree... I hope this doesn't mean all the shootings are back?

He was part of an evangelical church with his family. The Church released a statement on the shooting
here

Oh, okay. Thanks for the link!

Steven Paddock: Atheist
Larry Gene Ashbrook (1999 Wedgwood Baptist Church shooting) had ties to the Phineas Priesthood and Christian Identity.
Jared Lee Loughner "has been described as an anti-theist by those who knew him. He expressed a dislike for all religions, and was particularly critical of Christians."
Devon Michael Erickson's pentagram and 666 graffiti on his parent's car is in all likelihood teenage edgelordery, but it suggests some interest in satanism.

Also, here a quick and probably inaccurate tally I made of all the information in this thread. It is absolutely not representative of all shooters, so don't take it a fact, just a jumble of roughly thrown together info.

Christian: 15
Atheist: 8
Satanism: 6
Islam: 6
Jewish: 3
Other (Anti-theist, ghost-squadist, Odinism, agnostic, Catholic): 5

I might try to make a more comprehensive collection of these sometime.

James Holmes: Agnostic

Robert Bowers: Christian Identity

Alexandre Bissonnette: Catholic

Dylann Roof wrote:

I cannot agree with the form of Christianity most modern preachers preach. It seems to me that this form of Christianity says, “Leave it to God” “There is nothing you can do about it.” “Ok, well maybe you can do something, but don’t, because its not your place.” And I can’t agree with this.

I see some people who seem to use Christianity as an excuse for not doing anything. They tell themselves they are being pious, but they are really being cowardly. Their piety is their excuse. But Christianity doesn’t have to be this weak, feeble, cowardly religion. There is plenty of evidence to indicate that Christianity can be a warrior’s religion.

Pekka Eric auvinen: Atheist
Guilherme taucci: Atheist
Not a mass shooter, but an intellectual mentor, guilherme grillo: Christian.
Kip kinkel: Read that in prison he became "spiritual"
Pagourtzis: considered  himself a atheist.

Karl Halverson Pierson (2013 Arapahoe High School shooting) was an atheist and jokingly threatened to burn down a church to a friend.

Breivik: Lutheran (If im not wrong)

Morné Harmse (2008 Nic Diederichs Technical High School sword attack):
Satanist (or at least had a significant interest in it)

Anthony "T.J." Solomon (1999 Heritage High School shooting):
Roman Catholic

Sulejman Talović: Muslim

Matthew Murray - Atheist but was raised as a Christian

Timothy McVeigh - In a letter shortly before his execution he said he considered himself Agnostic but he did take last rites administered by a priest shortly before execution.

Alvaro Castillo was more specifically a Roman Catholic, but in a twisted way (he thought God saved him from suicide to do a massacre.)

Here's a few Islamic mass stabbers:
Brahim Aouissaoui
Abdallah Ahmed-Osman
Nathan Chiasson
Khairi Saadallah

Unnamed 14-year-old boy (1997 Kobe murder): Wrote about a god called Bamoidoki in his diary in association with his murder. (Not a mass killer, but hopefully interesting nevertheless, seeing as he apparently made his own religion.)

Charles Whitman: Roman Catholic and served as an altar boy when he was younger

Robert Poulin (1975 St. Pius X High School shooting) went to Catholic church every Sunday.
Ian David Long: Nonreligious / atheist

Nathaniel Jouett - Christian (posted on Facebook two weeks before the shooting about being Baptised)

David Conditt,the Austin serial bomber,was formerly Christian before declaring himself an atheist at the age of 18.

John Linley Frazier (Santa Cruz 1970) - Christian

Jake Davison,the recent Plymouth shooter,was apparently religious but not Christian.

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I know a lot of mass shooters are against religion, especially Eric and Dylan. Pekka-Eric Auvinen hated it. Vladislav Roslyakov's mom was part of the Jehovah's Witness society. He grew up in a strict religious household. However, like a lot of mass shooters, he rebelled against religion. He did not have the same beliefs as his mom. He'd get into arguments with his mom and insult her based off her religion.

Marc Lépine was an Atheist all of his life according to his mother

Alvaro Castillo: Harrisism

Employer_Square wrote:

Jake Davison,the recent Plymouth shooter,was apparently religious but not Christian.

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So Deist

xDarkRazoR wrote:

Alvaro Castillo: Harrisism

Is this a Joke?

Sturmengel wrote:

xDarkRazoR wrote:

Alvaro Castillo: Harrisism

Is this a Joke?

Yeah

Francesco Villi - Christian

Naveed Haq - Muslim 

Tristan Van Der Vlis - Christian?, I don't know if he believed in Jesus or another god, but he believed in a god, and his family was Christian, so probably he believed in Jesus

Masayoshi Magome - Christian or Satanist?, The family of masayoshi was Christian And he was raised as a Christian, But when he grew up he got involved in satanic rituals, but he abandoned the satanism, So he probably got into it just to anger his parents, although masayoshi didn't get involved in any religion after that, After committing the sasebo shooting, He fled to the Christian church he attended as a child and committed suicide, In this case, it is the Decision of each one to think if he did it because the childhood nostalgia, because he believed in God and repented, or for some other reason.

Bruce Alfred Blackman: Christian?, Although it was never mentioned which specific God was, Bruce said that he killed because "God" said him to kill his family because they were the antichrist, so i guess the god i believed in was jesus