Updated. New Information=*
The moment I first heard about the mass murders at Fort Hood I knew in my bones that the shooter or shooters were Muslims.
Call me “Islamophobic,” call me “psychic,” call me what you will.
It now seems that there was only a single shooter: Major Malik Nidal Hasan, (or Nidal Malik Hasan), an American-born Muslim man of Palestinian/Jordanian descent, an American citizen who is an Army-trained physician—a psychiatrist to be exact, one who specializes in Disaster and Preventive Psychiatry. He is also a religious Muslim. **Several sources confirm that he shouted “Allahu Akhbar” before or during his shooting rampage.
** According to CNN (!!) we now know that Major Hasan was long seen as a “ticking time bomb.” At Walter Reed, he once gave a power point presentation which justified suicide murders. He expressed “dissatisfaction with U.S. foreign policy” and viewed the war on terror as a “war against Islam.” Major Hasan would deliver extreme political and radically Islamic views when he should have been lecturing about environmental health or behavior science. When his students attempted to have him stick to the subject, Major Hasan refused to do so.
According to Dr. Val Finnell, a former classmate, Major Hasan would “argue with people. He made himself a lightning rod.” Radical Islam was a “big, dominating topic for him.” Dr. Finnell saw no “anti-Muslim harassment,” their class was very diverse and the military culture was very politically correct. In addition, as a Major, Hasan outranked most of the military. Few would dare harass him.
**Thus, Hasan’s reassignment to Ft. Hood was definitely a demotion. And, he had a fight with a new neighbor over his Islamic bumper sticker being pulled off. Hasan allowed no one entry into his apartment unless he was there. And, he used a neighbor’s computer the day before he murdered so many in cold blood. He had one visitor only: a man wearing Islamic clothing who spent only five minutes there after which both men left. **According to the New York Times, Major Hasan maintained a number of email accounts and used computers in several locations.
** According to General Barry McCaffrey, (on CNN), “the vast majority of Muslims serve very honorably in the military.” However, Major Hasan’s dastardly deed may very well be a case of a “domestic terrorist attack.”
According to the Washington Post (and cited at JihadWatch):
“Hasan attended the Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring and was ‘very devout,’ according to Faizul Khan, a former imam at the center. Khan said Hasan attended prayers at least once a day, seven days a week, often in his Army fatigues. Khan also said Hasan applied to an annual matrimonial seminar that matches Muslims looking for spouses. ‘I don’t think he ever had a match, because he had too many conditions,’ Khan said.”
Some say that Hasan may have objected to having to follow military orders which meant being deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. Others say that Hasan was already being monitored for posting pro-jihadi and pro-suicide martyrdom material on the internet. (“Monitored” but still being deployed? How could this happen?)
**Major Hasan allegedly tried to convert his infidel patients and colleagues to Islam (for which he was repeatedly reprimanded). Or, he insisted on lecturing students, colleagues, and patients against America and for Islamic rights. Students and superiors may have questioned him about this. This alone may have been something he felt constituted being “picked on,” “harassed,” ordered not to proselytize or propagandize on the job. To a religious jihadic Muslim in an era of violent jihad, such an intervention or interference might be experienced as interfering with his right to practice his religion.
On Thursday, according to the mainstream television media, Major Hasan allegedly gave away his clothing and possessions, including copies of the Qu’ran. (That’s a clue right there. Is anyone in charge here?)
The military men do not understand how one shooter could have **killed and wounded 51 other human beings. Perhaps others were involved. But wait—there’s a reason Hasan did this. An explanation, an excuse.
According to Hasan’s cousin, he had been “picked on,” harassed by other soldiers because he was of “Middle Eastern origin.” This may be true—and if true, terrible—but so what?
Let’s assume it’s true: I know many people, including soldiers, including female soldiers, who have been brutally harassed. They do not shoot 51 people down in cold blood.
Who does? And why? The only answer most people want to hear is that a lone, psychiatrically deranged shooter did it. All by himself, on his own.
They may be right. Sometimes. And yet…The same Instant Personal Jihad Syndrome once led another Palestinian, Sirhan Sirhan, to shoot Robert Kennedy in cold blood. Remember the Seattle shooter who killed and wounded Jewish women? Off his meds, off his rocker, but he still knew that he had to hunt Jews down.
Jihadic literature raves about Muslims being attacked (not by other Muslims which is often the case) but by Jews, Americans, Zionists, Crusaders, infidels. Terrorist leaders talk about Muslim Holy lands being “occupied” by the invader. They therefore fly two planes into the World Trade Center and another into the Pentagon because Muslims are fed up with taking all that abuse lying down. (And that’s before America invaded Afghanistan and Iraq).
The attackers are really self-defenders. The jihadist is always the victim.
Ask any of the Muslim fathers who have honor murdered their daughters in America in cold blood. They’ll tell you the same thing. She attacked my honor. I had to defend myself. It was an act of pure self-defense. This is precisely what Zein Isa, another Palestinian, and a member of the Abu Nidal terrorist gang, said about killing his 16 year old daughter, Palestina (“Tina”) Isa in 1989 in St Louis, Missouri.
Male Muslim jihadic rage? That is equivalent to 4000 pounds—the weight of the car that Faleh AlMaleki drove over his daughter Noor who died of her profound injuries in Arizona. Ironically, AlMaleki has just been placed on a suicide watch in Arizona—and his compatriot in crime, Muzammil Hassan in Buffalo, is trying to plead temporary insanity (“extreme emotional disturbance”) to explain why he finally beheaded his wife Aasiya, whom he had continually battered.
So: The 4000 pound father in Arizona is really the victim, as is the Buffalo beheader.
Sudden Jihad Syndrome, (it’s not all that “sudden” by the way), Personal Jihad Syndrome, call it what you will—these terrible acts should not be psychiatrically diagnosed and excused. In Islamist culture what Major Hasan did is a glorious act, a desired act; it is not the act of someone who is considered psychiatrically deranged. At the risk of being called a racist, allow me to suggest that we must connect the dots before it is too late. Islam now=jihad=hate propaganda=9/11=the tragedy at Ft. Hood.
That means Islam now, and its followers of all colors and ethnicities, is at war with the entire world, is dreaming of a Caliphate to be achieved through violent jihad. I doubt that Major Hasan is a Sufi Muslim.
Just think: Islam as violent jihad trumped Major Hasan’s life-time experience of growing up in America and more important, trumped his training as both a soldier and as a psychiatrist! He is a Trauma expert, specialized to help people who have faced disasters. (Or so we’ve been told). All the brakes failed, no dam could withhold a Jihadist whose time had come.
Ongoing Updates:
Today’s New York Times and Nation magazine online are on a cozy wavelength. Both present Major Hasan as a victim for whom we are meant to feel sympathy. Poor guy, being forced to deploy to a war with which he disagreed; poor guy, so religious he could not find a good-enough wife on American soil–one who would also pray five times a day and who would wear hijab; poor guy, he felt that he was being picked on because he was a Muslim, etc. (Apparently, Major Hasan had issues at work having to do with how he related to patients. Perhaps he is thin-skinned and resented any criticism, rejected all blame, decided that the criticism itself was “racist.”)
Reading the Times and the Nation their positions are clear: Let’s not blame the victim if the victim is Muslim. Never that. Let’s blame the dead and wounded victims: in this case, American soldiers on American soil, because they dared to fight back against Islamist Muslims with whom they–we–are at war.
Debra J. Saunders points out that CAIR will support the flying imams but had nothing supportive to say about the Muslim victim of the Arizona honor killing. In fact, IAIR’s Ibrahim Cooper simply said the same thing he always says: Islam has nothing to do with honor killings, domestic violence exists everywhere.
The truth is: Even if Hooper said the right things, I would not believe he really meant it.
Pamela K. Taylor, pictured in hijab, is co-founder of Muslims for Progressive Values, former director of the Islamic Writers Alliance and strong supporter of the woman imam movement.
She asks, in her title, whether the mass murders at Ft. Hood are about “Islam or Islamophobia?” She trots out the usual “spin.” Every Muslim who commits an act of violent jihad and terrorism is, by definition, not a true Muslim. What he or she has done goes against the Qu’ran, and against the sensibilities of most peaceful Muslims.
Perhaps—but there are millions of violent Muslim jihadists and millions more who support them. The “peaceful” and “moderate” Muslims really need to take them on. That is not often the case. Taylor writes:
“Until we know more about Maj. Nidal’s motives we should not jump to conclusions, and certainly we should not declare that he had religious/political motivations simply because he was Muslim.The shootings at Fort Hood raise many questions. Major Nidal complained of being treated poorly by fellow soldiers because he was Muslim. It got bad enough, according to a New York Times article, that he hired a lawyer to seek to end his military career early. This request was denied, and he remained in the military. How severely did Islamophobic treatment by the very people he was trying to serve impact Maj. Hasan? How did the army’s refusal to let him end his service early, even though he agreed to pay off the cost of his education, affect his feelings about the army? What kind of stresses are Muslim soldiers placed under when they are deployed to areas where they are killing fellow Muslims, and perhaps people of similar ethnic background? Is the army taking extra precautions to deal with the additional stresses these soldiers are under?”
Ms. Taylor: You know and I know that more Muslims are killed by other Muslims than by infidels. Who is kidding whom here? But forget about the media. What if, as has been alleged, Major Hasan was a “problem” physician-employee? What if he could not tolerate being criticized and rather than try to correct himself, he grew a great grudge and decided that his professional work was good, great—that he was being picked on because he is a Muslim. (Arabs and Muslims rarely take responsibility for the failures of their cultures and communities. They always blame it (illiteracy, poverty, corruption, despotism, barbaric cruelty towards women, etc.) on the infidel, the Zionist, the Crusader. What if that is the scenario we are looking at?
Taylor continues. “A man who had dedicated his life to serving his country went over the edge. He certainly isn’t the first to have done so, and sadly, it’s not likely that he will be the last. Suicide among the soldiers at Fort Hood was particularly high. It was only a matter of time until someone took out a few people with him as he went. How well does our military serve the emotional and psychological needs of our soldiers? How can we do a better job at preventing PSTD and the emotional devastation veterans face?
Excuse me? It was “only a matter of time until someone took out a few people with him….” Are you completely unaware that “taking others out with you” is the definition of a homicide bomber who is also known as a suicide martyr.
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