Muslim Killer?
“He had a gripe with the Army,” this editor declared definitively, “His religion had nothing to with the killings.”
“As a reporter,” he added, “You don’t want to go down the stereotype road, because you may not like where that takes you.”
The Washington Post has already rendered a verdict on it’s editorial page, “The terrible crime of which Maj. Hasan is accused was not the expression of any faith… but rather, it appears, the act of an evil or deranged individual.”
After Ft. Hood — Washington Post, Nov. 7, 2009
[The Post goes on to suggest the blame may rest with the military authorities who might have missed an opportunity to prevent Maj. Hasan from acting, and security at Ft. Hood for failing to prevent him from smuggling weapons on to the base.]
No responsible journalist wants to perpetuate stereotypes, but there are real questions about whether Maj. Nidal M. Hasan’s murderous rampage was motivated solely by his “gripe with the Army,” including stress over his impending deployment, or fueled by radical Islamic fervor in which he saw himself on the wrong side of a war against Muslims.
And seizing on the more politically palatable narrative doesn’t serve the cause of truth very well.
“It would be wrong for me to speculate, but, since you asked…”
One of the obvious shortcomings of today’s hair-trigger internet reporting is the elevation of conclusion-jumping to an Olympic level sport. The game is played successfully by practitioners who leap to a conclusion, but carefully caveat their assumptions, just in case they turn out to be wrong.
The phenomenon, in which commentators, analysts, and sometimes straight news reporters rush to provide faux context, before their enough known facts to reach an intelligent conclusions, was referred to as “the bombastic fog,” by NPR’s Scott Simon on Weekend Edition Saturday.
“They make whatever happens fit their vision of the universe,” said Simon in his radio commentary. ” At these times, people of all political stripes can remind me of early humans who blamed plagues, storms and volcanoes on whatever demons they feared.”
But there are many facts already at our disposal to suggest the Nidal Hasan’s act of terror, was not just an irrational act in response to the stress of military service and his impending deployment to the war zone.
According to the Washington Post, Hasan told colleagues “the war against terror was a war against Muslins, and that his religion came first.”
Investigators are looking into whether Hasan may behind internet postings that said suicide bomber were heroes with a noble cause.
Some soldiers at Ft. Hood reported Hasan shouted “Allahu Akbar”, (“God is Great”), just befre he fired his two pistols and cut down innocent victims, taking time to aim, and shooting each two or three times to increase their chances of dying.
These facts, and others, are still under investigation, but it would appear that Hasam was the one who sullied the name of Islam by slaughtering innocents in its name.
Muslim groups have been quick to denounce the attack, and reinforce Islam’s peaceful tenets, and certainly no one should tar Muslims with the stereotype of terrorists.
But ignoring the religious motivation and the perversion of Islam by enemies of the United States will not help us understand the fight we are in.
Maj. Nidal Hasan apparently was subjected to some anti-Muslim sentiment while he was in the military. And the irony is that may have also fed into the twisted motivations for his horrific act, which in turn may feed more anti-Muslim feeling.
Its like the old Dennis Miller joke about a Middle Eastern ethnic group, tired of being stereotyped as terrorists, who threatens to blow something if it doesn’t stop.
The most important question a journalist can ask, and attempt to answer is “Why?”
Let’s look at the facts, and go from there.
Here’s what my colleague Andrea Stone wrote over at Sphere
« « Terror at Ft. Hood | Massacre or Rampage? » »
Comments (6)
Look the US Military follows constitutionally illegal orders to go half
way around the world and attack and occupy a predominately Muslim
country that did not attack the US and then you have the gall to
complain when some of them fight back. First the imperialist use the
excuse that we have to go over there to fight them before they come over
here ignoring the fact that we have been fighting them over there for
decades. Then the imperialists say they can not accept that same
standard, that Muslims should go to the US and kill Americans before the
Americans go over there and kill Muslims. The imperialists are morally
justified in blowing them and their families up with drones but it one
of them uses a 9mm pistol in the US he is morally lower than us
Imperialists. The US Press labels the resistance as terrorists and
proclaims the "INNOCENCE" of their uniformed victims. **** there are
billions of non Muslim people around the world that think that those
that got shot are about as innocent as a mass murderer.
I have to assume that there are no soldiers on active duty, other than the heroic Major who carried out this POLITICALLY MOTIVATED ATTACK, who recognizes that US foreign policy is criminally insane because I have never seen anyone on active duty publicly state this before. I have seen a number of retired military people publicly state it. I have to assume that no one else will point this out at any site frequented by members of the military because I have not seen it yet.
Yak Yak Yak is all the Tibetan that I can get. The criminal behavior of the US does get pointed out at sites that members of the military do not read. I realize it is a waste of time for me even to make these comments because for someone to even join today's military they are going to have to have a very unquestioning pro US government attitude. Fortunately I have a lot of time to waste and a 200,000 euro life insurance policy.
In a few days it will be Veterans day. I will be honoring the veterans of the Revolutionary War, the war of 1812,
Civil War (Yankees only) WW 2, the Korean War, and those Vietnam vets that love Jane Fonda. I will be saving my sympathy for those who fight against unconstitutional imperialists.
Nothing ever changes. SAMSARA! Shift, I bet no one even knows what that means.
In honor of Erich Fromm, In Honor of Idries Sha. In Honor of Lama Surya Das.
Death to Imperialists who wrap themselves in the flag for they will be covered by the flag.
All wars are civil wars.
Go fishing the Bass are biting at Clear Lake near Mason City.
Play Sequence with your children.
Retire.
Retire early.
Handcuff yourself and march yourself in to prison.
And my critics say that I am not a sensible person.
I have to assume that there are no soldiers on active duty, other than the heroic Major who carried out this POLITICALLY MOTIVATED ATTACK, who recognizes that US foreign policy is criminally insane because I have never seen anyone on active duty publicly state this before. I have seen a number of retired military people publicly state it. I have to assume that no one else will point this out at any site frequented by members of the military because I have not seen it yet.
Yak Yak Yak is all the Tibetan that I can get. The criminal behavior of the US does get pointed out at sites that members of the military do not read. I realize it is a waste of time for me even to make these comments because for someone to even join today's military they are going to have to have a very unquestioning pro US government attitude. Fortunately I have a lot of time to waste and a 200,000 euro life insurance policy.
In a few days it will be Veterans day. I will be honoring the veterans of the Revolutionary War, the war of 1812,
Civil War (Yankees only) WW 2, the Korean War, and those Vietnam vets that love Jane Fonda. I will be saving my sympathy for those who fight against unconstitutional imperialists.
Nothing ever changes. SAMSARA! Shift, I bet no one even knows what that means.
In honor of Erich Fromm, In Honor of Idries Sha. In Honor of Lama Surya Das.
Death to Imperialists who wrap themselves in the flag for they will be covered by the flag.
All wars are civil wars.
Go fishing the Bass are biting at Clear Lake near Mason City.
Play Sequence with your children.
Retire.
Retire early.
Handcuff yourself and march yourself in to prison.
And my critics say that I am not a sensible person.
That is funny. What in the hell could be controversial about my
remarks, Ok if any family members of those shot read my comments they
might get angry. But then family members of the Hells Angles get angry
when you talk bad about their family members too. And many white
southerners still get angry when one talks bad about confederate
soldiers too. It is not my job to make people feel good about
themselves.
0
Ken Shaw, Esq. · 188 weeks ago
Curt Kastens is a real ****. If he is such a critic of America, why
doesn't he ship out to one of those wonderful Islamic Countries. You
know, the ones with no free speech, no freedom of religion and no free
enterprise. All lovely places. Of course if he sticks around here long
enough and plays up to the left and radical Islam like Obama and his
cronies, he may be able to enjoy the fruits of totalitarianism here.
Mr. Kastens has little comprehension of the Muslim mind set. However, he too can pal around with Radical Islam like our loony tunes from the Left and will ultimately end up with the same fate as the Left when radical Islam finds them no longer useful and slits their throats. You need to wise up Mr. Kastens, Islam is a complete political, legal, warlike and non-peaceful religion, which is bent on the complete destruction of western civilization. We here in the USA have made our share of mistakes, and we are far from perfect, but we still are the best thing going and will continue to be so, provided we can put the breaks on the Obama and his cabal of Marxist socialists before they destroy the country.
Final point, Hasan was both a terrorist and a traitor and should receive the death penalty sooner rather than later.
Mr. Kastens has little comprehension of the Muslim mind set. However, he too can pal around with Radical Islam like our loony tunes from the Left and will ultimately end up with the same fate as the Left when radical Islam finds them no longer useful and slits their throats. You need to wise up Mr. Kastens, Islam is a complete political, legal, warlike and non-peaceful religion, which is bent on the complete destruction of western civilization. We here in the USA have made our share of mistakes, and we are far from perfect, but we still are the best thing going and will continue to be so, provided we can put the breaks on the Obama and his cabal of Marxist socialists before they destroy the country.
Final point, Hasan was both a terrorist and a traitor and should receive the death penalty sooner rather than later.
0
Ken Shaw, Esq. · 188 weeks ago
Mr. McIntire, I read your article and Ms. Stones article on the Sphere.
Both well written, but I guess what concerns me the most is that many
in this country do not have an accurate understanding of the radical
Islamic mindset, which comes from feeding on the Koran, Hadith, Sari,
and other Islamic sources, all of which paint Islam as a radical
political, judicial, governmental, warlike and non peaceful religion. In
the USA radical Imams are given access to prisons to convert prisoners,
mostly black, to radical Islam. I have no doubt that there are peace
loving Muslims, but many of the moderate Muslims are sympathetic to the
activities of radical Muslims. Witness Arab translators, who worked in
the offices of the FBI when 9/11 occurred, dancing in their offices and
celebrating when they observed the Twin Towers collapsing. One has to
wonder what kind of reliable Arabic translations that we are receiving.
Many of the mosques and their schools in America are administered by radical Imams, including the ones in Fairfax County, Virginia, where I understand Hasan attended, and preach hatred of Jews and Christians. I could go on, but suffice it to say that we have a major problem with political correctness in this area, as partially evidenced by the Washington Post comments, who were quick to try to deter any reference to the possibility that Hasan's Muslim faith may have impacted his killing spree. From what I have already learned, I have little doubt that that is not the case, i.e., Hasan will be shown to be a radical Muslim.
The military may very welol need to review its policies regarding Muslims serving in the military. We simply can not afford the recurring incidences of attacks on our military personnel by radical Muslims, period.
With the goal of radical Islam being the complete overthrow and destruction of western civilization, we also cannot afford the "luxury" of the Left's complicity in politically correct policy promotions which make it difficult to track and monitor radicalMuslim activity, which is much more rampant than even our government cares to acknowledge, particularly when we now have the appeaser-in -chief in the White House, another story in itself.
Many of the mosques and their schools in America are administered by radical Imams, including the ones in Fairfax County, Virginia, where I understand Hasan attended, and preach hatred of Jews and Christians. I could go on, but suffice it to say that we have a major problem with political correctness in this area, as partially evidenced by the Washington Post comments, who were quick to try to deter any reference to the possibility that Hasan's Muslim faith may have impacted his killing spree. From what I have already learned, I have little doubt that that is not the case, i.e., Hasan will be shown to be a radical Muslim.
The military may very welol need to review its policies regarding Muslims serving in the military. We simply can not afford the recurring incidences of attacks on our military personnel by radical Muslims, period.
With the goal of radical Islam being the complete overthrow and destruction of western civilization, we also cannot afford the "luxury" of the Left's complicity in politically correct policy promotions which make it difficult to track and monitor radicalMuslim activity, which is much more rampant than even our government cares to acknowledge, particularly when we now have the appeaser-in -chief in the White House, another story in itself.
Jean, I have never pretended to be your savior only your big brother.
Besides I made it perfectly clear form the beginning that anyone who
spells French is a bit off.
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