Friday, November 6, 2009

Muslim, but Presumed Innocent


By Alan Caruba

The earliest indications are that Major Malik Nadal Hasan, the alleged killer of thirteen soldiers who wounded 30 more at Fort Hood, broke under the stress of his forthcoming deployment to Iraq in his capacity as a psychiatrist. Up to the shooting on November 5, he was reportedly doing everything he could to avoid being sent to the Middle East.

Native-born and deemed a good American who enlisted in the U.S. Army, Hasan is the son of Jordanian immigrants and a Muslim. Reportedly, he had encountered some difficulties as the result of that and there are reports, unsubstantiated at this point, that he had posted some thoughts on a personal website regarding his feelings about the role of the U.S. in the Middle East.

If the early news reports are any indication, most will avoid the fact that Major Hasan is a Muslim. Neither CBS Evening News, nor NBC Nightly News in their East Coast feed made any mention of it. As the story continues to develop, it will be instructive to see how the U.S. news media deals with this obvious fact.

On Fox and Friends, Friday morning, it was reported that he shouted “Allah Akbar”, God is great, as he fired at his trapped and helpless victims. There is, in addition, the factor of premeditation.

There are some four to five million Muslims of Arab descent in America, some native born, others who have immigrated. One presumes their patriotism, but there are also too many troubling incidents of these citizens and of converts to Islam to ignore.

Still, nothing—least of all a mass shooting—happens in a vacuum. That is why the November 10th execution of John Allen Muhammad is going to be another occasion for the nation’s media to avoid the fact that he, too, is Muslim. Muhammad, along with Lee Boyd Malvo, were the Beltway snipers who, for three weeks in October 2002, randomly killed ten people and critically wounded three others.

No one is suggesting that all Muslims are killers. What is not being addressed, however, is the way Islam and its holy book, the Koran, is a call to battle.

Starting in 1972, ten members of a local mosque in New York ambushed responding officers, killing one of them. Some fifty-five incidents, including 9/11, have Islam as a component. In the 1970s, adherents of the Nation of Islam, Oakland, California, were particularly active.

As Iran celebrates the thirtieth anniversary of the hostage taking of American diplomats, one is reminded of a July 1980 killing in which a political dissident living in Bethesda, Maryland was assassinated in front of his home by an Iranian agent who was an American convert to Islam.

In the 1990s, events began to pick up. In January 1993, for example, a Pakistani with Mujahideen ties gunned down two CIA employees outside its headquarters. In 1997, a Palestinian left an anti-Semitic suicide note behind, went to the top of the Empire State Building, and shot seven people. Events continued apace in the present decade. In March 2000, a local imam gunned down a deputy sheriff in Atlanta and, in Los Angeles, in July 2002, a Muslim killed two people at the Israeli airline counter at the Los Angeles airport.

The 2001 attack on the Twin Towers was Muslim in conception and fulfillment, dependent on the wish for martyrdom by its perpetrators and over three thousand Americans lost their lives.

Honor killings became part of the news stream. In 2004, a Muslim father killed his wife and attacked his two daughters. In 2008, a Muslim father strangled his 25-year-old daughter and this year in Glendale, Arizona, on November 2nd a Muslim father ran over and killed his daughter, fearing she had become too westernized.

Earlier this year, in February, the founder of a Muslim television station beheaded his wife who was seeking a divorce. The manner of the killing is worth noting.

Terrorism experts continue to warn us that some Muslims here in America are engaged in plots to advance jihad. Curiously, the Department of Homeland Security just named two Muslims to top posts. If an American Muslim who rose to the rank of major could commit mass murder, one has to wonder about the wisdom of those choices, admitted to the inner sanctum of the agency charged with protecting the nation.

The signs were there with Major Hasan, but it is likely that the political correctness that infects common sense in America allowed his unhappiness to erupt in a brutal, senseless act.

No religion is exempt from a history of warfare or individual acts of violence, but today’s world is a reminder that of all the killings taking place in the Middle East these days, it is Muslims killing Muslims. Initially spread by warfare, Islam is the newest of the most populous religions of the world and is distinguished by its zeal to impose a global caliphate.

Islam is not a religion of peace. It is a battle plan that divides the world between the world of Islam, Dar al-Islam, and the world of war, Dar al- Harb. Guess which part of the world that puts most of us?

6 comments:

Eddy said...

Sure, most muslims are peaceful, but. If you follow Muhammed's teachings and life to the letter, you become a terrorist. If you folllow Jesus' teachings and life to the letter, you beome a saint. That's the difference, and that's the continuing inherent problem with islam.

Buzzg said...

The photo included in this post says it all.
Maybe there are "peaceful" Muslims. If they do exist, let's see how many come forward to condemn this man of their beliefs for the heinous, cowardly act he committed.
BO has cautioned us not to "jump to conclusions" which is what I would expect from a Muslim born in Kenya.
Well, he's too late in my case with his warning.
This act is just the tip of the iceberg where Jihad in America is concerned. It is a peek at the systemic rot that has begun in this country and is the wages of appeasement and "diversity".
Let's see if this clown gets off on a "temporary insanity" charge.
Don't be surprised.

Unknown said...

You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.
Rahm Emanuel


Let's see..
Gun Control?
Suppression of Civil Liberties?
Health Care Passes?


Forget about Obamanation's dithering on Afghanistan. Tell me would you feel safe in a foxhole knowing that your fellow soldier who is fanatic would be your potential enemy? A president who bows in front of Muslim King?
You failed to mention in your article about Hasan Akbar case who fragged two officers of the 327th Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. Also, the other killings of Afghanistan's military corps of murdering Americans.
Who knows Obama and Emmanuel could be behind all this. Sure gets peoples thoughts off about the vote tomorrow for health care.

Louise W said...

There are people in this country who gave the reins of government to a communist muslim. Do you really think they are mourning the loss of all those at Ft. Hood? Political correctness will help to create more massacres, honor killings, executions etc. by muslims.

Is there any doubt in a rational mind that muslims should not be in the military and/or the government? Unless some miracle happens, it will never change. We will lose more and more people as they infiltrate further in our country. One of these days they will kill again and violent reprisals will occur. It's just a question of time. You can only tease a dog so long and he will bite!

Unknown said...

This is nothing but hate and slander. Are Americans not killing Muslims in the middle east today, and have they not in the past? Are Jews not killing Muslims?
I expect I know more about Islam than Caruba does, and what I know would not fill a teacup.

Alan Caruba said...

Justin: The use of the word "all" might have been too broad, but those bombs going off killing Iraqis and Afghanis are set by Iraqis and Afghanis. As for Israel, it was under attack by Muslims before and after it proclaimed its sovereignty.

Americans are in the Middle East to try to introduce some new forms of government, of rule by law, not guns, but the resistance requires they defend themselves. Or would you prefer that Saddam was still in charge? He ordered an entire village gassed.

Argue over the word "all" as much as you will. The facts on the ground tell another story.

And Major Hassan is a perfect example of what has come to be called "Instant Jihad Syndrome" when a devout Muslim feels called to massacre innocent "infidels."