Womb weapon in hand, Umar sez Brother Nidal Hasan had good intentions but made a bad choice.
If only we could find it in our hearts to extend such gentle, loving reprimands and murmurs of disapproval to our American government for its bad choices.
Latest Updates: Nidal Malik Nasan RSS
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johnpi
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johnpi
Time magazine: Nidal Hasan marks ‘a whole new terrorism war.’
Weekly news magazines like Time and Newsweek, which each have a circulation of between 3 and 4 million, can’t ‘break’ news stories because they are weekly, so their coverage tends to be more like what is called ’second-day coverage’ where they are offering analysis, predictions, repercussions, the ‘bigger picture,’ etc. Both Time and Newsweek have become much more conservative in orientation through the 1980s and 1990s.
For eight years, Americans have waged a Global War on Terrorism even as they argued about what that meant. The massacre at Fort Hood was, depending on whom you believed, yet another horrific workplace shooting by a nutcase who suddenly snapped, or it was an intimate act of war, a plot that can’t be foiled because it is hatched inside a fanatic’s head and leaves no trail until it is left in blood. In their first response, officials betrayed an eagerness to assume it was the first; the more we learn, the more we have cause to fear it was the second, a new battlefield where our old weapons don’t work very well and our values make us vulnerable: freedom, privacy, tolerance and the stubborn American certainty that people born and raised here will not reject the gifts we share.
Even as the President weighs how to fight the wars he inherited, he and the entire U.S. security apparatus will have to figure out how you fight a war against an enemy you can’t recognize, much less understand. In that sense, the war on terrorism has left the battlefield and moved to the realm of the mind.
This an excerpt to the main story in what appears to be “package coverage” with a number of sidebars and smaller stories linked off of it.
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johnpi
The very right-wing Washington Times is reporting that FBI sources are telling them that Nidal Malik Hasan was in contact with other people identified as Islamic extremists besides al-Awlaki, who are located in both the US and overseas.
Maj. Hasan made some of the contacts while visiting known jihadist chat rooms on the Internet, according to one of The Times’ sources, a senior FBI official. He said that several people with whom Maj. Hasan was in contact had been the focus of investigations by the FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force.
….Both officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case, said some of the names of those with whom Maj. Hasan was in contact will likely be released soon.
The FBI official said that could happen during pending congressional hearings into the massacre.
A military intelligence official adds:
“Those connections, except for Awlaki, could be explained innocently. But all of them together form a very concerning picture.”
“I may run into contact with shady people through coincidence, through social events, etc.,” he said. “But at some point you start saying like, ‘Huh? Why are you coming in contact with all these charming people?’ “
Sometimes the Washington Times does journalism, so this is worth noting.
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johnpi
“Going postal” is a piquant American phrase that describes the phenomenon of violent rage in which a worker–archetypically a postal worker–”snaps” and guns down his colleagues.
As the enormity of the actions of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan sinks in, we must ask whether we are confronting a new phenomenon of violent rage, one we might dub–disconcertingly–”Going Muslim.” This phrase would describe the turn of events where a seemingly integrated Muslim-American–a friendly donut vendor in New York, say, or an officer in the U.S. Army at Fort Hood–discards his apparent integration into American society and elects to vindicate his religion in an act of messianic violence against his fellow Americans. This would appear to be what happened in the case of Maj. Hasan.
The difference between “going postal,” in the conventional sense, and “going Muslim,” in the sense that I suggest, is that there would not necessarily be a psychological “snapping” point in the case of the imminently violent Muslim; instead, there could be a calculated discarding of camouflage–the camouflage of integration–in an act of revelatory catharsis.
The writer, Tunku Varadarajan, goes on to complain about ‘political correctness,’ as so many other articles of this ilk have.
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johnpi
…a closer look behind the doors of the mosque and inside the conversations between the engineer and the doctor reveal a more complex picture of a young first-generation American Muslim man living a life of dissonance between his identity as an American and his ideology as a Muslim who had accepted a literal, rigid interpretation of Islam, akin to the puritanical Wahhabi and Salafi interpretations of Islam that define the theology of militancy inside the Muslim world today, according to community members who knew Hasan.
Along the way of reporting and describing the two men’s conversations, Nomani has a critique of the common use of the word “ummah” among some in the Muslim world today.
It’s critical that we ditch the concept of the “ummah” with a capital “U” and recognize that we are an “ummah” with a small “u,” meaning our religious identity doesn’t have to supersede other loyalties and identities. This attempt to push an “Ummah” is the politics of ideologues of puritanical Islam who want to mollify dissent. Sadly, too many moderates have bought into it. We aren’t monolithic, and we shouldn’t try to be. Look at al Qaeda, the Taliban and Pakistani militant groups: They don’t have a problem with killing Muslims, slaying Muslims in attacks from Amman, Jordan, to Islamabad, Pakistan.
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johnpi
The spokesman for the American Family Association, a right-wing group, has issued a statement calling for the purging of Muslim soldiers from US military ranks.
“Of course, most U.S. Muslims don’t shoot up their fellow soldiers. Fine. As soon as Muslims give us a foolproof way to identify their jihadis from their moderates, we’ll go back to allowing them to serve. You tell us who the ones are that we have to worry about, prove you’re right, and Muslims can once again serve. Until that day comes, we simply cannot afford the risk. You invent a jihadi-detector that works every time it’s used, and we’ll welcome you back with open arms.”
“This is not Islamophobia, it is Islamo-realism.”
Meanwhile, the relatives of one of the victims has spoken out against the collective scapegoating of Muslims.
“You can’t blanket a whole group of people. There’s extremists in every religion, and there’s extremists all over the world,” said Cahill’s daughter, Kerry. “And I don’t think that we can blanket a whole group of people when this man obviously was ill, I think.”
Cahill’s other daughter, Keely Vanacker, expanded: “The death of our father, or any of these victims, shouldn’t be an excuse or reason to begin to hate an entire group of people.”
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johnpi
ABC is also reporting that Nidal Malik Hasan tried to contact al Qaida.
ABC News is reporting that U.S. agencies were aware months ago that Fort Hood shooting suspect Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan sought to contact people associated with al Qaida, according two American officials familiar with the case. “It is not known whether the intelligence agencies informed the Army that one of its officers was seeking to connect with suspected al Qaeda figures, the officials said,” ABC writes.
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johnpi
It’s been my experience that new converts often get approached by the ‘most hardcore of Muslims.’ This shows further the wisdom of the local imam who refused to recommend Hasan for a lay Muslim leadership position at Fort Hood.
The convert’s name is Duane Reasoner.
“He said he should quit the Army,” Reasoner said. “In the Koran, 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.”
But when he was interviewed by Gavin Lee of the BBC, he went further.
Even if the Muslims involved are engaged in acts of indiscriminate violence against you and other Muslims?
Update: I’ve changed my earlier wording from “the most strident among us” to a phrase Asra Nomani used.
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johnpi
The abbreviations on Hasan’s business card, according to Pamela Geller, stand for “Soldier of Allah, Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala.”
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johnpi
A reporter who covered the Columbine high school massacre responds to the question of whether there are similarities with the Fort Hood attack.
The Ft. Hood perpetrator appears pretty transparent. The “obvious” factors include:
His religion
His ethnicity
The ridicule he endured for each
His profession as a soldier
His profession as a psychiatrist
His exposure to guns
Relentless exposure to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in his patients
Opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
Imminent deployment thereWe have heard a lot of facts related to each of those factors already. I expect that most will turn to be true. Historically, we get the what right pretty fast. But we have a terrible record on why. An oddsmaker could reasonably predict that some of those items will prove relevant and others true but unrelated to the crime. The problem is predicting which is which.
If we guess now, the myths will be us forever. Ten years after Columbine, most of the public still believes it was about jocks, Goths and the Trench Coat Mafia. No, no and no.
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johnpi
Anwar al-Awlaki has posted an homage to Nidal Malik Hasan on his website, the Spittoon blog reports. Awlaki’s name has been coming up in American media reports about the Fort Hood attack because Hasan once attended the same mosque in Virginia where Awlaki was imam and that was the home mosque for two of the 9/11 hijackers.
Aside from lionizing Hasan, Awlaki berates the mainstream Muslim organizations in the US: “The Muslim organizations in America came out in a pitiful chorus condemning Nidal’s operation.”
Awlaki also calls for Muslims in the West to ‘migrate’: “It is becoming more and more difficult to hold on to Islam in an environment that is becoming more hostile towards Muslims.”
More on Alwaki’s possible influence on Hasan here. A quote:
Hasan’s eyes “lit up” when he mentioned his deep respect for al-Awlaki’s teachings, according to a fellow Muslim officer at the Fort Hood base in Texas, the scene of Thursday’s horrific shooting spree.
As investigators look at Hasan’s motives and mindset, his attendance at the mosque could be an important piece of the jigsaw. Al-Awlaki moved to Dar al-Hijrah as imam in January, 2001, from the west coast, and three months later the September 11 hijackers Nawaf al-Hamzi and Hani Hanjour began attending his services. A third hijacker attended his services in California.
Hasan was praying at Dar al-Hijrah at about the same time, and the FBI will now want to investigate whether he met the two terrorists.
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johnpi
Fake rumor alert: Nidal Malik Hasan.
Several columnists for New York tabloids are making an unattributed claim that Hasan refused to be photographed with women. I can’t find any source for the claim, and it’s probably fake, part of the effort to paint Hasan as an Islamic terrorist.
If you know of a source for this assertion, please post it in a comment.
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johnpi
Fort Hood suspect became more devout after mother’s death, cousin says.
A cousin of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan said that he began a stricter practice of Islam after his mother died nine years ago, observing the five daily prayers and taking other aspects of the faith more seriously after a loss that affected him deeply.
“He became religious after the death of his mother. Before that he was more secular,” said Mohammed Mounif Hasan, 25, part of an extended family split between the United States and their ancestral town on the outskirts of Ramallah in the West Bank. The mother had undergone a long treatment for cancer, and the three sons “were really connected to her.”
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johnpi
Classmate: Hasan said terror fight a war on Islam.
Dr. Val Finnell was a classmate of Hasan’s at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md. Both attended a master’s in public health program in 2007 and 2008.
Finnell says he got to know Hasan in an environmental health class. At the end of the class, students gave presentations. Finnell says other classmates wrote on subjects such as dry cleaning chemicals and mold in homes, but Hasan’s topic was whether the war against terror was “a war against Islam.” Finnell described Hasan as a “vociferous opponent” of the terror war.
Finnell says Hasan told classmates he was “a Muslim first and an American second.”
And what is the expectation of people of other faiths when asked to rank their religious identity and theit national identity?
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johnpi
But during their second conversation, Hasan seemed almost incoherent, Danquah said.
“But what if a person gets in and feels that it’s just not right?” Danquah recalled Hasan asking him.
“I told him, `There’s something wrong with you,’” Danquah told The Associated Press during an interview at Fort Hood on Saturday. “I didn’t get the feeling he was talking for himself, but something just didn’t seem right.”
But Danquah was sufficiently troubled that he recommended the center reject Hasan’s request to become a lay Muslim leader at Fort Hood.
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johnpi
This story is headlined to be about ‘tensions over Muslims in the military,’ but more than half of it is about the Muslim Community Center in Silver Springs, MD. There is also a short video report about the center, which has become the target of media efforts to get a ‘Muslim’ response to the Fort Hood shooting.
News reporters deluged the Silver Spring, Md., mosque where the Fort Hood shooting suspect once worshipped, demanding to know what the Quran, Islam’s holy book, has to say about such events. One even asked if the suspect, Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who was born in Virginia and lived his whole life in the U.S., spoke with an “accent.”
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johnpi
Lending itself to the theory that Nidal Malik Hasan was mentally disordered and ungrounded in his religion, Brian Ross of ABC reports that Hasan was “counciled for alcoholism” while at Walter Reed Medical Center. Ross reports it in a video I can’t get a link for, but here’s another report about Hasan’s alcoholism from a Congressional rep who had been briefed on the shooting.
[U.S. Rep. Michael] McCaul said he also has been told that Hasan had undergone rehabilitative alcohol counseling.
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johnpi
This is reportedly one of the pro-Islamist violence blog posts that caused the FBI and the military to become concerned about Nidal Malik Hasan:
There was a grenade thrown amongs a group of American soldiers. One of the soldiers, feeling that it was to late for everyone to flee jumped on the grave with the intention of saving his comrades. Indeed he saved them. He inentionally took his life (suicide) for a noble cause i.e. saving the lives of his soldier. To say that this soldier committed suicide is inappropriate. Its more appropriate to say he is a brave hero that sacrificed his life for a more noble cause. Scholars have paralled this to suicide bombers whose intention, by sacrificing their lives, is to help save Muslims by killing enemy soldiers. If one suicide bomber can kill 100 enemy soldiers because they were caught off guard that would be considered a strategic victory. Their intention is not to die because of some despair. The same can be said for the Kamikazees in Japan. They died (via crashing their planes into ships) to kill the enemies for the homeland. You can call them crazy i you want but their act was not one of suicide that is despised by Islam. So the scholars main point is that “IT SEEMS AS THOUGH YOUR INTENTION IS THE MAIN ISSUE” and Allah (SWT) knows best.
It was posted on a blog/website called “Salafi Manhaj” (www.salafimanhaj.com). Anybody ever heard of it?
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johnpi
Fort Hood anti-Muslim Backlash immediate.
Funny thing about this story is that there is no “lead,” no summary or topic sentence, just backlash examples and background information on Hasan.
His name had barely been released, his heritage and history not immediately known, but the reaction was fast and furious.
“Jihad at Fort Hood?” read the headline of a post on the Jihad Watch blog just moments after Nidal Malik Hasan was identified as the alleged perpetrator of a mass shooting at the Texas military base that killed 12 people and wounded 31 others.
“The name tells us a lot, does it not, senator?” Fox News’s Shep Smith said while interviewing Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Texas senator.
This is also where I become very critical of the older civil rights and anti-discrimination organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center. There is not one word today on the possible impending backlash from this attack on either their blog or their website. Yet, if you read the linked story above you’ll see progressive/liberal bloggers (ideologically, the SPLC’s fellow travelers) throughout the blogosphere are talking/cautioning/warning and imploring people to resist collective punishment/retaliation. The SPLC does note anti-Muslim attacks from time to time, but it seems to be wearing blinders the rest of the time when it comes to Muslims.
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johnpi
Nidal Malik Hassan was disciplined for proselytizing early in his military career, according to NPR.
A source tells NPR’s Joseph Shapiro that Hasan was put on probation early in his postgraduate work at the Uniformed Service University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md. He was disciplined for proselytizing about his Muslim faith with patients and colleagues, according to the source, who worked with him at the time.
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johnpi
The Washington Post weighs in with some more facts and reporting about Fort Hood shooter:
Hasan is a U.S.-born Muslim of Palestinian descent whose parents came to the United States from the West Bank. He joined the military after high school and earned medical degrees as he rose through the ranks, family members said.
….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.
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johnpi
Neighbors describe Hasan: ‘He was a quiet man’ cliche.
Neighbors in the suburban Washington high-rise building where Hasan lived on the 18th floor before his transfer to Fort Hood described him as quiet and pleasant looking, but none said they really knew him. They said he was always in uniform. “The man was a quiet person,” said Viviane Tchanzhan, 30, a waitress. “I never spoke to him.”
I say “cliche” because the ‘He was a quiet man’ description of crazy killers has been said so many times about so many of these people.
Hollywood even made a movie a few years ago titled “He was a quiet man” about a man who plots to kill all his co-workers, etc.
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johnpi
Hasan’s cousin reports that he was under stress from being targeted for harassment because of his ethnicity and his religion.
Fox News
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johnpi
AP sources: Authorities had concerns about suspect because of his Internet postings.
Federal law enforcement officials say the suspected Fort Hood, Texas, shooter had come to their attention at least six months ago because of Internet postings that discussed suicide bombings and other threats.
The officials say the postings appeared to have been made by Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who was killed during the shooting incident that left least 11 others dead and 31 wounded. The officials say they are still trying to confirm that he was the author. They say an official investigation was not opened.The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case.
One of the Web postings that authorities reviewed is a blog that equates suicide bombers with a soldier throwing himself on a grenade to save the lives of his comrades.
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johnpi
According to this website, Dr. Nidal Malik Hasan “was educated at” and completed his education in 1990 at the following institution:
Dr. Hasan was educated at the following institutions:
Medical School
Faculty of Medicine, Damascus University or Faculty of Human Medicine, Damascus University
Completed: 1990
Residency
Usuhs
PsychiatryHere’s the one comment that was left there about Dr. Hasan:
CARING DOCTOR
Reviewer: Pvt J. HammondAlthough he was hard to understand (strong accent) this doctor helped me come to terms with my conscientious objector status.While I am still not thrilled about being deployed to Iraq, I at least understand how doing so to protect my fellow soldiers is a good thing.
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johnpi
More info about the dead shooter.
A U.S. military official identified the dead gunman as Army Major Malik Nidal Hasan. The Army provided no information about him, but Virginia state medical licensing records list a Malik Nidal Hasan as a psychiatrist for the Army Medical Corps, with his pirmary practice at Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood. The phone number listed for him on the records was unanswered.
According to the records, Hasan completed a residency in psychiatry at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. in 2007.
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johnpi
Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison told Fox News she had learned the dead shooter was scheduled for deployment to Iraq, and “I think that there was some measure of being upset about that.”