Major Nidal Hasan and the Killing at Fort Hood, Texas

Then don't join the military.  Why do we have to go out of our way to accomodate them?

Even if a person is radicalized by events like harrassment and humiliation, it is not the foregone conclusion that such a person will run amok and kill and injure those around him. It can't have primarily to do with religion as not everybody who experiences mobbing for his religious beliefs, culture etc. turns out to be a massmurderer. It would be wrong to politicise Nidals ethnic and cultural background and a slippery slope to say the least.

Bahu, I enjoyed reading your article.  I have seen your name posting before but I don't think I've read any of your articles. 

I totally agree with your comments that American Academia needs to wake up.  Most people in Academia feel strongly that Islam is a religion of peace.  They've been so fooled to the point to believe that the word Islam itself mean peace.  Which is a bunch of donkey poop.  Islam means to submit/surrender.  Now submit or surrender to who/what?  To Allah.  If you ask that's the response your get but the full thing is to submitt/surrender to Allah's will which has been revealed in his word, the Qur'an. 

For Utemia, your statement is true YET no one is using all statements nor do all at point a make it to point c.  There are many reasons for that but the primary reason is that a HIGH PERCENTAGE of Muslims don't understand a lick of Arabic.  Most of the prayers they resite are in Arabic.  The Qur'an is written in classical Arabic which is very hard to read (Classical Arabic that is. You need to get past the mesmerized caligraphy.)

Most people will agrue that Islam is not violent only a select few have hijacked the religion.  Well that's why we have the hadith.  Now most westerns particularly those in the States, have no stinkin clue what the hadith is.  The hadith is read more and used more on a daily bases THAN the Qur'an by Muslims.

The hadith is a collection of muhammad's actions, thoughts, and sayings.  It wasn't until the last 5 years been translated into English.  Even then there have been some stuff that has been conveniently left out.

After living in the Middle East, people need to read the Qur'an AND the hadith. Utemia, you need to read the Qur'an and the Hadith.  I know you're german. I don't know a good german translation.  An excellent english translation is by Abdullah Yusuf Ali.  I am still searching for a decent english translation of the hadith. After reading and studying both of those books you can better understand why fundmental/religious muslims think the way they do.

The media also espouses that Islam is peaceful (which I could easily say that's a slippery slope). 

Now Island Dog, I agree with your statement.  The States has turned into a catering politically correct country.  Let's have a gay pride day. Yeah, let's broadcast that to the world.  Let's continue to remind and show Muslims why we are THE GREAT SATAN!

As a culture and a society, the States has an attitude of I want it my way right now and I don't care what anyone else thinks nor the consequences (Burger Kings ad campaign 'I want it my way' was a very successful one in the United States and actually briefly eclipsed McDonald's sales due to it).  Being a society of extreme excess and with that attitude I'm not the slightest surprised that there's a decay going on in the U.S.

One more thing: its not wrong to show Nidals ethnic and culture background.  For our environment helps to create who we are and particularly our personality.

This is another one of those rare occasions when I get to agree (partially) with Bahu.

My quibbles are with this:

And this:

Well, actually, with everything after the next-to-last sentence of the first paragraph.

Near as I can tell, faith and the State are indistinguishable to many Muslims, if not most.  I think that is the source of the 'growing alienation' more than identity politics.  Even many American converts to Islam consider their country of birth the Great Satan.  I agree that Muslim faith without Sharia appears to be very problematic, but wholly apart from identity politics, something that without question has itself been very corrosive to our culture.  I also don't yet buy a generalized 'feeling of unease' as the 'cause' of Major Hasan's murder spree.  That would be a lazy, facile way to avoid dealing with the specifics and is reflective of the 'everyone is a victim' (usually of rightwing 'meanness') mentality that is so prevalent on the left.

The idea that we should not expect Muslims in the Army (a volunteer outfit, you will remember) to do the job they signed up to do is just idiocy and would be the penultimate example of the 'identity politics' you claim to oppose.  If there is no way for Muslims to share the values of our country sufficiently to fight for it, how can they ever not be alienated from the 'mainstream of western collective life'?

All I'm saying is that this could end up in a witch hunt, especially since knowing the US media a little bit and how the internet works. Amok killings are rare, even though they happen too often as it is. Even radicalized people usually don't act like this, they make hate speeches and call for jihad and talk about the great satan america, but they don't usually go about shooting indiscremenantly into a crowd in a health facility. The investigation needs time to interview Hasan and find out his motive, and then he'll get a trial or a court martial as he did commit murder on a US base and is (still) an US army officer. That falls under military jurisdiction (I loved JAG lol) That trial will be a media circus unless they decide to have it behind closed doors.

Islam in general just puts me off. No reason not to inform myself though, thanks for the note on the english translation. I am fluent enough in english to read it.

tHANK YOU.

tHIS IS THE PROBLEM WITH ALL REVEALED RELIGIONS. aFTERALL THE mIDDLE eAST HAS NOT FORGOTTEN OR FORGIVEN THE CRUSADES.

This is a difficult question and I cannot pretend to have an answer to it. I feel that less stress mon the anularities mof identity issues will help.

Islam mdoes have a concept of State except that the stateerves religion and through religion the community of believers. Completely opposite to the view espoused in Europe since the Eighteenth century.

State serving religion,  that concept only leads to dictatorship. It has in the past and does so currently in those countries that apply it that way. People are unfree in such a system and risk their lives if they say anything against those in power.

This was a classical case of a member of a minority doing exactly what people say this minority is prone to doing.

Homosexuals and blacks have been mistreated in the US far worse than Muslims. But they are not known for running around and murdering people because of it. And prejudices against homosexuals and blacks are not based on what they actually do.

Prejudices against Muslims are based on what many, many self-proclaimed Muslims do.

The three major prejudices against Muslims I know if are "Muslims are anti-Semitic", "Muslims mistreat their women", and "Muslims celebrate their religion by murdering people". And guess what? For a large number that is exactly true.

On the contrary, I find that Hassan's crime creates a feeling of unease for non-Muslims.

I don't know how alienated Muslims feel from western society and how much of that has to do with the fact that many don't integrate. But I do know that they don't feel much unease, sine they hardly try to hide the fact that they are Muslims.

I am constantly told, by European liberals, that Muslims in Europe face discrimination and that they fear being singled out for violent attacks. But violent attacks against Jews in Europe are four times as likely as violent attacks against Muslims, and while many Jews do not advertisde the fact that they are Jewish on the street, I see thousands of Muslims on the streets in Europe who are obviously Muslims and do not seem to fear the fact that everybody around them sees it. How afraid and alienated can they really be?

We know why it happened: the man is a terrorist.

It is true that these things can be avoided by giving in to their demands and doing what they want. But giving in to violence is wrong. Remember the homosexuals you mentioned? And the blacks I mentioned? For their sake we cannot give in to the terrorists. Because after the Jews they are numbers 2 and 3 on their list.

In that case there is something wrong with the Muslim.

Many Muslims serve in the Israeli army. They fight for the Jewish state and they are proud of it. They are also among the best soldiers Israel has. In fact one of the top three Israeli war heroes is a Muslim.

The only thing Islam has to do with not fighting for one's country is the fact that it offers an excuse people in the west will believe. We in the west have been taught that Muslims do and don't do all sorts of weird things and these days the word "Muslim" is anough to explain or excuse absolutely anything.

The fact is that Muslims never ever had a problem killing other Muslims for politics. Iraqi Muslims did not worry about the fact that they killed Iranian Muslims when the _secular_ Iraqi government decided to attack Iran. Nor did Iraqi Muslims worry about Kuwaiti Muslims when Saddam decided to invade Kuwait. (Note that some Iraqi Muslims did have a problem with killing people. But those same Iraqi Muslims also had a problem with killing non-Muslims. You can find them in Kurdistan.)

There is a civil war between Muslims in Yemen.

There is a genocide perpetrated by Arabs against _Muslim_ Africans in Darfur.

Everywhere in the world the combination of Muslims killing other Muslims for politics is the most common piece in the Lego set that makes up wars.

Secularists like Saddam Hussein understood very well that Muslims will do absolutely everything for politics. Muslims follow their leader, regardless of who he is and what he wants. Even Hitler famously noticed that attribute of followrs if Islam.

I think what the US and the US military need is a stronger leadership. Muslim culture rewards strong leadership.

This guys religion will be mostly off-limits for the media and opinion makers. It's no secret that the only group in the US that it is politically correct to criticize is Christians, and especially the Catholic church. No backlash, no boycotts, no problem.

Heh.. because there is a mystery about the vatican, forbidden books and secret archives, secret societies.. and a pretty violent past rife with secrets. It is no wonder that the vatican appears so often in conspiracy theories in books and films. People love a good secret and story, it's entertaining.

This is differently true! In the film 2012 they destroyed several catholic and Christians areas.  The writers wanted to destroy the kaaba in Mecca as millions of muslims were going on Haijj there but feared a fatiwa would be announced. 

Here's the quote: "Well, I wanted to do that, I have to admit, But my co-writer Harald [Kloser] said, 'I will not have a fatwa on my head because of a movie.' And he was right. We have to all, in the western world, think about this. You can actually let Christian symbols fall apart, but if you would do this with [an] Arab symbol, you would have ... a fatwa, and that sounds a little bit like what the state of this world is. So it's just something which I kind of didn't [think] was [an] important element, anyway, in the film, so I kind of left it out." You can read the article here: http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/movie-talk-roland-emmerich-fatwa.html

People bash christians all the time due to the fact that no one can cry up a storm of discrimination, have the fear of being labeled something, or being killed because you said.

A show that I enjoy watching, they mock christians all the time (its a comedy) to the point of blanantly ridiculing it. They've mocked Judiasm as well but by far probably 80 to 90 percent of their religious jokes are towards christians.

The media is trying to down play his religion as well.  On the state run CNN they say what caused him to snap was because of him going to Afghanistan and fighting the war.  To most media networks this HAD NOTHING to do with religion and everything to do with him fighting that war.  In essence, saying that if there was no war he wouldn't have done this.

Ignorant people about Islam drive me insane. Like I've said before, there are some that aren't violent but those are the ones that just are doing it because its cultural.  They are the ones that don't understand arabic nor do they read the qur'an because they can't read arabic nor would they want to.

Once you find people that read the qur'an you'll notice a correlation with them being destructive.

If you want to hear about a man who speaks openly about what Islam means (he's not a muslim, but he is an Arab).  Look up Father Zakaria BotrosHis radio show is in Egypt and many Muslims want him to be killed    .

yet many hear his message and reject islam.  Utemia, if you're interested in islam look him up.  I think some of his messages have been translated into German.  Actually Utemia, I don't know if you know this but Leauki is fluent in German.

p.s Leauki, I hope you don't mind me saying that though I know you've posted and talked about it.

dumb keyboard keeps wanting to write from right to left.  Hence, the gap in between the yet in my post.  I need more practice in writing languages that go from right to left.

He was ridiculed?

Yeah, I imagine he was..And occasionally by the men and women he "counseled" (read: attempted to screw up) with his own brand of therapy.  After all, most of them had been to combat while he was only "worried" about going.

I wonder how much damage he did to people in his role as therapist.

I find islam frightenly expansionistic. My mum is from Croatia and she only has horror stories about the time the turks invaded moe than 500 years ago. It shaped bosnia and albania and the kosovo - people were forced to convert, some did - ancestors of todays muslim, some fled - ancestors of todays croatians in the mountaineous regions - and the serbs fought back and still hate muslims - see them as traitors. It happened in the 15th century but I guess that part of history still defines people. I try to be tolerant but I hate the fact that the concepts of freedeom, tolerance and human dignity is used as a tool with the ultimate goal to abolish them alltogether and have their kalifate in all of europe. Religion serving the state.. (very popular conspiracy theory) Im a bit paranoid sometimes

As for criticising christianity without backlash - isn't that one of the big achievements of the development during the last +/-250 years or so? Human dignity, ratio (Vernunft), Freedom of speech, freedom of the press etc.  It is good thing to stand above slurs and slander and not let it bother you, to be aware of your own qualities and achievements. It's mostly insecure and pathetic people who take everything so personally and view it as an attack.

Here is Father Botros in an interview with Egyptian television:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HXX2fO8pM4

He only cares about Christians, but at least he dares to speak up.

Don't worry. Almost everybody here knows that I understand German.

Watch the video. It's amazing how much you understand when you remember the basic corresponding consonants:

Arabic Taw = Hebrew Shin (athnaim = shnaim)

Arabic Sin = Hebrew Shin (seba = sheva)

Arabic Bet = Hebrew Vet (Arabic has no fricative for Bet)

Those are the relevant ones for the speech in the video. Otherwise some others also apply: Fe/Pe (Arabic has no Pe), Dad/Tsadi (Hebrew has no Dad, and Ghayin/Ayin (modern Hebrew has no Ghayin).

It is true that the most fanatical Islamists are Arabs. But the most moderate Muslims are Arabs too. Part of it is, I am sure, that the Qur'an is written in classical Arabic with lots of Aramaic loan words (that were common at the time in cities and would obviously be used by a trader with Syria) while modern Arabic dialects are considerably different from the classical dialect. Many sentences simply changed their meaning.

Other parts of the Qur'an are routinely ignored by Muslims. Some of the more surprising bits are the statements about Israel (Muhammed believed the land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel) and Arabs (Muhammed thought the Arabs were the worst in hypocrisy and disbelief). Quote those statements today and you are on your own.

Croatia? That explains your name, I suppose. (You one told us what Utemia is short for.)

I cannot imagine that your mum ever met an invading Turk. I don't think the Turkish invasions were much worse than most invasions. But then Yugoslavia is one of those regions that generates more history than it can handle. You have cultural Romans, Greeks, and Muslims, like a miniature version of Europe and the Mediterranean. All the wars fought hundreds of years ago remained unresolved and on ice in Yugoslavia and had to be fought again, on a smaller scale, once the weather got a bit warmer.

Meanwhile, our SecDHS is more worried about the anti-Muslim backlash than she is about the anti-American frontlash.

Yes, Idknow that the Bedouins in the Israeli Army have vowed to fight for Israel. But Ialsoknow that they are facing problems, especilly after the Intifada to movingup to command positions.

Theonly way to defeatr prejduce is to eschew identity politix, as I have argued.

Freedom is only a minor matter of detail in most societies.

The Bedouins in the Middle-East have always faced problems. There are prejudices against Bedouins but it's not because they are Muslims.

Everything that makes Muslims look bad, the extremism etc, is simply not very present in Bedouin culture. The vast majority of Bedouins everywhere are neither Arab nationalists nor Muslim extremists. In fact their version of Islam is much too conservative to have been influenced by modern extremism or nationalism.

The problems they sometimes face in Israel because of the Intifada has to do with their Arab nationality, not their Muslim religion.

My parents picked names that were international, and the bible is a pretty good resource for that. (John, Johannes, Jean, Ivan, Giovanni) alot of names work in alot of languages.

The balkan is a interesting topic in itself, but it (sadly) doesn't really fit within this thread. My mother never met an invading turk (duh) but in that regard events are kept alive in an oriental manner. Centuries do not really matter, history is kept alive. I would say that alot of the animosities between nationalistic serbs and muslim kosovares and albanians and muslim bosniaks are rooted in that time.

Generally, I think that names are really important (and could even ruin a persons life). The names some hollywood stars and celebreties chose for their children just makes me really wonder if they had all their senses together or not. And I have character stereotypes that I associate with certain names - I dunno if a name can influence what a person'll be like in life or not, but sometimes it feels like it does. It is interesting how many people on JU emphasized that President Obama's middle name is Hussein - as if that defined his character and mentality.

That's an interesting comment, considering all the Muslims that died in Iraq and Afghanistan at the hands of Muslims. So we should accommodate Muslims even more by not sending them to fight their own people. That's an interesting concept, join the US armed forces so you get to pick and choose who to fight. Why would a Muslim join again?

If Muslims are not willing to step in and defend other Muslims from the likes of Saddam and Bashir, what good is that faith?