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Jewish World Review Nov. 10, 2009 / 23 Mar-Cheshvan 5770 Intimidated Americans Claim Not To Know Hasan's Motives By Dennis Prager
Sunday's New York Times "Week in Review" article about Nidal Hasan was titled "When Soldiers Snap." The gist of the article was that Maj. Hasan had snapped — even though he had never been in combat. He snapped in advance. Just two sentences in the article were devoted to the possibility that his motives were in any way relatable to his Muslim faith.
As Chris Matthews put it, "it's unclear if religion was a factor in this shooting." To Matthews, not only was it unclear if Hasan's Islamic faith was "the" factor, it was unclear if it was even "a" factor.
Likewise, on NPR, Tom Gjelten offered the novel explanation that Hasan, who has never been in combat, may have suffered from "pre-traumatic stress disorder" because he anticipated having traumatic distress. "Was he an example," Gjelten seriously asked, "of these soldiers who are literally freaked out by what they are likely to face when they are deployed?"
And on Fox News, Geraldo Rivera, said, "I don't know what motivates him … as far as I know … he's a sociopath; he's a criminal. He could have had a toothache and gone off because of that."
The deaths and maiming at Fort Hood are heartbreaking and angering. But ultimately far more injurious to America than the act of evil that caused those deaths and injuries is the massive self-deception American society engages in out of fear of being called bigoted, racist or "Islamaphobic."
Any American who is not prepared to lie to himself has reason to believe that Hasan's religious views were prominent, if not exclusive, factors for why he slaughtered fellow American soldiers. The motives appear as clear as any could be.
Chuck Medley, Fort Hood's director of Emergency Services, told Reuters that Hasan yelled "Allahu Akbar" — the Arabic incantation of "Allah is the greatest" yelled by Islamic terrorists before they slaughter people — just before the shooting,
Dr. Val Finnell told The Associated Press that he and other classmates participating in a 2007-2008 master's program with Hasan at the Uniformed Services University had complained about his comments, including that the war on terror was "a war against Islam."
Another classmate told the AP that he complained to five officers and two civilian faculty members at the university. He also wrote to Pentagon officials that fear in the military of being seen as politically incorrect prevented an "intellectually honest discussion of Islamic ideology" in the ranks.
Other classmates who participated in a 2007-2008 master's program at a military college said they, too, had complained to superiors about Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan's anti-American views, which included his giving a presentation that justified suicide bombing and telling classmates that Islamic law trumped the U.S. Constitution.
And ABC News now reports that Hasan had attempted to contact al-Qaida.
It is a given that the vast majority of American Muslims are loyal Americans. But that's not the only given.
It is equally a given that a certain percentage of Muslims in and outside of the military are Islamists who want Americans dead and America Muslim.
It does the majority of Muslims no favor to deny the existence of the minority. And Muslim Americans do themselves no favor by denying it. Unfortunately, Muslims are theoretically represented by groups like CAIR whose values are correctly seen by most Americans as suspect.
Americans are worried by the fact that there are Muslim Americans whose beliefs compel them to murder non-Muslim Americans. But what is even more worrisome is that American Muslim groups (and their supporters on the left) deny this.
JWR contributor Dennis Prager hosts a national daily radio show based in Los Angeles. Click here to comment on this column.
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Arnold Ahlert | |||||||||||||
