Sudden Jihad or "Inordinate Stress" at Ft. Hood?
11/10/09
Sudden Jihad or "Inordinate Stress" at Ft. Hood?
by Daniel Pipes
November 9, 2009
http://www.danielpipes.org/7737/sudden-jihad-inordinate-stress-ft-hood
When a Muslim in the West for no apparent reason violently attacks non-Muslims, a predictable argument ensues about motives.
The establishment – law enforcement, politicians, the media, and the academy – stands on one side of this debate, insisting that some kind of oppression caused Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 9, to kill 13 and wound 38 at Ft. Hood on Nov. 5. It disagrees on the specifics, however, presenting Hasan as the victim alternatively of "racism," "harassment he had received as a Muslim," a sense of not belonging," "pre-traumatic stress disorder," "mental problems," "emotional problems," "an inordinate amount of stress," or being deployed to Afghanistan as his "worst nightmare." Accordingly, a typical newspaper headline reads "Mindset of Rogue Major a Mystery.".
Instances of Muslim-on-unbeliever violence inspire the victim school to dig up new and imaginative excuses. Colorful examples (drawing on my article and weblog entry about denying Islamist terrorism) include:
• 1990: "A prescription drug for … depression" (to explain the assassination of Rabbi Meir Kahane)
• 1991: "A robbery gone wrong" (the murder of Makin Morcos in Sydney)
• 1994: "Road rage" (the killing of a random Jew on the Brooklyn Bridge)
• 1997: "Many, many enemies in his mind" (the shooting murder atop the Empire State Building)
• 2000: A traffic incident (the attack on a bus of Jewish schoolchildren near Paris)
• 2002: "A work dispute" (the double murder at LAX)
• 2002: A "stormy [family] relationship" (the Beltway snipers)
• 2003: An "attitude problem" (Hasan Karim Akbar's attack on fellow soldiers, killing two)
• 2003: Mental illness (the mutilation murder of Sebastian Sellam)
• 2004: "Loneliness and depression" (an explosion in Brescia, Italy outside a McDonald's restaurant)
• 2005: "A disagreement between the suspect and another staff member" (a rampage at a retirement center in Virginia)
• 2006: "An animus toward women" (a murderous rampage at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle)
• 2006: "His recent, arranged marriage may have made him stressed" (killing with an SUV in northern California)
Additionally, when a Osama bin Laden-admiring Arab-American crashed a plane into a Tampa high-rise, blame fell on the acne drug Accutane.
As a charter member of the jihad school of interpretation, I reject these explanations as weak, obfuscatory, and apologetic. The jihadi school, still in the minority, perceives Hasan's attack as one of many Muslim efforts to vanquish infidels and impose Islamic law. We recall a prior episode of sudden jihad syndrome in the U.S. military, as well as the numerous cases of non-lethal Pentagon jihadi plots and the history of Muslim violence on American soil.
Far from being mystified by Hasan, we see overwhelming evidence of his jihadi intentions. He handed out Korans to neighbors just before going on his rampage and yelled "Allahu Akbar," the jihadi's cry, as he fired off over 100 rounds from two pistols. His superiors reportedly put him on probation for inappropriately proselytizing about Islam.
We note what former associates say about him: one, Val Finnell, quotes Hasan saying, "I'm a Muslim first and an American second" and recalls Hasan justifying suicide terrorism; another, Col Terry Lee, recalls that Hasan "claimed Muslims had the right to rise up and attack Americans"; the third, a psychiatrist who worked very closely with Hasan, described him as "almost belligerent about being Muslim."
Finally, the jihad school of thought attributes importance to the Islamic authorities' urging American Muslim soldiers to refuse to fight their co-religionists, thereby providing a basis for sudden jihad. In 2001, for example, responding to the U.S. attack on the Taliban, the mufti of Egypt, Ali Gum'a, issued a fatwa stating that "The Muslim soldier in the American army must refrain [from participating] in this war." Hasan himself, echoing that message, advised a young Muslim disciple, Duane Reasoner Jr., not to join the U.S. army because "Muslims shouldn't kill Muslims."
If the jihad explanation is overwhelmingly more persuasive than the victim one, it's also far more awkward to articulate. Everyone finds blaming road rage, Accutane, or an arranged marriage easier than discussing Islamic doctrines. And so, a prediction: what Ralph Peters calls the army's "unforgivable political correctness" will officially ascribe Hasan's assault to his victimization and will leave jihad unmentioned.
And thus will the army blind itself and not prepare for its next jihadi attack.
Mr. Pipes is director of the Middle East Forum and Taube distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University.
Originally published in FrontPageMagazine.com
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Comments
When will the Military and the Press stop making exuses for this KILLERS behavior. I read he has PTSD from inteviewing returning combat Veterans. Come on PTSD is real. but having PTDS from intrviewing returing Vets that the biggest bullshit I ever heard. Hasan is a radical muslim. I guess it must be politicly incorrect to call the MURDER Hasan a Radical Muslim!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The intellegence community had reports on Hasans behavior and DIDNOT react. they (the intellegence community) needs to get off thier ASSES and do thier jobs. Just look at the information they had prior to 9/11. Come on ya-all our lives as Americans the whole world lives are on the line. RVN Vet., 1967-70.
Posted by Carole63 on Fri, 11/13/2009 - 02:37
There is a big difference between a radical muslim and a radical christian.
They are complete opposites!
Islam teaches its followers to kill and maim all unbelievers, jews and christians whereas christians are taught from the bible to love and care for each other!
You don`t hear of christians around the world killing and beheading people or raping women!
The quran is the antithesis of the bible!
Read "GOD`S WAR ON TERROR" by Walid Shoebat or "BECAUSE THEY HATE" by Brigitte Gabriel to learn the truth about Islam.
You will soon realize the quran is not from God!
Posted by Mohan on Thu, 11/12/2009 - 05:35
The fact is that Muslims are doing nothing that their prophet did not do and did not encourage his followers to do. Murder, rape, assassination, beheading, massacre and sacrilege of the dead "to delight the hearts of the believers" were all practiced by Muhammad, were taught by him and were observed by Muslims throughout their history.
The so-called silent majority of Muslims have a very symbiotic relationship with terrorists. Terrorists fight and kill, while the silent Muslims provide them moral, financial and logistical support discreetly. They call them “freedom fighters” or “fighters against injustices of the West”. Had that not been the case, these silent Muslims would have junked this violent Islam long ago, as some of them have indeed done. Had that not been the case, this majority of silent Muslims would themselves have killed and eliminated all Jihadists by now or denounced the violent verses of Quran.
Time of Islam is now over. Islam must be eliminated from the world.
It is time we stop making distinction between moderates and radicals; they are opposite sides of the same coin – Islam.
Posted by Learning on Thu, 11/12/2009 - 00:59
The more I learn about the ideology Islam, the more I am hearing that to call someone a 'radical' Muslim is misleading. If you were talking about a Christian, for example, to say that Christian is a 'radical' Christian who was 'sold out' to Jesus, or 'on fire' for Jesus, that would be the equivalent of saying that they are a very devout Christian who takes following Christ seriously. From what I understand, a 'radical' Muslim is basically the same. When most Americans hear the term 'radical' Muslim, I think the picture that comes to mind is some crazy Muslim who is on the fringe, who is the equivalent of those so-called Christians (whom I personally doubt are Christians at all) that blow up abortion clinics. One difference, of course, is that blowing up abortion clinics is the opposite of what the Bible teaches, whereas killing kafirs (unbelievers/infidels) is exactly what the Qur'an teaches (yes, the Qur'an has 2 faces, and Muslims will use taquiyya or kitman to point out the peaceful verses; but the peaceful verses from Mecca have been abrogated by the jihad verses from Medina). I have researched many cases of honor killings, as well as some cases of terrorist acts, and many of those honor killings and terrorist acts were committed by Muslims who were considered to be 'moderate.' I have also heard that, if Shari'a law were ever to take hold, then those 'moderate' Muslims would become 'radical' Muslims. I have been told that the enemy is not Muslim people, but the ideology of Islam, which is more a political ideology than it is a religious ideology. The problem, it seems to me, is how to distinguish between those Muslims who are devout (and who will often use taquiyya and kitman to deceive Westerners) and those Muslims who have become totally Westernized, so that they are not now devout Muslims (those are the ones, I assume, who would put America before Islam).
Posted by lilly2bee on Wed, 11/11/2009 - 20:42
I was reared with morals and love the Lord Jesus my Savior. I could not stand before Him and make as many excuses with spineless free pass only to do it again and again. Where is the honor in lies? Where is the honor in killing in the name of God when we are told by God to "Love our enemies, bless them that curse you, and do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that you may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh the sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethern only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. Matthew 5:44-48