The lame stream media, the president and even the Army was quick to spread the spin and attempt to define the debate before the bodies of the 13 murdered at Fort Hood were even cold.
The truth is that Hasan is an American-born Muslim with strong beliefs that Islamic Jihad against the United States is not only understandable, but inevitable and acceptable. His views were well-known by colleagues who would not file a formal complaint for fear of being labeled as anti-Muslim, a career killer. The unofficial heads-up that was given to superiors resulted in non-action, for fear of being perceived as intolerant of the religious beliefs of Muslims.
The refusal to face reality and respond with reasonable action has resulted in an Unintended (albeit foreseeable) Consequence of Political Correctness.One might think that the slaughter of 13 and wounding of 29 Americans on our homeland, on a military base no less, might be enough to shake loose the entrenched idiocy of Political Correctness. But that was not to be. The immediate reaction of We The People was outrage that once again the homeland had been attacked and our people killed because Muslim terrorists want us dead. The Misguided Marginal Media, Team Obama and the Army officials immediate reaction was to control and contain any suggestions that it was a terrorist act by a radical Islamic Muslim.
Massacre by a radical Muslim + Political Correctness = Attack by a disturbed individual.Think about it: An officer in the US Army has frequent arguments, many heated, with various fellow officers in recent years. He ranted about the stupidity and immorality of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He gave a Power Point presentation* to other doctors in 2007 where he lectured on Islam, suicide bombers and threats the military could encounter from Muslims conflicted about fighting wars in Muslim countries, instead of the medical topic he was suppose to give. This same officer lives a very spartan life. Although he earns over $100,000 annually, nothing in his life style accounts for how he spent the money.
Then this officer buys a gun nicknamed 'Cop-Killer' and then in the days before the shooting gives away his belongings... even his frozen veggies. He told his neighbor he was going "to do good work for God." He then goes to the Army base carrying two weapons, with extra magazines and enters a processing area at Fort Hood. After acting like he was there to help soldiers being deployed, he jumps upon a table and yells "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great)
Imagine if a fundamentalist Christian soldier had shot up a room full of unarmed Muslims while shouting “Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior.” Imagine that he had a fascination with Old Testament stories of how God smote His enemies. Perhaps his pastor used rhetoric calling for a crusade to rid the land of non-Christians. Imagine there were indications that he had corresponded with and met with a cult that killing the heretics was a mission from God.
The chattering classes who are currently trying so hard to minimize the religious aspects surrounding Hasan would all be scrambling and screaming that Evangelical Christianity (egged on by right-wing wackos like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh) was inherently violent and then demand something be done to rein in this hateful theology.
There can and should be a rational debate (and eventually a decision) on whether Hasan committed an act of terrorism or treason but this insane retreat from reason and reality can no longer be tolerated or accepted.
In the years since 9/11, the Voice of Reason has issued many warnings that Political Correctness was going to get Americans killed. Contrary to common belief, this is not the first homeland attack against Americans by Muslims. This attack is the one that, in number and circumstance, is so dramatic it can't be ignored or covered with PC.
NOTE: Many in the media are now starting to point fingers toward the Army and why it did not remove Hasan from military service. We have to bear in mind that hindsight really is 20/20. My mom use to tell me that when you point your finger at someone else you have four fingers pointing back at you. The Bible says to take the plank out of your own eye before worrying about the splinter in your brother's.
Now imagine what the media would have said about the Army if they had kicked Hasan out. It would probably go something like... Here's this upstanding American citizen volunteering to serve his country who is being picked on by the very people he serves. All he's doing is exercising the free speech and freedom of religion rights that we all hold so dear... And how many articles would have been written about Muslims being profiled and discriminated against in the Army?
Of course a full investigation should be conducted and let the chips fall where they may. It could result in an overhaul of the US intelligence community as a Houston Chronicle article points out. We can only hope that the overhaul will be done to protect US citizens and not propagate even more of the Political Correctness so favored by Team Obama.
Click on MORE INFO and LINKS for links to Attacks on America during October; Examples of the Retreat from Reason and Reality concerning the Ft Hood Massacre; Examples of past Warnings about the dangers of Political Correctness and other articles, essays and posts discussing the PC brouhaha surrounding the shooting.
Part II of The Retreat of Reason and Reality will look at the definitions, origins and intentions of Political Correctness. In the meantime, I will leave you with this definition that is out on the blogs, "Political Correctness is a doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical liberal minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.”
* POWER POINT PRESENTATION
Maj. Hasan, was supposed to discuss a medical topic during gave a presentation to senior Army doctors in June 2007. Instead, he lectured on Islam, suicide bombers and threats the military could encounter from Muslims conflicted about fighting wars in Muslim countries.
EARLIER WARNINGS CONCERNING POLITICAL CORRECTNESS
AIFD Congressional Briefing (October 1, 2009): Islamist Terror cannot be defeated without addressing Political Islam American Islamic Forum for Democracy
Transcript of the Fox News Republican Presidential Candidates Debate
REP TANCREDO: Political correctness is going to get us all killed. (Applause.) It is absolutely the thing we have to fear. And just this -- and if I could for just a minute, listen. It is already the thing that has gotten us killed in other places. We will -- I will never however go to war, under any circumstances, by putting men and women of the armed forces in places of danger with their hands tied behind them with rules of engagement that they cannot live by.
Doug Patton: www.gopusa.com
The recent airing of the ABC miniseries, "The Path to 9/11," gave us all a brief glimpse into the timidity of today's leaders in both political parties. Nearly three thousand people died that day because of our unwillingness to face the reality of Islamic extremism, a foe as evil as any that ever launched an assault against a peaceful people. Over the past two decades, golden opportunities were missed and loyal allies were abandoned in the name of political correctness and military expediency.
Sadly, ever since our self-inflicted defeat in Vietnam (or even, some would argue, since our stalemate in Korea a half-century ago) the unwillingness of our leaders to do whatever is necessary to win seems to be the norm rather than the exception. Apparently, we have accepted the idea that when our enemy hides in a mosque, we must not attack him. While they fly airplanes into buildings, we are expected to "understand" them, try to comprehend why they hate us and not strike back with a "disproportionate" response.
While our enemy kidnaps, tortures and beheads innocent civilians and military personnel alike, we court-martial our own troops and send them to prison for harassing a few prisoners in what amounts to college hazing incident. While our enemy declares war on Christianity and Judaism, using every cruel, inhumane, cowardly tactic to win at all costs, our soldiers are expected to observe sensitivity toward Islam and never "overreact."
DAILY MAIL: 'We've only ourselves to blame': How Bin Laden could have been captured many times but for the West's political correctness
Fox News: By Douglas Kennedy-October 27, 2009
Father of 9/11 Victim Fights to Have ‘Murdered by Muslim Terrorists’ Inscribed on Son’s Memorial
Peter Gadiel thinks any tribute to his son would be woefully incomplete without those words. "I think it’s important, because I think there’s a nationwide effort to suppress the identity of the people who were involved in the attacks," Gadiel told Fox News.
Washington Post: Fort Hood wasn’t an isolated case
The Fort Hood attack is the third instance this year in which American military personnel in the United States have been targeted by people reportedly opposed to U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Overall, U.S. authorities have disclosed at least 10 domestic terrorist cases in the last year – the most since 2001
EXAMPLES OF MUSLIM ATTACKS ON US AT HOME
2003 Sgt. Hasan Akbar's murder of fellow U.S. troops in Kuwait in 2003
2007 plot by six Islamists to stage an attack on Fort Dix NJ
2009 Abdulhakim Muhammad's killing of a soldier at an Arkansas recruiting office
Going Muslim on a Photographer outside Michigan Mosque
Son of an Imam Killed in Gun Battle with the FBI in Detroit is Arrested
Michigan Mosque leader killed during Islamic gun battle with FED
Hush Hush: Huge Fed/FBI Raid on Chicago Halal Goat Meat Slaughterhouse
Boston Muslim Terrorist Son of MAS (Muslim American Society) Leader
Another Conviction of Muslims Engaged in Plotting Islamic Attacks Against American Overseas
NY Imam Indicted in NYC Terror Attack Plot
Massive Muslim Attack Averted: "plot to kill two prominent US politicians and carry out a holy war by attacking shoppers in US malls and American troops in Iraq"
New York Muslim indicted for plotting to kill U.S. troops
FBI arrests Jordanian for downtown Dallas bomb plot...
NYC: Muslims Protest "RACIAL PROFILING" in wake of arrests in major jihad terror plot
Illinois man charged in plot to bomb federal offices
Terror suspects accused of targeting Marine base in Quantico
Men vanish after taking photos of Philly subway system
EXAMPLES OF RETREAT FROM REASON AND REALITY
Obama cautioned the public "against jumping to conclusions" about the killings. In his weekly address Saturday, the president declared that "we cannot fully know" Hasan's motives, and instead used the address on the killings to celebrate diversity in the United States armed forces. --Washington Post
Gen. George Casey Jr., Army chief of staff, confronted questions put to him by ABC's George Stephanopolous. "We are a very diverse army." The ever helpful Stephanopolous suggested: "This case then was either a case of premeditated terror—or the man just snapped?" But Gen. Casey determined to promote the 'company' line, stuck with the PC mantra, "This terrible event would be an even greater tragedy if our diversity becomes a casualty."
Gen. Casey repeats his diversity worries for MSNBC Meet the Press along with some talk about the mental fitness of the soldiers and the Army's Comprehensive Soldier Fitness Program: Transcript from MSNBC
Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano: "This was an individual who does not, obviously, represent the Muslim faith," she said after meeting with a group of women university students. --Fox News
U.S. Homeland Security officials are working with groups around United States to head off any possible anti-Muslim backlash following the shootings at Fort Hood in Texas, the agency's chief said Sunday.
The comments by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano also appeared part of efforts to reassure the Arab world that U.S. authorities were taking measures to quell anti-Islam sentiments after last week's rampage by an American-born Muslim serving as U.S. Army psychiatrist.
Dalia Mogahed, Obama's First Female Veiled Islamist Appointee, Promotes Sharia, Says it's "Misunderstood --Atlas Shrugs
CNN's American Morning tries to push Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser (American Islamic Forum for Democracy into making Army discrimination and potential backlash against Muslims the primary focus of what happened at Fort Hood. Dr. Jasser (an ex Navy Doctor) praised the US Military and insisted that the focus for American Muslims should be condemning such actions. SEE THE VIDEO.
American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) was formed in March of 2003 by a group of Muslim professionals in the Phoenix Valley of Arizona. The group's founder is M. Zuhdi Jasser, M.D.
Phoenix Channel 3 interviews Dr. Zuhdi Jasser and Sid Shahid on implications for the Muslim community on the shootings- Channel 3 was surprised that American Muslims would speak out strongly against the Fort Hood shooting and in favor of closer screening of Muslims in the military.
New York Times's front-page headline: "Told of War Horror, Gunman Feared Deployment."
CBS evening news avoided any mention of Islam or the Muslim faith. “Today, according to the Army, a soldier opened fire... He's identified tonight as Army Major Nadal Malik Hasan, a licensed psychiatrist and drug and rehab specialist from Bethesda, Maryland.”
NBC anchor Brian Williams: “The soldier, identified as the initial gunman here, is an Army psychiatrist, Nadal Malik Hasan. He's an officer, a major, and he was apparently armed with two handguns.”
NBC's Pete Williams: “Everything about his background is rock solid, and nothing extraordinary stands out about his background.”
Dr. Phil on Larry King "how far out of touch with reality do you have to be to kill your fellow Americans . . . this is not a well act."
And how far out of touch with reality is such a question, one asks in return—not only of Dr. Phil, but of the legions of commentators like him immersed in the labyrinths of motive hunting even as the details of Maj. Hasan's proclivities became ever clearer and more ominous.
Neil Steinberg of Sun Times is appalled: "The killings at Fort Hood might say something about the strain that overtaxed U.S. soldiers are under. It might say something about security on Army bases. But if you think that it says something about religion, what you’re really doing is saying something about yourself, and it isn’t something good."
DAILY TELEGRAPH: Tim Blair-November 09, 2009
You can always tell when something bad has happened involving a follower of the Islamic faith. The big hint is that Islam isn’t mentioned.
DAILY TELEGRAPH: "When Barack Obama says “we cannot fully know” why Hasan murdered 13 people, he means “we cannot say”.
CNN portrays Hasan as victim. An article on CNN.com exclaims "The bumper sticker reading "Allah is Love" was torn off and the car was keyed. Relatives say Hasan, a U.S.-born citizen of Palestinian descent, was a "calm" individual who had been taunted after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001" The article continues to quote family members of Hasan as they describe how victimized he was.
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.
Chris Matthews said, “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.
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?”
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.”
Washington Independent: By Spencer Ackerman
Marc Lynch, with an eloquent and thoughtful post about the advantages that safeguarding an open space for Muslim-American identity poses to national security. It’s long but worth your time.
A brief excerpt:
There is a connection between what these critics are calling “political correctness” and national security, but it runs in the opposite direction. The real linkage is that there is a strong security imperative to prevent the consolidation of a narrative in which America is engaged in a clash of civilizations with Islam, and instead to nurture a narrative in which al-Qaeda and its affiliates represent a marginal fringe to be jointly combatted. Fortunately, American leaders — from the Obama administration through General George Casey and top counter-terrorism officials — understand this and have been acting appropriately.
Nuts by Mark Steyn
For the purposes of argument, let's accept the media's insistence that Major Hasan is a lone crazy. So who's nuttier? The guy who gives a lecture to other military doctors in which he says non-Muslims should be beheaded and have boiling oil poured down their throats? Or the guys who say "Hey, let's have this fellow counsel our traumatized veterans and then promote him to major and put him on a Homeland Security panel?
Or the Army Chief of Staff who thinks the priority should be to celebrate diversity, even unto death?
Or the Secretary of Homeland Security who warns that the principal threat we face now is an outbreak of Islamophobia?
Or the president who says we cannot "fully know" why Major Hasan did what he did, so why trouble ourselves any further?
Or the columnist who, when a man hands out copies of the Koran before gunning down his victims while yelling "Allahu akbar," says you're racist if you bring up his religion?
Or his media colleagues who put Americans in the same position as East Germans twenty years ago of having to get hold of a foreign newspaper to find out what's going on?
General Casey has a point: An army that lets you check either the "home team" or "enemy" box according to taste is certainly diverse. But the logic in the remarks of Secretary Napolitano and others is that the real problem is that most Americans are knuckledragging bigots just waiting to go bananas.
As Melanie Phillips wrote in her book Londonistan: Minority-rights doctrine has produced a moral inversion, in which those doing wrong are excused if they belong to a 'victim' group, while those at the receiving end of their behaviour are blamed simply because they belong to the 'oppressive' majority.
To the injury of November 5, we add the insults of American officialdom and their poodle media. In a nutshell: The real enemy — in the sense of the most important enemy — isn’t a bunch of flea-bitten jihadis sitting in a cave somewhere. It’s Western civilization’s craziness. We are setting our hair on fire and putting it out with a hammer.
DEMANDS TO CALL A SPADE A SPADE
Fort Hood: A Politically Correct Massacre
November 11-Grand Rapids Conservative Examiner by Robert Ditmar
Political correctness killed 13 unarmed people earlier this week. Unless we are willing to start calling a spade a spade, political correctness will continue to get innocent people killed.
Politically Correct Murder
CNSNEWS: By Rich Galen-November 11, 2009
I got a call yesterday afternoon from a senior enlisted man with whom I had the honor of serving in Iraq. This is a good man. A man who, having served in Iraq, recycled back to a tour in Afghanistan. He is a reservist and his real job is delivering mail to along a rural route in the American Southwest.
He called because he was trying to understand how someone like Maj. Nidal Hasan, who was so clearly deranged, disloyal or both could have been permitted to remain in the Army - HIS Army. My friend is an American soldier who has been responsible for the safety and welfare of younger enlisted men and women in really bad places where really bad people wanted to do really bad things to them.
I am not anti-Islam. As long-time Mullsters know, I spent three years running the Middle East for a major U.S. corporation and still have very good friends - Muslim friends - in the region. I am, however, anti-stupid.
It is high time we recognize that we have entered a period of national idiocy in the matter of political correctness. Rather than making people adhere to American standards of behavior, we tell ourselves, "It's in their belief system, so it must be ok."
No. It is not ok. This is America. They must adhere to our belief system. Political correctness be damned.
Jeffrey Goldberg
I do think that elite makers of opinion in this country try very hard to ignore the larger meaning of violent acts when they happen to be perpetrated by Muslims. Here’s a simple test: If Nidal Malik Hasan had been a devout Christian with pronounced anti-abortion views, and had he attacked, say, a Planned Parenthood office, would his religion have been considered relevant as we tried to understand the motivation and meaning of the attack? Of course.
WSJ: DOROTHY RABINOWITZ
Commentators, reporters, psychologists and, indeed, army spokesmen continue to warn portentously, "We don't yet know the motive for the shootings."
To those not terrorized by fear of offending Muslim sensitivities, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan's motive was instantly clear: It was an act of terrorism by a man with a record of expressing virulent, anti-American, pro-jihadist sentiments. All were conspicuous signs of danger his Army superiors chose to ignore.
What is hard to ignore, now, is the growing derangement on all matters involving terrorism and Muslim sensitivities. Its chief symptoms: a palpitating fear of discomfiting facts and a willingness to discard those facts and embrace the richest possible variety of ludicrous theories as to the motives behind an act of Islamic terrorism. All this we have seen before but never in such naked form.
ATLAS SHRUGS
I have watched in abject horror the stunning reaction in this country to this act of war. The denial, the submission, the excuses, the dodging, the self-flagellation, the shame, the deceiving of the American people by the media, the military, society, law enforcement, authorities and politicians, all the way up to and including the White House, is the enforcement of sharia law.
DALLAS MORNING NEWS
Mark Davis: Failure to identify worse than politically correct
I thoroughly expected to fight through the denials of those lacking the courage and clarity to see it for what it was.I did not expect to identify our highest-ranking Army general as a big part of the problem.
But there sat Gen. George Casey, Army chief of staff, scolding a grieving nation for moving toward a thoroughly plausible conclusion. As soldiers at Fort Hood saw report after report building the case that Hasan was sparked by Islamist rage, did their top general pledge to protect them from further deaths at the hands of any murderous Muslim looking to kill our troops?
... In fact, he seems more motivated by a pet social agenda than by his responsibility to protect soldiers. How else to explain one of the most sickeningly inappropriate things publicly spoken by anyone in the aftermath of the killings: "What happened at Fort Hood was a tragedy," Casey said, "but I believe it would be an even greater tragedy if our diversity becomes a casualty here."
I'll tell you about casualties, sir. The casualties lay dead and bleeding on the floor of Fort Hood's Soldier Readiness Processing Center, victims of an Army culture wallowing in precisely that kind of cowardice. And that is the proper term. "Political correctness" is far too tame a phrase for the abject gutlessness that infects a society in which the justified identification of terrorist leanings is discouraged as religious bigotry.
Decency requires separating the admirable behavior of peaceful Muslims from the danger posed by those who display terrorist tendencies. But sanity requires addressing the cases of those who genuinely seem to make a dark turn.
Shooter + political correctness = tragedy
Brigitte Gabriel, founder and president of ACT! for America and author of the New York Times bestseller They Must Be Stopped: Why We Must Defeat Radical Islam and How We Can Do It, believes the feds dropped the ball by overlooking this terrorist connection.
"It is a sad day when our military, FBI [and] CIA, that is supposed to protect us ... have [come] to such a state where they are willing to close their eyes and indirectly betray each other to the point that blood of our sons and daughters [is] shed... because of political correctness and because of the level of intimidation that is now going through our military," Gabriel contends. "And I think enough is enough, and this is a wake-up call for America."
Nov 10, Sacramento Political Buzz Examiner: Robin Olson
The massacre of political correctness at Fort Hood
Political correctness and the courts demand that we treat certain groups in this country with kid gloves, and I'd wager that nobody wanted to risk taking on Maj. Hasan. The damaging allegation of racial profiling gives pause to most any boss dealing with a suspicious Muslim.
Even now, many in the media -- and worse, in the Army -- are acting like it's a much bigger deal that some moron might react with racism against all Muslims than that Hasan was an Islamic extremist and a terrorist. And as bad a soldier murdering other soldiers on home soil is, it is much more ominous to have a nation more afraid of the hypothetical response of its own people than the fanatical and committed violence of evil men.
NATIONAL POST
Lorne Gunter: Fort Hood and cultural suicide
Political correctness will be the death of Western civilization because unlike our earlier forms of pluralistic tolerance, PC is wilfully blind to the lack of reciprocal tolerance in other cultures. Indeed, the more others hate us, the more PC denies their hatred.
The most disturbing aspect of last week’s Fort Hood shootings — aside from the horrendous loss of life, of course — has been the triumph of political correctness in the analysis of Maj. Nadil Hasan’s motives. Many “experts” have assiduously avoided the obvious cause: Hasan’s fundamentalist, radicalized Muslim views.
But even if Hasan was driven to mass murder because he could not bear the idea of serving in a war zone, the cause of his breakdown was his Muslim-ness, not battle stress. The implication of those making these excuses on Hasan’s behalf has been that the thought of facing deadly fire in combat was too much for the major.
But, of course, that is not it at all. He couldn’t face the notion of having to serve in an army he saw as persecuting his fellow Muslims, so he struck back at that army before it could ship him out to a place he believed it should not be. His belief in the teachings of Muhammad trumped his sworn duty in the U.S. Army.
Still, the first instinct of White House and U.S. Army spokesmen, as well as most CNN, CBC, BBC, MSNBC and other analysts, has been to deny any connection between Hasan’s murderous deeds and his faith.
Political correctness, from hypocritcal to deadly
Wake County Independent Examiner: Stephanie Avery
WEEKLY STANDARD: Bill Kristol
President Obama himself, and Robert Gibbs on his behalf, already having weighed in on the topic, there would normally be a top-down dissemination of talking points to officials speaking publicly to ensure administration-wide consistency. Indeed, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, in Abu Dhabi, said something very similar to what Casey had to say the same day. So there was clearly administration coordination from high-up at the White House with respect to the diversity/backlash message.
That’s fine. Administrations are entitled to coordinate messages coming from different cabinet agencies. But let’s be clear: The diversity/backlash message is President Obama’s, not merely that of General Casey or Secretary Napolitano.
NYT by David Brooks
A shroud of political correctness settled over the conversation. Hasan was portrayed as a victim of society, a poor soul who was pushed over the edge by prejudice and unhappiness.
There was a national rush to therapy. Hasan was a loner who had trouble finding a wife and socializing with his neighbors.
This response was understandable. It’s important to tamp down vengeful hatreds in moments of passion. But it was also patronizing. Public commentators assumed the air of kindergarten teachers who had to protect their children from thinking certain impermissible and intolerant thoughts. If public commentary wasn’t carefully policed, the assumption seemed to be, then the great mass of unwashed yahoos in Middle America would go off on a racist rampage.
Worse, it absolved Hasan — before the real evidence was in — of his responsibility. He didn’t have the choice to be lonely or unhappy. But he did have a choice over what story to build out of those circumstances. And evidence is now mounting to suggest he chose the extremist War on Islam narrative that so often leads to murderous results.
The conversation in the first few days after the massacre was well intentioned, but it suggested a willful flight from reality. It ignored the fact that the war narrative of the struggle against Islam is the central feature of American foreign policy. It ignored the fact that this narrative can be embraced by a self-radicalizing individual in the U.S. as much as by groups in Tehran, Gaza or Kandahar.
It denied, before the evidence was in, the possibility of evil. It sought to reduce a heinous act to social maladjustment. It wasn’t the reaction of a morally or politically serious nation.
BELIEFNET: Rod Dreher
I just had a great phone interview with Dr. Zuhdi Jasser of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, the transcript of which will be published in the Dallas Morning News this weekend.
Dr. Jasser says ... that by refusing to discuss the role of religion in this act, the U.S. media and elite opinion makers are not doing American Muslims any favors. The only way the U.S. Muslim community is ever going to be forced to deal with the radicals within their own communities -- and in their pulpits -- is through outside pressure. He told a story about an imam at a Phoenix mosque who, during a sermon, held up a provocative propaganda picture from the Iraq war, which featured an Iraqi woman holding up a sign claiming that a U.S. soldier standing next to her impregnated her. Dr. Jasser said the image was probably Photoshopped in the first place, but the more important thing is how provocative it was. He told me he confronted the imam afterwards, and chastised the cleric for poisoning the minds of people in his congregation. Dr. Jasser said there must have been 500 people in that congregation, but to his knowledge, he was the only one who spoke up. He added that everyone he talked to from the congregation subsequently objected to what the imam had done -- but they had remained silent.
This can't continue, Dr. Jasser said, because the American people aren't stupid. He said it's really true that American Muslims, as a whole, don't sign on to the anti-American Islamism of the Muslim-American leadership class (e.g., CAIR, ISNA and other wolves in sheep's clothing). But if things like the Hasan massacre keeps happening, and there's no real attempt by Muslims to confront Islamism in America, Americans are going to quit giving their Muslim countrymen the benefit of the doubt.
INTERESTING REVELATIONS ABOUT HASAN
Bangladeshi-American civil engineer Golam Akhter: “So many time I talked with him,” said Akhter, a community leader who is sort of like a mosque gadfly, challenging congregants to reject literal, rigid interpretations of Islam. “I was trying to modernize him. I tried my best. He used to hate America as a whole. He was more anti-American than American.” Despite all the conversations, Akther said, “I couldn’t get through to him. He was a typical fundamentalist Muslim.”
Thinking Anew—Security Priorities for the Next Administration
A coherent strategy to address 21st century threats to the United States, one that treats national and homeland security as a seamless whole, has yet to emerge... To help fuel this process, in April 2008 The George Washington University Homeland Security Policy Institute (HSPI) established the Presidential Transition Task Force, comprised of national and homeland security experts, policymakers and practitioners... The goal was to determine the top strategic priorities to advance the nation’s security in the coming decade...
Event Participants: Amanda Halpern, U.S. House of Representatives; Beth Hampton, Homeland Security Institute; Nidal Hasan, Uniformed Services University School of Medicine, Donald Hawkins, U.S. Department of Homeland Security; Eric Heighberger, Homeland Security Council
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