John Nichols of NPR.ORG wrote an interesting if not outlandish opinion about the Ft. Hood shootings. The article is titled “The Nation: Ft. Hood horror invokes Islamaphopia” . http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120161052. Islamaphobia? I thought that was an album from 80’s metal band def Lepard, no wait that was “Pyromania”. Anyways, the article is entertaining, if not far-fetched. According to Nichols, because the shooter Maj. Nadal Malik Hassan is Muslim, there was a predictable outbreak of prejudice against any and all Muslims. Nichols quotes a few Imams, or Muslims religious leaders, who all said the right things such as the actions of Hassan do not reflect the feelings of the majority of Muslims who reject this type of violence. I do not question their sincerity but their response doesn’t make Mr. Nichol’s point.
Nichols mistakenly believes Americans are in a rush to judgment by lumping Hassan in with all Muslims. I think most people make the rational analysis that currently, the only major religion calling for the death of Americans happens to be certain Middle Eastern terrorists, all who are practicing Muslims. That doesn’t make all Muslims bad, only the ones who have declared a Jihad (Holy war) against this country. In an effort of fairness if the Pope ever declares a Jihad on America, I suggest US Customs cancel his Visa and have the CIA and FBI give him a closer look as well. Maybe they’ll do a better job on him that they did on Hassan.
This issue here is really about religious zealotry, not a class or group of people. Muslim extremists are in the same class as White supremacists’ who claim their race is a master race and that everyone else is inferior. The common thread among all zealots is that they belong to a group that is superior which makes everyone else inferior. The goal then becomes for the superior group to wipe out the inferiors. Some examples throughout history would be the Nazis, the Spanish Inquisition, the Bosnian War, etc…
The real issue with this story is how the federal government dropped the ball on Hassan’s actions prior to the killings. It is well documented that Hassan’s peers and supervisors informed his chain of command about Hassan’s anti-American rants and they responded by doing nothing. Also, I would think that any uniformed officer who gets investigated by the CIA or FBI for terroristic activities would have been put through the administrative ringer by the Armed Forces since that person would be in a position to harm troops that might be in vulnerable positions.
So how can I tie in an 80’s hair metal band to a national news story? To quote Def Lepard’s song “Billy’s got a gun” from the Pyromania album: “…Billy’s got a gun….got evil in his eyes, got a reasons to despise, there’s danger in the air..” Told you Mr. Nichols confused Islamaphobia with Def Lepard.
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