Jihad Watch

You guessed it: her primary concern, like everyone else's, is guarding against that ever-threatening phantom, an "anti-Muslim backlash."

An Islamic jihadist murders thirteen Americans, and American officials rush to declare that they will do everything in their power to protect...Muslims. What's wrong with this picture?

"Fort Hood killer 'does not represent Muslims': American security chief," by Daniel Bardsley for The National, November 9 (thanks to all who sent this in):

ABU DHABI // The killing of 13 people by a Muslim psychiatrist at an American army base must not lead to the victimisation of Muslim Americans, the US secretary of homeland security has said.

On a visit to the capital, Janet Napolitano said grassroots efforts were vital to preserving relations between Muslim Americans and the wider community after Friday's shootings at Fort Hood in Texas.

"We object to, and do not believe, that anti-Muslim sentiment should emanate from this," she said. "This was an individual who does not represent the Muslim faith."

I wonder how Napolitano would answer Anwar al-Awlaki.

Describing the killings as "a terrible tragedy", Ms Napolitano said a civil rights and civil liberties directorate in her department aimed to "prevent everybody being painted with a broad brush".

She could have said something like this: "Describing the killings as 'a terrible massacre', Ms Napolitano said she aimed to "prevent such jihad attacks from ever happening again on American soil'".

"That work is ongoing and is part and parcel of how we view security," she said. "One of the things we'll do is make sure that we're reaching out to the state and local authorities within the US, because they often have better outreach to members of the Muslim community than we do." Ms Napolitano was speaking to female students at Zayed University, and took part in a private question-and-answer session with them.

She said her visit to the UAE was part of the "outreach" programme to the Muslim community by the US administration, one that included the June speech in Cairo by the US president, Barack Obama....

Hamas-linked unindicted co-conspirator CAIR is shedding crocodile tears and issuing condemnations of the Fort Hood jihad that contradict years of its opposition to all anti-terror measures and all anti-jihadists. Some Muslims, however, are not so clever. (Thanks to Axel.)

I already wrote about this here, but it is illuminating to see the whole statement, with its Koran quotation and Islamic arguments. Those who are claiming that Hasan's actions had nothing to do with Islam need to confront these arguments and explain them. Otherwise, they are only abetting the problem by allowing American Muslim advocacy groups to continue their denial and obfuscation rather than calling upon them to confront, renounce, and work against jihadism, or else face prosecution under existing sedition laws.

Anwar al-Awlaki is the former imam of the Dar al Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Virginia, which Hasan frequented -- as did three of the 9/11 hijackers.

"Nidal Hassan Did the Right Thing," by Anwar alAwlaki, November 9 (thanks to Axel):

Nidal Hassan is a hero. He is a man of conscience who could not bear living the contradiction of being a Muslim and serving in an army that is fighting against his own people. This is a contradiction that many Muslims brush aside and just pretend that it doesn't exist. Any decent Muslim cannot live, understanding properly his duties towards his Creator and his fellow Muslims, and yet serve as a US soldier. The US is leading the war against terrorism which in reality is a war against Islam. Its army is directly invading two Muslim countries and indirectly occupying the rest through its stooges.

Nidal opened fire on soldiers who were on their way to be deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. How can there be any dispute about the virtue of what he has done? In fact the only way a Muslim could Islamically justify serving as a soldier in the US army is if his intention is to follow the footsteps of men like Nidal.

The heroic act of brother Nidal also shows the dilemma of the Muslim American community. Increasingly they are being cornered into taking stances that would either make them betray Islam or betray their nation. Many amongst them are choosing the former. The Muslim organizations in America came out in a pitiful chorus condemning Nidal's operation.

The fact that fighting against the US army is an Islamic duty today cannot be disputed. No scholar with a grain of Islamic knowledge can defy the clear cut proofs that Muslims today have the right -rather the duty- to fight against American tyranny. Nidal has killed soldiers who were about to be deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan in order to kill Muslims. The American Muslims who condemned his actions have committed treason against the Muslim Ummah and have fallen into hypocrisy.

Allah(swt) says: Give tidings to the hypocrites that there is for them a painful punishment - Those who take disbelievers as allies instead of the believers. Do they seek with them honor [through power]? But indeed, honor belongs to Allah entirely. (al-Nisa 136-137) [Koran 4:136-137]

The inconsistency of being a Muslim today and living in America and the West in general reveals the wisdom behind the opinions that call for migration from the West. It is becoming more and more difficult to hold on to Islam in an environment that is becoming more hostile towards Muslims.

May Allah grant our brother Nidal patience, perseverance and steadfastness and we ask Allah to accept from him his great heroic act. Ameen

But apparently reining in this mass murderer before he murdered 13 people would have been "Islamophobic."

"Officials: U.S. Aware of Hasan Efforts to Contact al Qaeda," by Richard Esposito, Matthew Cole and Brian Ross for ABCNews, November 9 (thanks to all who sent this in):

U.S. intelligence agencies were aware months ago that Army Major Nidal Hasan was attempting to make contact with people associated with al Qaeda, two American officials briefed on classified material in the case told ABC News.

It is not known whether the intelligence agencies informed the Army that one of its officers was seeking to connect with suspected al Qaeda figures, the officials said.

One senior lawmaker said the CIA had, so far, refused to brief the intelligence committees on what, if any, knowledge they had about Hasan's efforts.

CIA director Leon Panetta and the Director of National Intelligence, Dennis Blair, have been asked by Congress "to preserve" all documents and intelligence files that relate to Hasan, according to the lawmaker....

The Army Chief of Staff, General George Casey, raised concerns over the weekend that innocent Muslim soldiers could suffer as a result of the shooting at Fort Hood.

"I think the speculation (on Hasan's Islamic roots) could potentially heighten backlash against some of our Muslim soldiers," he said on ABC's "This Week."

General, you're a dhimmi tool.

Saturday, November 7: I have spent much of today listening to programs and reading online as much as I can stand of the American and foreign coverage about Fort Hood, and the mass-murdering Nidal Malik Hasan. I have been subjected today to as much nonsense and demisemihemi quasi-quavering distractions and deceptions, from various quarters, as a sane human being can stand. Everyone and his brother seems determined to say things that are palpably nonsensical about Nidal Hasan, the "Palestinian" Arab - though born and raised in America - and devout Muslim who never hid his faith in Islam.

How then, did the newspapers, did the commentators on the networks - all the networks - how did NPR, handle this subject which for all of them was apparently too hot to handle?

They spouted nonsense and lies. They tried every which way but up to make it seem as though Major Hasan was deeply disturbed, just one more mentally ill person, akin to the Columbine shooters, motivelessly malignant, someone whose behavior could not possibly have been predicted, because there was nothing about him that could lead to think him capable of such an act. Or in the alternative, they tried to make it seem as if anyone who had heard the stories that Major Hasan must have heard from returning soldiers would of course suffer deeply, and come unhinged, and such unhingement would naturally express itself - doesn't it always? - in mass-murdering fellow soldiers, as an expression of his dismay.

But of course the illogicality of it all was apparent to most readers and most listeners, as is indicated by comments online and letters to the newspapers in this country, and by the listener calls in to those who for a living officiously comment on television, or on radio shows where a discussion is held among "experts" led by a know-it-all host (say, Tom Ashbrook on NPR's "On Point"). When listeners are invited to call in and join the "conversation" (as it is fulsomely called), they usually see through the blague, though some callers-in of my acquaintance, the most knowledgeable, are on a list of those who the seemingly welcoming host is determined at all costs to prevent from speaking.

There is every evidence, as has been repeated here in many postings, that he was an unswerving, perfectly orthodox Muslim. He was not a recent convert, like Richard Reid or Jose Padilla, or John Walker LIndh, or David Hicks. He was not a seemingly lapsed or indifferent Muslim, as was the Taheri-Azar killer in Chapel Hill (who used his car as his murder weapon, to attempt to run down as many non-Muslim fellow students as possible). Nor was he like Maher "Mike" Hawash, who was a successful Intel engineer who then became, out of various forms of mental and emotional desarroi, more and more devoutly Muslim, which for him inexorably led to attempting to travel to Afghanistan to kill American soldiers. (His own boss was willing to "bet his life" that "Mike" Hawash was innocent of terrorist charges, right up to the day that "Mike" Hawash pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to 27 years in jail.)

There have been many examples, all over the world, of Muslims killing non-Muslims because those Muslims have been inculcated with the idea that Infidels are the enemy. How could anyone think otherwise, believing that the Qur'an is the immutable and uncreated Word of God, and growing up in a state or a society or a family suffused with Islam? One might come to this conclusion even if one had just with the firm understanding that if one was a Muslim, if that was one's identity, then one had of course to accept all that Muslims are taught to accept, and to agree that being a Muslim, and loyalty to the Umma, the Community of Believers, transcended any other conceivable loyalties. Other loyalties, in fact, for the truest Muslims simply do not exist. And even if a Muslim can have some loyalty to a Muslim nation-state, it is impossible to conceive of all but a handful of lapsed Muslims, of Muslims who are not very observant or devout Muslims, thinking that they should be loyal to a nation-state that was founded by, and its legal and political institutions developed by, Infidels, and that, consequently, constitutes an obstacle to the spread and the dominance of Islam.

Major Malik Hasan was upset, was outraged, was angry. But he was upset, was outraged, was angry, in a way prompted by Islam, shaped by Islam, directed by Islam. For the past six months, at least, he has apparently been posting on websites, praising suicide bombers, explaining their mission and justifying their acts by reference to the texts of Islam. For example, he is believed to be the "Nidal Hasan" who posted this on the Web site Scribd, comparing the heroism of a soldier who throws himself on a grenade to protect fellow soldiers to suicide bombers who sacrifice themselves to protect Muslims:

Our government is afraid of "backlash." The Philippine government, evidently, is not afraid of "backlash." An update on this story. "Philippines enraged as Islamists behead hostage," from AFP, November 9 (thanks to Christopher):

ZAMBOANGA, Philippines (AFP) - The Philippine government on Monday vowed to take revenge against Al Qaeda-linked Islamic militants after they dumped the severed head of a kidnapped school principal at a petrol station.

The head of Gabriel Canizares was found inside a bag at the petrol station on the restive southern island of Jolo at dawn, 22 days after he was abducted, but the rest of his body remained missing, local police said.

The Abu Sayyaf had demanded a two-million-peso (42,000-dollar) ransom for the release of Canizares, but authorities and his relatives refused to pay.

President Gloria Arroyo's office said the Abu Sayyaf, blamed for the country's worst terrorist attacks and other beheadings of kidnap victims, was behind Canizares' murder, and vowed tough action against the militants.

"We shall make them pay for the enormity of this savagery," Arroyo's spokeswoman, Lorelei Fajardo, said in a statement.

She said authorities were determined to "put an end to the Abu Sayyaf group's heinous and inhumane atrocities".

Arroyo had ordered the military and police units operating on Jolo and other Abu Sayyaf strongholds in the southern Philippines into "full swing" in an effort to crush them, according to Fajardo and the military....

Jamie Glazov interviews me for FrontPage this morning on the Fort Hood jihad attack:

FP: Robert Spencer, welcome to Frontpage Interview.

What do we now know about the Fort Hood shooting and what conclusions can we make?

Spencer: Jamie, we now know from the testimony of various eyewitnesses that this act was carefully planned. Nidal Malik Hasan some time ago told his landlord he would not be renewing the lease on his apartment. He gave away his furniture along with copies of the Qur'an on the morning of the day he committed mass murder. This indicates that he thought he was going to die - in other words, that he was planning a suicide attack. As he began firing, he shouted "Allahu Akbar."

We also know that he was disciplined for proselytizing for Islam during his stint at the Uniformed Service University of the Health Sciences. Law enforcement officials flagged Internet postings written by a man named "Nidal Hasan" and he was praising suicide attacks, but they couldn't be sure that he was the man who had written them. Still, it was in character: one of his colleagues recalled that he had said that Muslims must rise up against the U.S. military, and had spoken approvingly of Sgt. Hasan Akbar, a Muslim soldier in the U.S. military who lobbed a grenade at American troops, killing two, several years ago.

And we know that during a lecture he was supposed to be giving on a medical topic, he instead preached Islam, warning the assembled unbelievers of hellfire in such lurid Koranic terms that some left the hall wondering if he might end up shooting someone someday.

FP: Why does the media and liberal-Left so reflexively deny and ignore these conclusions?

Spencer: They reflexively deny and ignore these conclusions because they are completely sold out to the idea that Muslims, as non-white, non-Christian, non-Westerners, cannot possibly be anything but victims. (The facts that there are white Muslims, and that the jihad doctrine and Islamic supremacism are not racial issues, but constitute an ideological and societal challenge, are completely lost on them. Likewise the non-white victims of the jihad matter nothing to them.) We can see from the avalanche of "backlash" stories in the mainstream media - even in the absence of any actual backlash - that it is simply impossible for these people to conceive of a paradigm in which Muslims can perpetrate any kind of evil at all. In the lenses through which they view the world, only white Judeo-Christian Westerners can do anything wrong.

FP: What does this massacre, and the media response, indicate about what is coming down the line for our country?

Spencer: The more we remain in denial about how these things happen, and from what wellsprings they come, the more we will see of attacks like this. Why? Because nothing is being done to prevent them. Instead of the endless stories about backlash that we are seeing, we should be seeing stories about authorities calling the American Muslim community to account. We should be seeing stories about authorities demanding transparent, inspectable programs in American mosques and Islamic schools, teaching against the Islamic doctrines that inspired Nidal Hasan. This is not a religious freedom issue - these are political doctrines with a lethal edge, as Nidal Hasan illustrated. It is an entirely Constitutional matter of self-protection to move to restrict it.

But that won't happen. Political correctness has the media and government in a stranglehold. That will only ensure that nothing will be done to address this problem at its root, and we will see many more Nidal Hasans.

FP: Robert Spencer, thank you for joining us.

*

[To get the whole story on why the liberal media and the Left deny the true nature of Islamic jihad, read Jamie Glazov's new book, United in Hate: The Left's Romance with Tyranny and Terror. [2]]

This just in from our "This Is Why You're Poor" Department. Allah promised paradise to those who "slay and are slain" in the cause of jihad (Qur'an 9:111), but shooting your own society in the foot is also quite popular as a consequence. "Islamic rebels behead Philippine teacher: police," from Agence France-Presse, November 8:

ZAMBOANGA, Philippines -- The severed head of a school principal who was abducted by Islamic militants in the troubled southern Philippines was dumped in a petrol station on Monday, authorities said.

The head of Gabriel Canizares was found inside a bag at a petrol station on Jolo island at dawn, 22 days after the 36-year-old man was kidnapped, local police chief inspector Usman Pingay said.

His body remains missing, police said.

Authorities had previously said militants from the Abu Sayyaf group, listed by the United States as a terrorist organisation, snatched Canizares from among a busload of teachers near the Jolo town of Patikul on October 18....

Excuses, excuses. Daniel Pipes chronicles some of the absurd lengths to which the mainstream media and law enforcement authorities will go to avoid calling jihad jihad. "Sudden Jihad or Inordinate Stress at Ft. Hood?," by Daniel Pipes at FrontPage, November 9:

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, 39, to kill 13 and wound 38 at Ft. Hood on Nov. 5. [...]

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 in 2006)


• 2006: “His recent, arranged marriage may have made him stressed” (killing with an SUV in northern California in 2006)

There is much more. Read it all.

"In fact the only way a Muslim could Islamically justify serving as a soldier in the U.S. army is if his intention is to follow the footsteps of men like Nidal." "Alleged Fort Hood Gunman a Hero, Says Islamic Cleric With Suspected 9/11 Links," by Patrick Goodenough for CNS News, November 9:

(CNSNews.com) - The Muslim U.S. Army major accused of shooting dead 13 people at Fort Hood last Thursday was a "hero" who faced a choice of betraying his nation or betraying Islam, according to a radical U.S.-born cleric whose possible links with Maj. Nidal Hasan are now under investigation.

The cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki, led a northern Virginia mosque in 2001 which was attended by Hasan - and by three of the 9/11 hijackers.

Questioned but not arrested after the 9/11 attacks, he is now based in Yemen, from where his online lectures have been inspiring jihadists over the years since.

London's Sunday Telegraph first reported at the weekend that Hasan had attended Dar al Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church during Awlaki's tenure in 2001. Officials subsequently told U.S. media outlets investigators were looking into possible links between Awlaki and Hasan.

In a posting on his Web site Monday, Awlaki praised Hasan, calling him "a man of conscience who could not bear living the contradiction of being a Muslim and serving in an army that is fighting against his own people."

He criticized U.S. Muslim organizations for condemning the shooting attack, calling them hypocrites and - quoting from the Koran - saying "painful punishment" awaited them....

Here we have an interesting situation. Awlaki thinks Hasan is a hero and that what he did was Koranically and Islamically correct. Lindsey Graham and many others think that what he did had nothing to do with Islam. It would be illuminating and instructive if we were able to have a public discussion about this, and about why it is important in the first place. But of course, we won't.

"Nidal opened fire on soldiers who were on their way to be deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan," Awlaki said. "How can there be any dispute about the virtue of what he has done?"

"In fact the only way a Muslim could Islamically justify serving as a soldier in the U.S. army is if his intention is to follow the footsteps of men like Nidal."....

Read it all.

How enlightened, how marvelously diverse, to appoint a fox to guard the henhouse. "'Hardcore' Islamist gets top anti-terror post at Home Office," by Martin Bright for TheJC.com, November 5 (thanks to Kris):

A "hardcore" Islamist has been given a key Home Office job to tackle terrorism and divert fellow Muslims from the path of violence.

The appointment of Asim Hafeez as head of intervention at the Office of Security and Counter-Terrorism has caused serious concern among more moderate Muslim advisers across Whitehall. It is seen as a sign of a shift in the government's policy on radical Islam away from engagement with more moderate groups. There is a sharp divide of opinion within government about whether ministers should engage with Muslims at risk of radicalisation or concentrate on forging links with moderates.

Mr Hafeez was described by one fellow adviser as "hardcore Salafi". Salafism is a strictly puritanical branch of Islam, often associated with Saudi Arabia. It does not promote violence, but does urge the creation of an Islamic state....

Oh, is that all!

In another story about General Casey's witless dhimmitude, Lindsey Graham chimes in with some of his own. "Army Chief Concerned for Muslim Troops," by Joseph Berger for the New York Times, November 8:

General George Casey Jr., the Army chief of staff, said on Sunday that he was concerned that speculation about the religious beliefs of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, accused of killing 12 fellow soldiers and one civilian and wounding dozens of others in a shooting rampage at Fort Hood, could "cause a backlash against some of our Muslim soldiers."...

Not that there has been any actual backlash, anywhere. This backlash rivals Santa Claus for the amount of ink spilled about a fictional creature.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican of South Carolina, and Sen. Jack Reed, a Democrat of Rhode Island, took also pains on Sunday to say that Muslims have served honorably in the military and at risk to their lives.

"At the end of the day this is not about his religion -- the fact that this man was a Muslim," Senator Graham said on CBS's "Face the Nation."...

One wonders how Senator Graham arrived at this conclusion. Does he know that Hasan passed out Korans on the morning of the massacre? Has Graham ever actually read the Koran?

"I mean does every soldier who shows discontent with the war and every soldier that has had a bad performance report -- what are we going to do with those folks?" Sen. Graham said. "At the end of the day, maybe this is just about him. It's certainly not about his religion, Islam."

One wonders if Graham knows about his dawah session during his putative medical lecture, or his calling on Muslims to rise up against the U.S. military, etc. etc. etc.

He added: "To those members of the United States military who are Muslims, thank you for protecting our nation, thank you for standing up against the people who are trying to hijack your religion."

It would have been refreshing, and unique, if Graham had explained exactly how such people are "hijacking" Islam, but of course, he did not -- just as no one else who ever uses the phrase explains it.

Loss of diversity, says General Casey, would be worse than jihad murder: "Our diversity, not only in our Army, but in our country, is a strength. And as horrific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that's worse."

As Pamela Geller puts it: "Diversity as a casualty would be an 'even greater tragedy' than the casualties of this act of war on American soil. I cannot believe what I am reading. It was not a tragedy, it was an terrorist attack. This is Obama's military command?...Instead of taking the enemy on, calling it what it is and taking offensive measures against a mortal enemy that has vowed our destruction, we submit."

"Army chief fears backlash for Muslim U.S. soldiers," by Will Dunham from Reuters, November 8 (thanks to Pamela):

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Army's top general expressed concern on Sunday that last week's mass shooting at Fort Hood in Texas, blamed on a Muslim Army officer, could fuel a backlash in the military against Muslim troops.

General George Casey, U.S. Army chief of staff, cautioned against jumping to conclusions about whether religious beliefs motivated the accused gunman, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a Muslim born in the United States of immigrant parents.

"I'm concerned that this increased speculation could cause a backlash against some of our Muslim soldiers. And I've asked our Army leaders to be on the lookout for that," Casey told CNN's "State of the Union."

There are about 3,000 Muslims on active duty military service or in the National Guard or reserve forces, Casey said. They remain a small minority within the U.S. military.

A Fort Hood official has said Hasan yelled "Allahu Akbar" -- Arabic for "God is Greatest" -- just before the shooting in which 13 people were killed and 30 wounded. The 39-year-old U.S. Army psychiatrist was shot four times by police. He was hospitalized but no longer needed a ventilator to breathe....

"Our diversity, not only in our Army, but in our country, is a strength. And as horrific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that's worse," Casey added on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Asked whether Muslims in the U.S. Army are more conflicted than other soldiers in fighting wars in Muslim countries like Afghanistan and Iraq, Casey said: "I think that's something that we have to look at on an individual basis."

"But," he added, "I think we as an Army have to be broad enough to bring in people from all walks of life."...

Just another round of the age-old jihad. "Report: Hezbollah rearming for imminent conflict with Israel," from Haaretz, November 8 (thanks to Alexandre):

Militant group Hezbollah is rapidly rearming and reinforcing positions in southern Lebanon in preparation for a new conflict with Israel, British newspaper the Observer reported on Sunday.

"Sure, we are rearming, we have even said that we have far more rockets and missiles than we did in 2006," a Hezbollah commander told the Observer speaking on condition of anonymity.

The 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel began after Hezbollah militants launched a cross-border attack and kidnapped two Israel Defense Forces soldiers.

"We had to blow up or leave some of our bunkers and fighting positions, but we still have plenty of capabilities in the south," the commander told the Observer. "We expect the Israelis to come soon, if not this winter, then they will wait until spring, when the ground isn't too soft for their tanks."

Israeli commandos on Wednesday seized a ship that defense officials said was carrying hundreds of tons of weapons from Iran bound for Hezbollah guerrillas - the largest arms shipment Israel has ever commandeered....

Details here.

So this is what it has come to -- this is the fruit of the long-term efforts by groups such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations and others, to stigmatize and demonize everyone who speaks honestly about the threat of jihad and Islamic supremacism. People are afraid to speak up about what they see, when they know it is wrong.

And all it cost this week was 13 dead and 38 wounded.

Typical evasion of responsibility.

"Muslims at Fort Hood voice outrage," by Michael Moss for the New York Times via MSNBC, November 7:

KILLEEN, Texas - Leaders of the vibrant Muslim community here expressed outrage on Friday at the shooting rampage being laid to one of their members, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who had become a regular attendee of prayers at the local mosque.

But some of the men who had befriended Major Hasan at the mosque said the military should examine the policies that might have caused him to snap.

"When a white guy shoots up a post office, they call that going postal," said Victor Benjamin II, 30, a former member of the Army. "But when a Muslim does it, they call it jihad.

That's because that's what the Muslims who do it call it.

"Ultimately it was Brother Nidal's doing, but the command should be held accountable," Mr. Benjamin said. "G.I.'s are like any equipment in the Army. When it breaks, those who were in charge of keeping it fit should be held responsible for it."...

But never fear, the mainstream media will keep looking for a motive! "Fort Hood shooting: Texas army killer linked to September 11 terrorists," by Philip Sherwell and Alex Spillius for the Telegraph, November 7 (thanks to all who sent this in):

Major Nidal Malik Hasan worshipped at a mosque led by a radical imam said to be a "spiritual adviser" to three of the hijackers who attacked America on Sept 11, 2001.

Hasan, the sole suspect in the massacre of 13 fellow US soldiers in Texas, attended the controversial Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Great Falls, Virginia, in 2001 at the same time as two of the September 11 terrorists, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt. His mother's funeral was held there in May that year.

The preacher at the time was Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born Yemeni scholar who was banned from addressing a meeting in London by video link in August because he is accused of supporting attacks on British troops and backing terrorist organisations.

Hasan's eyes "lit up" when he mentioned his deep respect for al-Awlaki's teachings, according to a fellow Muslim officer at the Fort Hood base in Texas, the scene of Thursday's horrific shooting spree.

As investigators look at Hasan's motives and mindset, his attendance at the mosque could be an important piece of the jigsaw. Al-Awlaki moved to Dar al-Hijrah as imam in January, 2001, from the west coast, and three months later the September 11 hijackers Nawaf al-Hamzi and Hani Hanjour began attending his services. A third hijacker attended his services in California.

Hasan was praying at Dar al-Hijrah at about the same time, and the FBI will now want to investigate whether he met the two terrorists.

Charles Allen, a former under-secretary for intelligence at the Department of Homeland Security, has described al-Awlaki, who now lives in Yemen, as an "al-Qaeda supporter, and former spiritual leader to three of the September 11 hijackers... who targets US Muslims with radical online lectures encouraging terrorist attacks from his new home in Yemen"....

Silly me. I thought that after an Islamic jihadist murdered twelve innocent non-Muslims, it would be the non-Muslims who would need reassuring and protecting. But of course that non-existent backlash takes priority over 12 dead unbelievers.

"Some Muslims fear backlash after rampage: In the wake of Fort Hood tragedy, Houston authorities try to assure the faithful steps are being taken to keep followers safe," by Moises Mendoza and Lindsay Wise for the Houston Chronicle, November 7:

KILLEEN -- Almost exactly 24 hours after Thursday's shootings at Fort Hood, Sgt. Fahad Kamal knelt in a small red-brick mosque near the base and prayed for strength.

The 26-year-old combat medic from Sugar Land worships every Friday at Masjidu Ttaqwa on Fort Hood Road, where suspected shooter Nidal Malik Hasan attended services after moving to Killeen from Washington, D.C., this summer.

"I just want to show myself in a positive way for the religion I represent," he said. "I just hope people don't stereo­type."

Groups reeling

From Killeen to Houston, Thursday's killings at Fort Hood left Texas' tight-knit Muslim community reeling. Though the attack has been universally condemned by U.S. Muslim organizations, some worry that it could give the ignorant an excuse to stereotype and lash out at Muslims -- or worse.

The problem, of course, is that so many Muslims point to Islamic texts and teachings to justify violence and supremacism. But that, of course, is never mentioned here.

In March 2009, five Muslims accused of helping plot the September 11 attacks, including the notorious Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, wrote an "Islamic Response to the Government's Nine Accusations." In it they quote the Koran to justify their jihad war against the American Infidels. "In God's book," asserts the letter, "he ordered us to fight you everywhere we find you, even if you were inside the holiest of all holy cities, The Mosque in Mecca, and the holy city of Mecca, and even during sacred months. In God's book, verse 9 [actually verse 5], Al-Tawbah [the Koran's 9th chapter]: Then fight and slay the pagans wherever you find them, and seize them, and besiege them and lie in wait for them in each and every ambush."

Osama bin Laden's communiqués have also quoted the Koran copiously. In his 1996 "Declaration of War against the Americans Occupying the Land of the Two Holy Places," he quotes seven Koran verses: 3:145; 47:4-6; 2:154; 9:14; 47:19; 8:72; and the notorious "Verse of the Sword," 9:5. Bin Laden began his October 6, 2002, letter to the American people with two Koran quotations, both of a martial bent: "Permission to fight (against disbelievers) is given to those (believers) who are fought against, because they have been wronged and surely, Allah is Able to give them (believers) victory" (22:39) and "Those who believe, fight in the Cause of Allah, and those who disbelieve, fight in the cause of Taghut (anything worshipped other than Allah e.g. Satan). So fight you against the friends of Satan; ever feeble is indeed the plot of Satan" (4:76)."

In a sermon broadcast in 2003, bin Laden rejoiced in a Koranic exhortation to violence as being a means to establish the truth: "Praise be to Allah who revealed the verse of the Sword to his servant and messenger [the Islamic Prophet Muhammad], in order to establish truth and abolish falsehood." The "Verse of the Sword" is Koran 9:5: "Then, when the sacred months have passed, slay the idolaters wherever ye find them, and take them (captive), and besiege them, and prepare for them each ambush. But if they repent and establish worship and pay the poor-due, then leave their way free. Lo! Allah is Forgiving, Merciful."

The idea that the Koran commands them to do violence to unbelievers runs from the very top of the international jihadist movement - Osama bin Laden - down to the rank and file. Overall, it is extremely rare - if not impossible - to find a jihadist who does not cite the Koran to justify his actions. Britain-based jihadist preacher, Abu Yahya, asserts simply, "It says in the Koran that we must try as much as we can to terrorise the enemy." And Pakistani jihad leader Beitullah Mehsud claims that "Allah on 480 occasions in the Holy Koran extols Muslims to wage jihad. We only fulfill God's orders. Only jihad can bring peace to the world." He specified that his jihad - struggle in Arabic - was an offensive military operation: "We will continue our struggle until foreign troops are thrown out. Then we will attack them in the US and Britain until they either accept Islam or agree to pay jazia." The "jazia," or jizya, is a tax that the Koran (9:29) specifies must be levied on Jews, Christians, and some other non-Muslim faiths as a sign of their subjugation under the Islamic social order.

One pro-Osama website put it this way: "The truth is that a Muslim who reads the Koran with devotion is determined to reach the battlefield in order to attain the reality of Jihad. It is solely for this reason that the Kufaar [unbelievers] conspire to keep the Muslims far away from understanding the Koran, knowing that Muslims who understand the Koran will not distance themselves from Jihad."

In Houston, government officials have been working to reassure Muslims that they're safe, pointing out that there have been few cases of retaliation locally after previous attacks involving Muslims.

There have been few cases anywhere. So few that CAIR has had to invent them.

Here is yet another indication that the Fort Hood massacre was a jihad carried out by Nidal Hasan. Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, was supposed to give a "grand round" -- a medical lecture. Instead, he treated medical personnel to a dawah session, trying to frighten them into Islam with threats of hell. Another Muslim stood up and challenged him about his characterization of the Koran -- a fact that is making the rounds today as evidence of Hasan's "extremism." He was twisting and hijacking the Koran, you see, and it was the same sort of misunderstanding of Islam that led him to massacre so many infidels at Fort Hood, you see.

Well, that would be just great if he were, because it would indicate that the vast majority of peaceful Muslims don't agree with Nidal Hasan's apparent understanding of Islam. So let's look at the Koran and see what it actually says, as compared to what Hasan said it says.

"Officials Begin Putting Shooting Pieces Together," by Tom Gjelten, Daniel Zwerdling and Steve Inskeep for NPR, November 6 (thanks to all who sent this in):

They have grand rounds, right? They, you know, dozens of medical staff come into an auditorium, and somebody stands at the podium at the front and gives a lecture about some academic issue, you know, what drugs to prescribe for what condition. But instead of that, he - Hasan apparently gave a long lecture on the Koran and talked about how if you don't believe, you are condemned to hell. Your head is cut off. You're set on fire. Burning oil is burned down your throat.

And I said to the psychiatrist, but this co[u]ld be a very interesting informational session, right? Where he's educating everybody about the Koran. He said but what disturbed everybody was that Hasan seemed to believe these things. And actually, a Muslim in the audience, a psychiatrist, raised his hand and said, excuse me. But I'm a Muslim and I do not believe these things in the Koran, and then I don't believe what you say the Koran says. And then Hasan didn't say, well, I'm just giving you one point of view. He basically just stared the guy down.

According to this, Hasan made four assertions about the Koran:
1. "If you don't believe, you are condemned to hell";
2. If you don't believe, "your head is cut off";
3. If you don't believe, "you're set on fire";
4. If you don't believe, "burning oil is burned down your throat."

Then a Muslim in the audience confronted Hasan: " I don't believe what you say the Koran says."

Well, what the Koran says is a matter for objective verification. Just open the book and read it. Does it say what Hasan said it says, or does it not?

1. "If you don't believe, you are condemned to hell"

"Lo! Allah will gather hypocrites and disbelievers, all together, into hell" -- Koran 4:140

"Lo! hell verily is all around the disbelievers." -- Koran 9:49

"Allah promiseth the hypocrites, both men and women, and the disbelievers fire of hell for their abode." -- Koran 9:68

"O Prophet! Strive against the disbelievers and the hypocrites! Be harsh with them. Their ultimate abode is hell, a hapless journey's end." -- Koran 9:73

And there are many others.

2. If you don't believe, "your head is cut off"

"Remember thy Lord inspired the angels (with the message): 'I am with you: give firmness to the Believers: I will instil terror into the hearts of the Unbelievers: smite ye above their necks and smite all their finger-tips off them.'" -- Koran 8:12

"Therefore, when ye meet the Unbelievers (in fight), smite at their necks..." -- Koran 47:4

3. If you don't believe, "you're set on fire"

"Verily Allah has cursed the Unbelievers and prepared for them a Blazing Fire" -- Koran 33:64

"And if any believe not in Allah and His Messenger, We have prepared, for those who reject Allah, a Blazing Fire!" -- Koran 48:13

"Lo! We have prepared for disbelievers manacles and carcans and a raging fire." -- Koran 76:4

There are many others.

4. If you don't believe, "burning oil is burned down your throat."

"And say: 'The truth is from your Lord.' Then whosoever wills, let him believe, and whosoever wills, let him disbelieve. Verily, We have prepared for the Zalimun (polytheists and wrong-doers, etc.), a Fire whose walls will be surrounding them (disbelievers in the Oneness of Allah). And if they ask for help (relief, water, etc.) they will be granted water like boiling oil, that will scald their faces. Terrible the drink, and an evil Murtafaqa (dwelling, resting place, etc.)!" -- Koran 18:29

"Surely the tree of the Zaqqum is the food of the sinful. Like dregs of oil, it shall boil in (their) bellies,like the boiling of hot water." -- Koran 44:43-46

Zowie! AP says that there has been "immediate" anti-Muslim "backlash" following the mass murders by an Islamic jihadist at Fort Hood! Good gravy, what happened? Did armed bands of furious Islamophobes throw molotov cocktails at mosques? Did ferocious white supremacists maul fragile little girls in hijabs on their way to school? Did angry bigots spit at pious imams quietly going about their business?

Has there been any report of any innocent, random Muslim being attacked in a "backlash" after the Fort Hood jihad?

Nope. Not one. Americans are decent people. Americans believe people are innocent until proven guilty. But Ibrahim Hooper and his fellow thugs at CAIR need hate crimes so that they can claim victim status for Muslims and deflect attention away from such small matters as the jihad at Fort Hood, and they have the clueless and/or complicit mainstream media in their hip pocket. And so we witness the strange phenomenon of stories of Muslims fearing a backlash far outnumbering actual incidents of backlash. In fact, the score is about umpteen to zero.

And in the AP story linked above, all we get after the promise of news of "immediate" backlash are various stories about mosques and Muslims asking for special police protection, etc. So in reality, the story should be headlined, "Muslims claim victim status in wake of Fort Hood jihad attack," or "Muslim victimhood whining immediate after Fort Hood jihad massacre," or some such.

But the only actual incidents of "backlash" that AP can come up with are incidents in which people like me call the Fort Hood massacre a jihad attack -- as if it is "Islamophobic" and hateful to note that a guy shouting "Allahu akbar" as he gunned people down, and who gave out Korans hours before he started shooting people, and who expressed sympathy for suicide attackers, may just have been motivated by the Islamic jihad doctrine of warfare against unbelievers.

If that's "backlash," I'm Barack Obama. That's actually something known as "honest reporting." But what would AP know about that?

Just a little murder. This quote comes from Nidal Malik Hasan's cousin in an article that, like many news reports, comes perilously close to offering any alienation or mistreatment Hasan may have perceived as an excuse for his rampage. Broken moral compasses and outrageous claims of moral equivalence abound.

The headline here seemed promising for a moment, but it's not what CNN meant. "Fort Hood suspect's religion was an issue, family says," from CNN, November 6:

FORT HOOD, Texas (CNN) -- The bumper sticker reading "Allah is Love" was torn off and the car was keyed.

Dawah, alluding to 1 John 4:8. But while one of the 99 names of Allah is "al-wadud," "the loving," one cannot attempt to equate the relative importance of love in the two religions' narratives without being disingenuous.

A police report was filed in the August 16 incident involving Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan's Honda, and a neighbor was charged with criminal mischief. But what kind of impact that incident, and possibly others, had on Hasan remains a mystery.

While few official details have been released about Hasan, his family and others have given some insight into the man accused of killing 13 people and wounded 38 others in Thursday's massacre at Fort Hood Army Post in Texas. [...]

Hasan's cousin, Mohammad Munif Abdallah Hasan, said the Army major had wanted to leave the military because he felt disrespected over his religion.

"There was racism towards him because he's a Muslim, because he's an Arab, because he prays," the cousin said in a CNN interview in the Palestinian city of Ramallah. "They used to see him dress in traditional Muslim clothing, so he was a bit irritated because of this. Also, the fact that they wanted to send him to Iraq. He decided to leave the Army for good and hire a lawyer because of this matter." [...]

There are about 3,500 Muslims in the U.S. Army, less than 1 percent of the total number of soldiers. The investigation into the shootings is ongoing, and Army officials have not indicated any evidence of Hasan being harassed among the ranks.

Hasan's cousin said that despite the concerns over discrimination, a motive behind the shootings still was incomprehensible.

"If he had killed one or two, I could say that he was defending himself. I could say that there could have been a problem between two sides which led to the use of weapons. But for one to kill 13 people and injure more than 30, I personally don't think that it was because someone was bothering him. There is a bigger reason that this happened and no ones knows it besides Nidal."

Well, it starts with a "j"...

Audio courtesy Occidental Soapbox.

Eurabia Alert, and an update on this story. "Italy: Al-Qaeda allies 'may carry out attacks'," from AdnKronos International, November 7:

Rome, 6 Nov. (AKI) - Italy was susceptible to terror attacks by allies of the Al-Qaeda network, the interior minister Roberto Maroni said on Friday. Maroni warned there were terror cells that identified with Al-Qaeda and they had "authorisation" to carry out attacks in Italy.

"Al-Qaeda is not present in Italy, however we are investigating terror cells who identify with it and have somehow obtained authorisation from Al-Qaeda," said Maroni.

He was speaking during a media conference at Rome's foreign press club.

"We are very worried," he said, warning that terrorists could be training in Italy to carry out attacks inside the country.

"We think there could be terror cells in Italy that are being created, financed and trained to carry out attacks against us."

Maroni said after the attack last month by a Libyan citizen against an army barracks in the northern city of Milan that "the conditions have changed" and that the event marked a "turning-point" in regard to this type of activity in Italy.

Early in October, an Italian soldier was injured after a 35-year-old Libyan Mohammed Game allegedly exploded a bomb at the entrance of the 'Santa Barbara' barracks using rudimentary explosives reportedly made of solid nitrate.

Two other alleged accomplices, an Egyptian and a Libyan, were arrested after the attack.

While Game suffered severe injuries to his face and his hand was amputated, no others were injured.

According to Maroni, before the attack by the Libyan, Italian cells would collect funds and recruit people to carry out attacks abroad.

A copy of the Koran and Nidal Hasan's business card, given to a neighbor yesterday before he went on his jihad. (Thanks to Cindy.)

Islamic jihadists routinely characterize anti-terror efforts as part of a "war on Islam." But of course, there is no war on terror, and there is no war on Islam. There is just the Islamic jihad against the U.S. and the West. "Hasan Called War on Terror 'War Against Islam,' Classmate Says," by Justin Blum for Bloomberg, November 6:

Nov. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people and wounding 30 others at the Fort Hood Army Base in Texas, regularly described the war on terror as "a war against Islam," according to a doctor who was in a graduate program with him.

While studying for a masters degree in public health in 2007, Hasan used a presentation for an environmental health class to argue that Muslims were being targeted by the U.S. anti-terror campaign, said Val Finnell, a classmate.

"He was very vocal about the war, very upfront about being a Muslim first and an American second," said Finnell, 41, a preventive medicine doctor in Los Angeles, in an interview today. "He was always concerned that Muslims in the military were being persecuted."...

CAIR's Ibrahim "Honest Ibe" Hooper must be fuming at Abdul-Rashid Abdullah. As I explained here, he needs hate crimes. But the greasy Islamophobes aren't obliging.

"Muslim Veterans Group Says No Reports of Harassment of Islamic Soldiers," by Joshua Rhett Miller for FoxNews, November 6 (thanks to Axel):

A Muslim veteran affairs organization says it has not received reports of harassment from Islamic soldiers, contrary to claims by a relative of the man authorities say is responsible for the worst mass killing on a U.S. military base.

Abdul-Rashid Abdullah, deputy director of the American Muslim Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Council, told FoxNews.com that the nonprofit group has not received a single report recently of a U.S. soldier being harassed "simply because he was Muslim."

"That kind of report is inconsistent with what we've heard," Abdullah said prior to a press conference in Washington to denounce Thursday's shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, that left 13 dead and 30 wounded. Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a 39-year-old Army psychiatrist who was reportedly due to be deployed later this month, is accused in the mass shooting.

Abdullah said his organization, which condemned the "unspeakable" attack, serves "several thousand" Muslim soldiers....

The thuggish Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is playing the mainstream media like an accordion today, knowing that no reporter will ever dare ask them why they're condemning yesterday's jihad attack while opposing every anti-terror measure that has ever come down the pike, and smearing and defaming those who are trying to stand up for freedom against Islamic supremacism.

CAIR, an unindicted co-conspirator in a Hamas funding case, has claimed that "anti-Muslim hate crimes" have risen sharply in the U.S. since 9/11. In fact, the rate of such crimes has actually dropped. CAIR knows well that victimhood is big business: insofar as they can claim protected victim status for Muslims in the U.S., they can deflect unwanted scrutiny and any critical examination of how jihadists use Islamic texts and teachings to justify violence and supremacism.

That's most likely why CAIR and others have not hesitated to stoop even to fabricating "hate crimes." They want and need hate crimes against Muslims, because they can use them for political points and as weapons to intimidate people into remaining silent about the jihad threat.

And so it is again today. We should be hearing from Muslim spokesmen in the U.S. that they are determined to root out jihad violence and Islamic supremacism from the Muslim community in America, and are instituting transparent and inspectable programs to teach against those things. But instead, "Muslims fear backlash" stories are blanketing the mainstream media, and this mosque is making a grandstand play for victim status even in the absence of any actual threats.

"Islamic Center for PEACE in Fort Myers requests additional police patrols," by Rachel Revehl for the News-Press, November 6 (thanks to all who sent this in):

11:09 A.M. -- Following the shootings at the Fort Hood Army base in Texas on Thursday, those at the Islamic Center for PEACE in Fort Myers have requested additional police patrols, though there have so far been no threats to the center.

Alibaba Lumumba, president of the center, said anytime there is a crime allegedly committed by a Muslim, the whole Muslim community suffers.

"But when there is a Christian who commits a crime, we don't get into his religion or whether he wears a cross or not," Lumumba said. "It's a lack of knowledge about what Islam is and what it is not. Such acts of violence, especially if there were women, children or elderly who were hurt, are not condoned by Islam."...

The problem is that Christians are not committing violence and quoting chapter and verse of the Bible to justify it. But Muslims are committing violence and quoting chapter and verse of the Koran to justify it.

Calling for freelance jihad. Just a coincidence, I'm sure. "Counterterrorism: Shifting from 'Who' to 'How,'" by Scott Stewart and Fred Burton for Stratfor, November 4 (thanks to all who sent this in):

In the 11th edition of the online magazine Sada al-Malahim (The Echo of Battle), which was released to jihadist Web sites last week, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) leader Nasir al-Wahayshi wrote an article that called for jihadists to conduct simple attacks against a variety of targets. The targets included "any tyrant, intelligence den, prince" or "minister" (referring to the governments in the Muslim world like Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Yemen), and "any crusaders whenever you find one of them, like at the airports of the crusader Western countries that participate in the wars against Islam, or their living compounds, trains etc.," (an obvious reference to the United States and Europe and Westerners living in Muslim countries)....

This, too, follows the example of Muhammad:

There came to him (the Holy Prophet) a woman from Ghamid and said: Allah's Messenger, I have committed adultery, so purify me. He (the Holy Prophet) turned her away. On the following day she said: Allah's Messenger, Why do you turn me away? Perhaps, you turn me away as you turned away Ma'iz. By Allah, I have become pregnant. He said: Well, if you insist upon it, then go away until you give birth to (the child). When she was delivered she came with the child (wrapped) in a rag and said: Here is the child whom I have given birth to. He said: Go away and suckle him until you wean him. When she had weaned him, she came to him (the Holy Prophet) with the child who was holding a piece of bread in his hand. She said: Allah's Apostle, here is he as I have weaned him and he eats food. He (the Holy Prophet) entrusted the child to one of the Muslims and then pronounced punishment. And she was put in a ditch up to her chest and he commanded people and they stoned her. - Sahih Muslim 17.4206.

Sharia Alert. "Somali adulterer stoned to death," from BBC News, November 6:

Islamists in southern Somalia have stoned a man to death for adultery but spared his pregnant girlfriend until she gives birth.

Abas Hussein Abdirahman, 33, was killed in front of a crowd of some 300 people in the port town of Merka.

An official from the al-Shabab group said the woman would be killed after she has had her baby.

Islamist groups run much of southern Somalia, while the UN-backed government only control parts of the capital.

This is the third time Islamists have stoned a person to death for adultery in the past year.

Al-Shabab official Sheikh Suldan Aala Mohamed said Mr Abdirahman had confessed to adultery before an Islamic court.

"He was screaming and blood was pouring from his head during the stoning. After seven minutes he stopped moving," an eyewitness told the BBC.

The BBC's Mohammed Olad Hassan in Mogadishu says that if the woman is also killed, her baby would be given to relatives to look after....

Surveillance video of Nidal Hasan, yesterday morning. Video thanks to Pamela.

Of course. Why not? He was a "moderate." Until he wasn't.

"Nidal Hasan: Ft. Hood Shooter Participated in Homeland Security Disaster Preparation," from Gawker, November 6 (thanks to Mary Belle):

The gunman who killed 12 people today at Ft. Hood appears, based on current media reports, to be Army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan who was listed as a participant in a Homeland Security Policy Institute's presidential transition task force last year.

The task force was not officially affiliated with the White House. It was a project of the Homeland Security Policy Institute, an independent thinktank housed at George Washington University, aimed at drafting policy recommendations for the incoming Obama administration.

According to the task force's May 2009 report [pdf], a "Nidal Hasan" from the Uniformed Services University School of Medicine was a task force event participant. Other participants included Senate and House staffers, Department of Homeland Security officials, Defense Department officials, and reporters for Politico, the Washington Post, and the London Times....

Muhammad Atta said: "Shout, 'Allahu Akbar,' because this strikes fear in the hearts of the non-believers."

"Fort Hood soldier describes horrific scene to family in Utah," by John Daley for KSL.com, November 5 (thanks to AJ):

NORTHERN UTAH -- The news of the mass shooting at Fort Hood Thursday hit close to home for some Utahns. One man says his daughter heard the shooter exclaim "Allah Akbar" as he opened fire.

We want to stress that no government or military officials are reporting that and there is no way for us to independently confirm that it is true....

The soldier's father says his daughter was at Fort Hood Thursday when the shooting happened, and she called him, frantic and upset, soon after.

"She said, 'Dad, I'm OK. Don't worry, I'm OK.' And initially I said, 'What are you talking about?' She said, 'Haven't you heard?' And I said, 'No.' And she said, 'We've been attacked by terrorists,'" the father explained.

He told KSL News soldiers were sitting in a staging area for medical and dental checks when the group was startled by gunfire.

"A person behind counter stood up, and he said, 'Allah Akbar!' And just opened up on everybody," the father told us....

He handed out Korans? But didn't what he read in the Book of Peace make him think that he shouldn't go through with the massacre?

Or maybe he read that Paradise was guaranteed to those who "kill and are killed" for Allah (9:111), and took that seriously.

Note also that he affected Islamic clothing -- as did another "moderate," Maher Hawash, before the latter embarked upon his jihad.

"Police raid shooting suspect's Killeen apartment," by Victor O'Brien for the Killeen Daily Herald, November 6 (thanks to Ernest):

Bell County SWAT teams barricaded and evacuated a downtown Killeen apartment complex where Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan lived before authorities say he killed 13 people and injured 30 more during a massacre at Fort Hood Thursday....

In the morning, neighbors said Hasan handed Qurans and donated his furniture to anyone who would take it.

Neighbors described Hasan as a quiet man who began wearing "Arabic clothing" in recent weeks. Edward Windsor, a neighbor, never suspected Hasan was in the Army. Hasan's rank surprised Windsor who would never have imagined an officer with a rank of major would have lived in an apartment that rents for $350 and houses soldiers ranked as private first class....

In FrontPage this morning, I summarize what we know so far:

Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a U.S. Army psychiatrist, murdered twelve people and wounded twenty-one inside Fort Hood in Texas yesterday, while, according to eyewitnesses, "shouting something in Arabic while he was shooting." Investigators are scratching their heads and expressing puzzlement about why he did it. According to NPR [1], "the motive behind the shootings was not immediately clear, officials said." The Washington Post [2] agreed: "The motive remains unclear, although some sources reported the suspect is opposed to U.S. involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq and upset about an imminent deployment." The Huffington Post spun faster, asserting that "there is no concrete reporting as to whether Nidal Malik Hasan was in fact a Muslim or an Arab."

Yet there was, and what's more, Major Hasan's motive was perfectly clear -- but it was one that the forces of political correctness and the Islamic advocacy groups in the United States have been working for years to obscure. So it is that now that another major jihad terror attack has taken place on American soil, authorities and the mainstream media are at a loss to explain why it happened - and the abundant evidence that it was a jihad attack is ignored.

Nidal Malik Hasan was born in Virginia but didn't think of himself as an American: on a form he filled out at the Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring, Maryland, he gave his nationality not as "American" but as "Palestinian." A mosque official found that curious, saying: "I don't know why he listed Palestinian. He was not born in Palestine."

He is a graduate of Virginia Tech and has a doctorate in psychiatry from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. While there, NPR reports, Hasan was "put on probation early in his postgraduate work" and was "disciplined for proselytizing about his Muslim faith with patients and colleagues."

He was a staff psychiatrist at Walter Reed Army Medical Center for six years before transferring to Fort Hood earlier this year. While at Walter Reed, he was a "very devout" member of and daily visitor to the Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring. Faizul Khan, a former imam at the Center, expressed puzzlement over Hasan's murders: "To know something like this happened, I don't know what got into his mind. There was nothing extremist in his questions. He never showed any frustration....He never showed any remorse or wish for vengeance on anybody."

So he identified himself as Palestinian and was a devout Muslim - so what? These things, of course, have no significance if one assumes that Islam is a Religion of Peace and that when a devout Muslim reads the Koran's many injunctions to wage war against unbelievers, he knows that they have no force or applicability for today's world. Unfortunately, all too many Muslims around the world demonstrate in both their words and their deeds that they take such injunctions quite seriously. And Nidal Hasan gave some indications that he may have been among them.

CAIR has been working overtime (they're quoted in this article also), and the "Muslims fear backlash" victimhood machine is in high gear. No one, of course, is questioning whether there might be any connection between this man's devoutly held Islam and the massacre today. After all, how could there be any such connection? Islam is a Religion of Peace™!

"Massacre Leaves 12 Dead At Fort Hood," by Kevin Whitelaw for NPR, November 5 (thanks to Axel):

[...] The motive behind the shootings was not immediately clear, officials said....

Nothing can be made clear to those who do not wish to see.

A source tells NPR's Joseph Shapiro that Hasan was put on probation early in his postgraduate work at the Uniformed Service University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md. He was disciplined for proselytizing about his Muslim faith with patients and colleagues, according to the source, who worked with him at the time.

And the talking heads are saying how good it is that he is alive, as it will provide an opportunity for him to be questioned about why he did this. Jihad? Pah! "Army: Ft. Hood suspect still alive," from WISH, November 5:

KILLEEN, Texas (KXAN/AP/MSNBC) - Major Malik Nidal Hasan, accused of killing 12 and wounding 31 in an attack at Fort Hood on Thursday, is alive and in stable condition, Lt. Gen. Bob Cone said at an 8:30 p.m. news conference.

Counter to initial reports, the 39-year-old psychiatrist - who was thought to be killed by local police - is hospitalized and not expected to die of gunshots sustained during the 1:30 p.m. attack. The local police officer who allegedly shot Hasan and injured him is in the hospital also in stable condition.

Cone also told reporters that Hasan was carrying one handgun and one semi-automatic weapon. But the fact that there were so many injured, apparently by one man, "counter-intuitively is concern," Cone said - spurring officials to continue their investigation to make sure they haven't missed any other shooters. Two soldiers were questioned earlier in the day and then released, determined not to have been involved, officials said....

Evidently he was not a convert to Islam, but was a lifelong -- and observant -- Muslim. "At least 12 killed in shooting at Fort Hood, Tex.," by William Branigin and Carrie Johnson for the Washington Post, November 5 (thanks to Peter Collier):

[...] Hasan was a psychiatrist, according to acquaintances of his in Washington, and a Pentagon source said he was recently reassigned from Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington to work with soldiers at Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood.

Hasan was a U.S. citizen, according to Virginia voting records, and his parents are Palestinians from the West Bank, according to his aunt, Noel Hasan of Falls Church. He was born at Arlington Hospital Center.

Hasan, 39, had lived in Montgomery County, Md., and Arlington, Va., in addition to Roanoke and nearby Vinton, Va. He graduated from Virginia Tech and earned his medical degree at Bethesda's Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, records show.

Hasan attended the Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring and was "very devout," according to Faizul Khan, a former imam at the center. Khan said Hasan attended prayers at least once a day, seven days a week, often in his Army fatigues.

Khan also said Hasan applied to an annual matrimonial seminar that matches Muslims looking for spouses. "I don't think he ever had a match, because he had too many conditions," Khan said.

"We never got into details of worldly affairs or politics," the former imam said of his conversations with Hasan. "Mostly religious questions. But there was nothing extremist in his questions. He never showed any frustration. . . . He never showed any . . . wish for vengeance on anybody."

However, a fellow Army officer who worked with Hasan told Fox News Channel that Hasan had expressed strong opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"He would make comments to other individuals about how we should not be in the war in the first place," Col. Terry Lee told the network. "He made those comments, and he stuck strongly to his faith, but as soldiers we have a duty to follow orders from our commander in chief, and our political views are set aside."

They should have been shadowing this guy at every step. Or would that have been "Islamophobic"? "AP source: Authorities had concerns about suspected shooter, reviewed Internet postings," by Lara Jakes for Associated Press, November 5 (thanks to Andrew Bostom):

WASHINGTON - Federal law enforcement officials say the suspected Fort Hood, Texas, shooter had come to their attention at least six months ago because of Internet postings that discussed suicide bombings and other threats.

The officials say the postings appeared to have been made by Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who was killed during the shooting incident that left least 11 others dead and 31 wounded. The officials say they are still trying to confirm that he was the author. They say an official investigation was not opened....

"To say that this soldier committed suicide is inappropriate. Its more appropriate to say he is a brave hero that sacrificed his life for a more noble cause," said the Internet posting. "Scholars have paralled (sic) this to suicide bombers whose intention, by sacrificing their lives, is to help save Muslims by killing enemy soldiers."

Misunderstanders of Islam abound on this thread at Islamic Awakening, discussing the jihad shooting at Fort Hood today.

mujahid_moonsighter Junior Member Muslim Male Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Riyadh, Saudia Arabia

Re: As many as 9 killed in Fort Hood shootings, officials say
reports now are saying that the shooter was a convert(revert) to Islam, a Major(officer) in the army

Allahu akbar insha Allah he be shaheed, what a brave mujahid

Read the others also.