Not even 33 years, but "up to" 33 years? What does it take to get life without possibility of parole?

Posted by: Karl Pov at August 26, 2008 2:02 PM

"For sentencing purposes, the charges were consolidated into two counts of attempted first-degree murder. He was sentenced to between 13 years and 16 1/2 years in prison for each."
-from the article

"UP TO 33 years in prison".

He didn't get 33 years. He got UP TO 33 years. He'd probably be out in less than half that time. Not that many people serve the full sentence. 33 years assumes consecutive sentences, which wasn't made clear in the article. He'll probably be out within ten years.

Posted by: PMK at August 26, 2008 2:07 PM

He'll be out in 2.

Posted by: Mr.Fitnah at August 26, 2008 2:10 PM

Hopefully, the other Tarheel inmates will make him very uncomfortable for the length of his stay.

Posted by: Hillbilly at August 26, 2008 2:19 PM

It wouldn't take many people like this student to make usfeel like we were living in Pakistan or some God forsaken country like that.

Posted by: Spot on at August 26, 2008 2:24 PM

What a waste of US taxpayers' money! This slime should have been united with 72 virgins and 28 boys in Islamic heaven to spare the taxpayer expenses. Animals like this Islamist should be put in a boat without life jacket and abandoned in mid ocean to wait for Allah to rescue them.

Posted by: IndianTiger at August 26, 2008 3:24 PM

What does the case of Taheri-Azar show? It should show to "secular" Muslims, "cultural" Muslims, people who continue to call themselves Muslims despite their real feelings, because they become about Islam in front of Infidels, or feel a general filial piety, or even are seemly fearful of making an open break, even in the free West, that they should think again. Apparently the parents of Taheri-Azar had leftthe Islamic Republic of Iran because they so disliked it, and there is notning to indicate that they were true-blue Muslims. But however antipathetic they found the Khomeini regime, and however secular they may have been, they never made the complete break with Islam that, had they done so, might have spared their son, and themselves, much grief. For years later, when on his own their son, having found himself casting about for something to give his life, and his possibly temporary mental disarray meaning, went right back to Islam, read the texts (see his notebook entries, which were posted at JW), took them to heart, whipped himself up to perform a deed of derring-do (that is, to mow down innocent Infidels), rented a car, and apparently headed straight for the pedestrian pit – “The Pit” – to try to find fellow students, but Infidels, to murder.

Make the break, those of you who through no fault of your own were born into Islam. Just look at the idiocy and craziness of the kind of people who “revert” to Islam. Doesn’t that tell you something? Find out, if you have not yet found out, what Islam teaches, and what the history, the real history, of Muslim conquest of non-Muslim lands and peoples, has meant for those lands and those peoples. And then drop Islam, so that your children will not have to lead lives of falsehood, taqiyya-and-tu-quoque, always misrepresenting the faith, and as a result, sooner or later always inspiring mistrust among those Infidels who will grow tired of dealing with, or making allowances for, someone whose real thoughts are never to be known, someone about whom “one never knows what he is thinking.” Don’t make your children endure that. In the West they are free to leave Islam, and so are you. Make that break, especially for them, so that when something goes wrong, they don’t reach for their Islam.

Besides, if you wish the best for your children, why condemn them to a Total Belief-System that clearly stunts the mental growth. The evidence? The last 1350 years of Muslim underperformance, once the conquered peoples – Jews and Christians, Zoroastrians, and others – were reduced in sufficient numbers, which happened within a few hundred years of the original conquests in the seventh and eighth centuries.

Posted by: Hugh at August 26, 2008 5:29 PM

When will Muslims practice the Peace they profess? So many do, but they are not able to contain their bloody-handed brethren. Why not? Is it because they have also read the Koran and know that Islam is only peaceful for the Master Faith?

Die in prison pig eater.

Posted by: belisariusx at August 26, 2008 5:44 PM

Mohammed Taheri-Azar had a car-crash in the same sense that 9/11 was a plane-crash.

Posted by: special_guest at August 26, 2008 6:00 PM

I consider this progress.

Posted by: Zorro at August 26, 2008 6:14 PM

Sorry, Hugh, but I'm afraid too many Moslems would rather follow the advice of the imam who, a year or so ago, advised Moslem women to have ten children each, and "give eight to Allah", keeping only two for themselves.

Posted by: ebonystone at August 26, 2008 6:38 PM

The Tarheel article states the motivation was: "The 25-year-old said he was avenging the deaths of Muslims by the U.S. across the world."

However, it does not mention the fact that the assailant had listed numerous Quranic verses justifying the attack on a paper as shown on the link provided at the top of this Jihadwatch article.

The Tarheel article shows yet one more example of the hand-wringing tendency to try to understand such jihadist behavior by blaming ourselves and U.S. foreign policy provocation. I would guess that, if a poll were taken to determine why Americans think the jihadists hate us, we would find that a very large percentage of Americans self-blame in this manner. Should we put our foreign policy in the hands of Islamists in order to make sure we do not offend and provoke them? No problem.

One antidote for this defeatist thinking would be an effort to actually study and openly discuss and write about the core texts of Islam and the express motivations of jihadists with the objective to arrive at objective truth rather than a politically-determined conclusion. But, of course, we cannot engage in such truthful discussion, other than in small internet forums, because to do so would be to cross the "red lines" that we have been warned repeatedly should not be crossed. You see, even discussing the teachings of Islam, its core texts, and the character of its prophet would be a provocation for which we would be blame-worthy and deserving of further jihadist attacks.

So we self-censor ourselves, and quietly grant the religion of peace increasing accommodations both public and private, hoping these sorts of jihadist attacks will end if we can just reach a high enough level of appeasement.

There is so little understanding about Islam, jihad, the Quran, Muhammed, the hadiths and Islamic history that even taking the small step of speaking openly to family and friends in a manner which is not politically correct is likely to result in disbelief and scorn. Communicating openly in a public forum is exponentially harder, especially for anyone with family, a business, and so on. Is the editor of a newspaper, or a journalist writing an article, going to risk crossing the "red lines?" Probably not. So, we all end up cringing like cowards before the threats of a very small minority in our midst, while pretending they are not really threatening us.

Posted by: Karl2 at August 26, 2008 8:15 PM

As long as there are mosques in the US, cultural Muslims have no reason to make the break. Did this man's parents leave Iran because they didn't like the Islamic Republic or because they didn't like Islam? If they thought Islam was so bad, they didn't communicate that to their son.
There must be boatloads of Iranian Muslims in the US who despise the mullahs and what they did to Iran but who have never given up on Islam itself. Most think others got Islam wrong, but they themselves know the truth and their Islam is the "good Islam". The rest just misunderstand their religion.
A parallel can be seen in the many Americans who think Congress is a den of corruption but who think their own representatives are pure as the driven snow.

Posted by: PMK at August 26, 2008 10:08 PM

Perhaps no court should be allowed to have a case tried before it that relates to Islam - unless and until it are competent to do so. Contract law is very complex and specialized; so is anything to do with trying Muslims, whether for violent acts, financial shenanigans or cultural subterfuge. If the judge can't understand the tenants of Islam - the koran, sira and hadith - or the goals of the Brotherhood, he/she should not be making "judgments" relating to them.

Posted by: Civilus Defendus at August 27, 2008 12:36 AM

Perhaps no court should be allowed to have a case tried before it that relates to Islam - unless and until it is competent to do so. Contract law is very complex and specialized; so is anything to do with trying Muslims, whether for violent acts, financial shenanigans or cultural subterfuge. If the judge can't understand the tenants of Islam - the koran, sira and hadith - or the goals of the Brotherhood, he/she should not be making "judgments" relating to them.

Posted by: Civilus Defendus at August 27, 2008 12:36 AM

Oops, sorry.

I did send the Mayor of Dearborn (John O’Reilly) and Oakland Co Commissioner (Bill Bullard, Jr, Chr), and the court this re the Zorkot case:

Your community and your courts have committed a grievous error regarding Islam. Houssein Ali Zorkot is a violent individual jihadist in the service of Islam. Please educate yourself, all elected officials and your judges now. The future depends upon it...(additional info)...

Let them know if they do a good job or need to wake up.

Posted by: Civilus Defendus at August 27, 2008 12:43 AM

This poor guy will also have to serve his sentence in the knowledge that his homicidal gesture failed miserably.

Posted by: Family Values at August 27, 2008 12:53 AM

That being said, I'm not so sure that his parents' conversion to Methodism or Masorti Judaism would have prevented this character from becoming a jihadi. The young have a way of reacting against their elders, after all....

Posted by: Family Values at August 27, 2008 1:00 AM

Suicide vests are only available in Dar Al Suicide Bombing (Islamic nations) so he resorted to an SUV instead.

Posted by: American at August 27, 2008 9:53 AM