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.)
]]>"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."...]]>
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"....
"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.
]]>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
]]>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?
]]>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.
]]>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.)
]]>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."...
"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....
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.
]]>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)....]]>
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.
]]>