Maybe this is all about Karl Flores, a convert to Islam, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Maybe, but we have seen authorities again and again ascribe to “mental illness” what are clearly acts of jihad. What’s more, this isn’t really an either/or proposition: a psychically marginal individual may see in waging jihad a chance to get into the good graces of Allah and compensate for the things in his life for which he may feel guilty or tormented.
Might Karl Flores’ action have anything to do with this? The Islamic State issued this call in September 2014:
So O muwahhid, do not let this battle pass you by wherever you may be. You must strike the soldiers, patrons, and troops of the tawaghit. Strike their police, security, and intelligence members, as well as their treacherous agents. Destroy their beds. Embitter their lives for them and busy them with themselves. If you can kill a disbelieving American or European — especially the spiteful and filthy French — or an Australian, or a Canadian, or any other disbeliever from the disbelievers waging war, including the citizens of the countries that entered into a coalition against the Islamic State, then rely upon Allah, and kill him in any manner or way however it may be….If you are not able to find an IED or a bullet, then single out the disbelieving American, Frenchman, or any of their allies. Smash his head with a rock, or slaughter him with a knife, or run him over with your car, or throw him down from a high place, or choke him, or poison him….
Maybe, maybe not. We may never know, because law enforcement officials tend to answer this kind of question, when they address it at all, by discussing whether or not the person in question had been in contact with jihadis. But when a general call such as this one is issued, direct contact is not necessary. All a believer has to do is accept the authority of the Islamic State and heed its call. This misapprehension, along with the general official unwillingness to discuss the jihad threat fully and honestly, make it likely that this will be yet another case in which we will never know what really happened.
“Driver in Custody After Striking L.A. Pedestrian, Wild Pursuit and Standoff on 5 Fwy at Camp Pendleton,” by Cindy Von Quednow, Elizabeth Espinosa and Kimberly Cheng, KTLA, January 3, 2019 (thanks to the Geller Report):
A driver who struck a man on a motorized scooter during a wild, three-hour pursuit that moved through three counties is in custody after a standoff with California Highway Patrol officers along the 5 Freeway at Camp Pendleton Thursday afternoon.
The driver — of an older-model maroon Honda Civic — had eluded authorities despite multiple PIT maneuver attempts made by Los Angeles Police Department officers.
CHP spokesman Officer Mark Latulippe identified the driver as 34-year-old Karl Flores, describing him as a veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder….
The chase began in the area of Sepulveda and Washington boulevards about 10:50 a.m., when Culver City police officers tried to stop the Honda following a vehicle code violation “and suspicion that the vehicle was possibly stolen,” according to a police news release.
But when police couldn’t confirm if the vehicle was stolen and the motorist continued with “erratic driving,” officers stopped chasing him out of concern for public safety.
Shortly after that, an LAPD helicopter spotted the Honda striking someone on a motorized scooter, and Culver City police again began chasing the Honda until Los Angeles officers could take over, the Culver City Police Department news release stated.
The pedestrian was struck in the 7800 block of West Manchester Avenue in the Playa del Rey area about 11:15 a.m., according to the L.A. Fire Department.
The male victim, who had been on a scooter, suffered non-life threatening injuries, LAPD Sgt. Thomas Trandal told KTLA. The victim was “sucked up under” the car but was expected to be OK, the sergeant said….
The driver proceeded to lead several police cruisers on a slow-speed pursuit, driving about 25 mph through surface streets. About 11:45 a.m., LAPD officials attempted four PIT maneuvers, but the driver continued, dragging the car’s rear bumper. The Honda eventually began speeding up as the car continued to evade police.
The driver eventually got on the 405 Freeway in Playa Vista and continued south into Inglewood, Long Beach and then into Orange County, where he drove at regular freeway speeds. The driver continued on the 5 Freeway and eventually entered San Diego County.
The Honda eventually stopped about 1:30 p.m. near the Las Pulgas Road exit in the Camp Pendleton area near Oceanside, aerial video showed.
Latulippe said the vehicle had run out of gas.
The plates on the 2002 Honda indicate it was registered to a Karl Flores, according to the Department of Motor Vehicles. That suggests the vehicle was not actually stolen, as police initially indicated….
Javed Bava, president of the Islamic Center of Inglewood, said he got to know Flores after the suspect began attending his mosque about six or seven years ago.
Bava told KTLA he was “very sad” upon learning of Flores’ involvement in the lengthy chase.
“If he had these issues, no one has paid attention to that,” he said.
At first, Flores was a “regular guy,” Bava said. But then he stopped coming to the mosque for a while, and had changed once he returned.
Bava alleges that Flores assaulted a groundskeeper in 2016, and the man — in his 70s — was subsequently hospitalized for several days.
“He had drugs in his hand, and that’s the time we came to the conclusion, ‘OK, he’s totally on the wrong path,’ ” Bava said. “But on the same token, his family keeps telling us that he has these mental issues, PTSD.”
Others who worship there said Flores lived in an apartment behind the Islamic Center but was evicted several weeks ago, and that his wife left and took their baby with her.
It had been a while since Flores showed up at the mosque until two days ago, when he returned and was allegedly involved in another unprovoked attack on someone in the prayer hall.
“There are some nice people who tried to explain him, ‘Hey took, take it easy, go away,’ ” Bava said of the latest incident. “He didn’t do that, he didn’t listen to that, and he started assaulting that person.”
Westman says
Moral of the story:
Islam cures PTSD: nope.
Islam inspires respect for women and old people: nope.
Islam inspires respect for civil law: nope
Islam either attracts or creates unstable people: yep.
somehistory says
Same old song and dance. He’s “mental case,”…shown by the fact he became a moslim and began to attend the meetings at the barracks. Of course, he’s changed…he was talking crazy, assaulting people…but it wasn’t islam making him do any of that.
According to bava’s English, he’s not native. From which country did he come?
FYI says
convert to islam=the convenient EXCUSE to do the evil the koran sanctions.
Of course islam attracts the psychologically weak,the deranged, the sociopaths,the spiritually lazy and the unwise who cannot think for themselves.That is what is required to follow the sunnah of islam’s insane “prophet”.
It is impossible to follow the example of muhammed and be a morally good person:to be morally good{at least in the Judeo-Christian religious sense} requires living a good moral life in accordance with those Exodus 20 Commandments as Jews and Christians understand.Muslims don’t:they think they can get away with breaking God’s Commandments because the koran says so.
When you mention the word “commandment” to muslims{especially the islamic trolls at JW}they start babbling on about some OT scripture recording some ancient battle:but that is descriptive violence,not the prescriptive violence allah teaches in his book.If you mentioned the word “commandment” to a convert to islam or a muslim fanatic,they would be on the floor having a violent fit,cursing,foaming at the mouth..
STAY AWAY from islam is the message of many ex-muslims and former converts:it will only make things worse.{I’m not suggesting join another religion either.THINK for yourself.It is reasonable to be Agnostic..}
somehistory says
I found plenty of reasons a long time ago to attempt to follow Christ. For me, that is the “reasonable” way to live. To each his own, but the moslims don’t want the rest of us to have a choice, or a say, in this. But when they commit crimes, playing the “mental” card, or “that’s not islam” is oh so easy for them and those who teach them to lie..
I learned very early, lying is despicable.
M.R. says
There is no explanation as to why he was driving erratically in the first place. Perhaps he was trying to find someone to hit, perhaps he was DUI. I need more answers before I can consider any conclusions.
keith says
Couple of things going on here.
He has PTSD, which means he is probably on anti psychotic drugs (check out how bad they are).
He converted to Islam. (that is really bad).
And he was obviously easy to manipulate by the iman.
Now that is a real recipe for disaster in anyones books.
gravenimage says
Los Angeles: Muslim driver strikes pedestrian, leads cops on wild, 3-hour chase through three counties
………………………………
Almost certainly more vehicular Jihad.
Huh!?! says
So here we go again. More mental illness as an excuse for jihad so it cannot be Islamic jihad. Gee….what has happened to Europe. Oh, wait a minute…this is L.A. in the U.S.A. It is getting harder to tell the difference.
Terra Nova says
Watch out, like in Argentina and more countries in that region, there are more dangerous German people. For Germany, the second world war never was really over, it seems. May be another try again with the muslims together?
KWJ says
Based on this article alone while not knowing what the guy said afterwards, it doesn’t sound like a case of doing this to please Allah. If he was assaulting two people at the mosque and his wife left him, I’d think he was likely using drugs or alcohol and is mentally troubled. Therefore he should probably be in a hospital because he’s a danger to society and himself.
The thing is, many Muslims are on drugs in Islamic countries and do this to other Muslims. I don’t think troubled men should be reading the Qur’an and Hadith, however. The Qur’an has so much relentless hatred for non-Muslims that it can be a way to justify anger towards non-Muslims while thinking it’s OK or to shift blame.
The Hadith is another problem and Hadiths scholars such as this Muhammad “Mufti” Ibn Muneer in New York or the likes of the now Anwar al-Awlaki pull a lot out of the Hadiths. The Hadiths have a lot of bad and perverse behaviors, shows Muhammad to be hypocritical and in instances it makes him look bad and hardly the “perfect man and example and mercy to mankind.” I see many Islamic scholars and clerics talking things out of the Hadith and the fatwa site also uses them to justify this or that. There’s a lot of sexual stuff too in them and why that Imam Tawhidi in Australia wants them thrown out. A lot of it is embarrassing.
Imams will claim that Islam adds structure for addicts or troubled minds, much of that due to rituals as I see it and repetition of prayers, but I don’t think it’s a good way to address psychological issues at all, especially if they are violent minded. Take up yoga or Buddhism, group therapy or whatever. PTSD is serious and some veterans have indeed killed people. I don’t like the Qur’an in prisons and we’re seeing in Europe Muslim prisoners becoming radicalized there!