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US Army major kills 12 in shooting rampage

I found this to be an interesting article-

A Muslim Soldier's View From Ft. Hood- Huffington Post/Kamran Pasha

Major Nidal Malik Hasan is a murderer and has brought great shame upon every American Muslim in the armed forces.

There are currently over 10,000 Muslim soldiers in the U.S. military, men and women who are patriotic and love their country and their fellow service members. Hasan’s evil actions, the murder of his fellow soldiers at Fort Hood, have now brought those honorable soldiers’ loyalties into question.

The Islamophobe community on the Internet is trumpeting how Hasan’s behavior is reflective of the threat Americans face from their Muslim neighbors, and how radical Islamists have infiltrated the ranks of our military. Calls for purging the military, and perhaps even the United States, of its Muslim members have already begun.

Today there are dozens of families mourning the attack on their loved ones by a fellow-in-arms. And there are hundreds of Muslims at Fort Hood who knew Hasan and are stunned that he would betray their country and their community with such cold, calculated ease. Hasan’s rampage has truly shattered many more lives than we can begin to imagine.

I spoke today with a friend who is a Muslim soldier stationed at Fort Hood. He is a 22-year veteran of the U.S. Army and a recent convert to Islam. He agreed to share his perspective with me if I granted him anonymity. So we will call him Richard.

Richard is exactly the kind of soldier we need to protect our country from those that seek to do us harm. A combat veteran who has served in Iraq, Richard became interested in studying Islam initially as a strategic means of understanding his adversary in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks. But as he began to study the religion’s teachings, he became struck by how different they were from what was being claimed by men like Osama Bin Laden.

Instead of a religion of hatred and misogyny, he found an Islam of love, wisdom, and human empowerment. His strategic analysis blossomed into spiritual identification, and Richard embraced Islam just over two years ago. As a “revert” (as Muslim converts like to call themselves, since Islam believes everyone is born a Muslim), Richard was faced with the added challenge of being a soldier in a conflict in which members of his new faith were on the other side.

Richard decided that the best way he could be true to his military oath and his religious convictions was to use his position as an American Muslim soldier to build bridges of understanding. He currently works as a liaison between the U.S. military and Muslim leaders in the Middle East to garner their support against the common enemy – the Islamist radicals who oppose both the American military and the mainstream Muslim community that wants nothing to do with their extremism. Richard has very much been in the forefront of our military’s efforts to win hearts and minds in the Muslim world.

Richard first met Major Hasan in July 2009 when the latter arrived at Fort Hood. According to Richard, there are between 300-500 Muslim families that live at Fort Hood, and everyone in the community is associated with the base either as a service member or in a civilian support capacity. The Muslim community is largely South Asian, hailing from Indian, Pakistani, and other sub-continental backgrounds. The community is prosperous, with many doctors and professionals at its core. The Muslims at Fort Hood live in harmony with their neighbors, and from Richard’s experience, most were happy to be associated with the U.S. military and viewed their work through a lens of profound patriotism.

Richard assumed that the newcomer, Nidal Malik Hasan, shared the values of the other Muslim community members. He found Hasan to be a friendly man who did not initially appear to be a radical, and they bonded as fellow Muslims on the base. Richard and Hasan would often pray together, and during the last 10 days of Ramadan, the two men secluded themselves inside the local mosque for a period of reflection and worship.

And, fatefully, Richard and Hasan prayed side-by-side at the mosque the morning of the massacre, after they had engaged in a friendly competition to see who could recite the azan, the call to prayer, first. After prayers that morning, Hasan left while Richard and a few others remained behind to recite the Qur’an. Hasan appeared relaxed and not in any way troubled or nervous.

A few hours later, Hasan fired two guns on his fellow soldiers and forever shattered dozens of lives, as well as the peaceful community of trust and respect that Muslims had built at Fort Hood.

Richard said that he and other members of the Muslim community are struggling to understand how this happened. Looking back, Richard said that he did find some aspects of Hasan’s worldview troubling, but he had no indication that the man was capable of mass murder.

Richard remembered one of his first conversations with Hasan. The newly-arrived army psychiatrist told Richard that he felt the “war on terror” was really a war against Islam, and that perhaps Muslims should not be part of the US military.

Richard told Nidal that he disagreed. First, he did not believe as a Muslim that the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan are part of a grand conspiracy to destroy Islam. And second, even if a Muslim believed that a specific military action was wrong, he could not escape responsibility for it just by resigning from the military. The reality was that his or her taxes would still be used to fund the campaign, and so American Muslims were invested in the situation whether they liked it or not.

Richard’s view as a Muslim was that he had a responsibility to do good in whatever situation he found himself in. He was a Muslim in the American military at a time when the United States was in conflict with areas of the Muslim world. Richard’s role was to do his part as a Muslim by creating new friendships and partnerships between the American military and the Muslim community.

But Hasan clearly did not share Richard’s point of view, and Richard decided not to get into an argument with a fellow solider he had just met. And so the two moved on from their dispute and established a friendship as fellow Muslims in the Fort Hood community.

As Richard got to know Hasan better over the next several months, he found the major to be a pious man who was at the mosque daily. But Richard also began to garner a sense of Hasan’s political views that troubled him. A black-and-white outlook on Islam and life that had no room for nuance or debate. Hasan had apparently attended a mosque led by an imam named Anwar Al-Awlaki, a Yemeni scholar whose political views Richard disagrees with.

Awlaki is a controversial figure among Muslims, and has been accused by the Congressional Joint Inquiry on 9/11 of serving as a “spiritual advisor” to two of the September 11 hijackers. While Richard is careful to say that he respects much of Awlaki’s historical scholarship, he rejects his political ideology, which posits a black-and-white, us versus them, view of America’s relationship with the Islamic world.

Richard’s own study of Islam has revealed that such a harsh dualistic approach to religion is very much against the history of Islamic thought and practice. Indeed, debate is central to the Islamic tradition, and mainstream Muslims have always understood that true faith requires openness to nuance and subtlety. In my novel, Mother of the Believers, which tells the story of Islam from the perspective of Aisha, Prophet Muhammad’s wife, I discuss how the early Muslim community engaged in profound debate and discourse in the search for truth. An embrace of subtlety and intellectual sophistication is inherent to the Islamic tradition.

But this kind of subtlety is anathema to fundamentalists of any religion or ideology, who are incapable of seeing other points of view. And the backlash against my book by Muslim fundamentalists reveals the deep-seated fear that such people have of mainstream Muslims’ efforts to take back the discourse from those who cannot accept shades of grey in life and faith.

Richard does not know how heavily Hasan was influenced by fundamentalist thinkers like Awlaki. But the major’s views were definitely troubling. Richard described an incident where Hasan made some anti-Semitic comments about Jews as a nation being “cursed by God” in Islam. Richard responded that the Qur’an does not condemn any group of people collectively, and that no one is born “cursed” by their ancestry.

Indeed, even though there are verses that are critical of some Jews who were political opponents to Prophet Muhammad, the Qur’an states very clearly that it is speaking only in relation to those who do evil, not those who do good, and that God judges people by their actions. (3:75-76). Another verse is even more explicit:

“Those who believe (in the Qur'an), and those who follow the Jewish scriptures, and the Christians and the Sabians -- any who believe in God and the Last Day, and work righteousness, shall have their reward with their Lord; on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve.” (2:62)

When Richard made this point, Hasan became flustered and simply responded that as a “revert” Richard clearly did not know Islam as well as he did, someone who had been raised as a Muslim. But from Richard’s point of view, Hasan was simply regurgitating cultural attitudes and prejudices and cloaking them in the form of religion. And in the process he was blinding himself to what Islam actually taught.

A second incident that revealed the hints of radicalism inside Hasan’s worldview took place when Richard once asked a group of Muslims on the base whether they would consider the Taliban to be members of “Ahl-as-Sunna,” the Arabic term for those who follow the Prophet’s tradition and life example. It is a short-hand among many Muslims to denote those who are “mainstream” versus those who are “misguided.” Hasan became angry that Richard could even ask such a question, but the other Muslims rose to Richard’s defense, pointing out that the Taliban are a patchwork of a variety of groups, many of whom are clearly way out of the mainstream Islam as practiced by the vast majority of believers. Richard was taken aback by Hasan’s sudden anger at what had been seconds before a friendly discussion.

Perhaps most troubling are Hasan’s views on suicide bombing. The major has posted his opinions on the Internet, suggesting that he viewed at least some suicide bombers as the moral equivalent of soldiers who throw themselves on grenades to save others. Readers of my work will know that I have stated very clearly and with deep conviction that suicide bombing is a violation of Islam’s basic rules of war (and I have received death threats from radicals who disagree with me).

Richard shared my views, and when Hasan attempted to rationalize suicide bombing in a conversation, Richard told him in no uncertain terms that suicide is forbidden in the Qur’an (4:29). An argument ensued, and then an Islamic scholar who was present told Hasan that Richard was right. Suicide cannot be defended under traditional Islamic law, regardless of efforts by some modern scholars to rationalize it. Hasan was unhappy to hear this point of view, and the men decided to change the topic.

I asked Richard whether he believed that Hasan was motivated by religious radicalism in his murderous actions. Richard, with great sadness, said that he believed this was true. He also believed that psychological factors from Hasan’s job as an army psychiatrist added to his pathos. Hasan had spent months listening to horror stories from returning soldiers about their experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan, and it had hardened his position on these wars. The news that he would be deployed overseas to Iraq, to a war that he rejected, may have pushed him over the edge.

But Richard does not excuse Hasan. As a Muslim, he finds Hasan’s religious perspectives to be fundamentally misguided. And as a soldier, he finds Hasan’s actions cowardly and evil. Hasan was not being sent into combat – he would have been working in a secure office in the Green Zone far away from the life and death dangers that Richard and his fellow combat veterans face every day. For Richard, a Muslim convert and patriotic soldier, Hasan’s actions were those of a sinner and a villain, one who will be held accountable by the U.S. justice system in this world, and by Allah in the Hereafter.

Listening to Richard’s perspective, I felt many emotions. Sorrow that good men and women like him will now have to defend their patriotism from those who want to use one madman’s actions to target an entire community. Pride that Muslim soldiers like Richard continue to do their duties with honor, despite the two worlds they are forced to straddle.

And hope. That despite the clouds of evil that seek to hide the truth, the message of Islam, a faith of love, wisdom and community, will always shine through.

Thank you Richard for your service. May Allah bless you and all your fellow soldiers who risk their lives daily so that people of all faiths can be free in the United States of America.


S-2 Edit: I'd like to add that I've great faith that our army and its soldiers will see through this tragedy and beyond because, as large a nation as we are and with as many diverse perspectives for which it makes provision, we fail ourselves and our tenets as Americans if we condemn all for the act of one.

I said that this was a terrorist incident...

...if more than one was involved. There was not. Only Major Hasan bears responsibility for this heinous act and I pray that he is not executed but sentenced to life imprisonment at a maximum security facility where he can die a living death one day at a time while he ruminates on how he found himself there. None of those killed or wounded yesterday could have, in any way, helped him find relief from assignment to Iraq. Many, muslim or otherwise, might have privately agreed with not wishing to deploy. God knows we've asked too much of too few in our nation to continue to shoulder this burden.

I believe Major Hasan to be a rational man and therefore unable to plead not guilty by reason of insanity. I suspect that there are any number of muslims in his community that will likely attest to his rationality if called upon to provide character testimony as they likely know him well.

If so, may God have pity on his soul as I don't believe I can and believe death by execution would be too kind.

Thanks.
 
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First of all, my condolences with the families of the victims.

I wonder if something can be done to wipe out misconceptions about Muslims. Few things come to my mind. I think more thought should be given by experts.

1. Keep Muslims out of 'high pressure zones' (like acting army) for some time

2. Muslims should concentrate on doing more and more constructive things and media must give is as much coverage as possible

3. Think tanks among Muslims (who represent and can influence society) should open up and publish their views on current issues

4. Other think tanks, column writers, authors should always mention "this is not real Islam. Islam is not a bad thing and there's nothing wrong with being Muslim" whenever they talk about terrorism

5. Every terrorist activity should be analysed and people should be educated on how these activities are anti-Islam

6. Children in schools can be taught about not being harsh towards Muslim fellows in mild and appropriate ways

Regards, Balance.
 
It is a complete fallacy to categorize this despicable act into the pigeon holes of sectarian and religious divides. This can best be described as aberrations that show up in the American society from time to time as the Virginia Tech massacre, and the Oklahoma Bombing, and should be left at that.

To put it in religious perspective - this is something that Islam and Muslims all over, will unequivocally condemn - this goes totally against the grain of ISLAM.

Regards
 
Instead of showing solidarity with the Americans due to this tragic incident, some people here seem to be more interested in discussing America's "holy war".

Lame.

To avoid such tragic incidence occuring again , we have to identify the root cause and should resolve it.


US started war after 9/11 attackes , without reaching to the actual suspect behind these attackes.

Who and how US security system breached still not clear but why these attackes were planned is clear that the real target was muslim ummah and Islam.

logical and scientific eveidence are representing different story then media , these attackes were planned and excuted by unknown agencies and sponcers but well trained and have support of US internal security members.

After these attackes two muslim countries were targeted and American president (Bush) admitted in media that decission to attack Iraq was wrong (No WMD found there?).

Similiarly in Afghanistan now US realised that Talaban should be involved in political system of Afghanistan for long term peace and stability.Mediations are under process.

OBL is still at large but their is no eveidence provided against him by US neither he is wanted for 9/11 attacks.

After 9/11 attackes , word crusade was first used by US president , which also question mark?

After 9/11 muslim living in US face harasment and hatred in general.

In this whole senario reaction in muslims ummah is natural and unavoidable untill unless US government close torture camps and retrive their forces from Iraq and Afghanistan and promise long term rehabiliaton of these countries and families .
 
It appears the soldier had a mental breakdown.


Being a practicing Muslim in the US military at such a delicate time and having to live with so much discrimination and mistrust with some of his ignorant comrades probably contributed immensely to his frustrations and anger towards his job and authorities. He just couldn't take it anymore, I have a feeling he just went psycho...


This is not to justify what he did.

Sorry to break it to the self-proclaimed islamists with little to no knowledge of Shariah, there is NOTHING in Islam that justify the killing of his fellow soldiers in cold blood. This is simply MURDER in cold blood, in your own home country, and you don't bite the hand that has fed and raised you. Absolutely horrible and disgusting.


Secondly, the guy being a psychiatrist entails that he is there to serve human beings regardless of affiliation with enemy or friend. It just surprises me how could a doctor go to such an extent to commit mass murder. there has got to be more to the story...
 
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guys, this is a crazy incident but its not our issue, we have our own to worry about, lets focus on what is important to us and not others.
 
"Being a practicing Muslim in the US military at such a delicate time and having to live with so much discrimination and mistrust with some of his ignorant comrades..."

Actually, you don't know that. You'd like to think that maybe, even project that as a fact. However, there's no way you'd possibly know such for fact and hardly explains millions of muslims choosing to make residence here despite your insinuation. Nor would your off-hand swipe explain 10,000 muslim troops choosing to serve in an all-volunteer U.S. armed force at a time when America is engaged in wars on the soil of two muslim nations.

"...probably contributed immensely to his frustrations and anger towards his job and authorities. He just couldn't take it anymore, I have a feeling he just went psycho..."

So the other 9,999 or so shall be following suit shortly as well under such an onerous state of existance?:lol:

It appears you're looking to incite. There's no witch hunt ensuing. Were there some pogrom I imagine we'd know so by now. Slaughter, mayhem, mosque burnings, etc.

Read or heard of wildfire outbreaks across fascist, repressive Amerika yet?:disagree:

Very odd. Almost as though you'd LIKE such to be the case.

Thanks.
 
what was sickening was to see a bunch of - idiot extremist out on the road , shouting anti american slogan. and support this murder.

then they say America is weak country, infect can u imagine this stuff happening anywhere else?? people know their right and abuse them.

god bless the soul of these brave soldiers.

hope this never happens again.
 
Shooter shouted Allahu Akbar


Agencies
Email Author
Texas, November 06, 2009
First Published: 23:58 IST(6/11/2009)
Last Updated: 00:00 IST(7/11/2009)

Print



Witnesses heard the US army psychiatrist who killed 13 people in Texas shout “Allahu Akbar (God is greatest)” as he opened fire, the base commander said on Friday.

Born and reared in Virginia, the son of immigrant parents from a small Palestinian town near Jerusalem, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan joined the army right out of high school, against his parents’ wishes. The army, in turn, put him through college and then medical school, where he trained to be a psychiatrist.

But Maj. Hasan began having second thoughts about a military career a few years ago after other soldiers harassed him for being a Muslim, he told relatives in Virginia.
He had also more recently expressed deep concerns about being sent to Afghanistan.

“He was mortified by the idea of having to deploy,” his cousin, Nader Hasan, said. “He had people telling him on a daily basis the horrors they saw over there.”
Shooter shouted Allahu Akbar- Hindustan Times


Any truth in it ???
 
Shock and insecurity at Fort Hood

By Matthew Price
BBC News, Fort Hood, Texas



The community is trying to pull together in the face of such horror
Perhaps it is the children of Fort Hood - those old enough to understand - who are suffering the most.

One woman, who lives on the base, said her eight-year-old son came back from school the day after the shooting. Armed soldiers had been placed at the school gates and he was frightened.

His parents told him it was OK, that the soldiers were there to protect him.

"But wasn't the bad man a soldier?" he asked.

It's hard to correctly gauge the feeling on the base at the moment.

It is so huge it is almost impossible to get a proper idea of how people are coping.


You had gunshot victims everywhere, you had people trying to bring in ambulances - trying to triage, helping to secure the crime scene

Srg Andrew Hagerman, Fort Hood
The true agony, anguish and anger are hidden well away. Behind front doors, within tight-knit circles.

But those on the inside say it's sombre. That what they notice is the police - everywhere. A sense of shock.

'Like war zones'

It's not just the children who sense a loss of security.

The soldiers the military offered up for interview spoke of how the community had pulled together in the face of such horror.

"You had gunshot victims everywhere," said Sgt Andrew Hagerman. "You had people trying to bring in ambulances. Trying to triage. Helping to secure the crime scene."

Many soldiers said they treated it just like the war zones they had visited.

But this wasn't Iraq or Afghanistan. It was a protected US military base, home to more than 40,000 soldiers.

A place that was meant to be out of harm's way.

One of the nurses who helped the injured at the base hospital, Janet Di Palma, has a son-in-law in Iraq. She says she worries about him all the time.

As news of the shooting spread, though, the tables turned.

"He was calling yesterday, finding out all about us," Ms Di Palma said. "You start to wonder, what else could happen?"

Muslim fears

The answer to that may lie in a hospital room not far from the base. The room where Nidal Malik Hasan, the US-born Muslim major who is alleged to have killed so many, is breathing with help from a ventilator.



Maj Hasan is in stable condition in the intensive care unit
There is an unspoken question here: was he simply some disturbed individual, or was there something more sinister behind the shooting spree?

The answer to that will affect much.

Many Muslim Americans fear their religion may be blamed, either implicitly or explicitly, for the tragedy. That they may experience racism as a result.

As one Muslim American woman put it, voicing the thoughts of many: "I really hoped he wouldn't turn out to be a Muslim."


BBC NEWS | Americas | Shock and insecurity at Fort Hood
 
US gunman 'faced Afghan posting'

Col Dr Steven Braverman describes Major Nidal Malik Hasan and his work
A US major believed to have killed 13 people in a gun attack at a Texas army base was due to be deployed soon to Afghanistan, a military official said.

Maj Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, a US-born Muslim, opened fire on fellow soldiers at Fort Hood on Thursday.

Relatives of the army psychiatrist said he had strongly opposed his deployment and had wanted to leave the army.

US officials said investigations into what prompted the attack had continued through the night.

Early on Friday the commander of the Fort Hood base, Lt Gen Robert Cone, told NBC News that, according to eyewitnesses, the gunman had shouted the Arabic phrase "Allahu Akbar!" [God is great] before opening fire.

Military officials said 12 soldiers and one civilian had been killed.

MAJOR NIDAL MALIK HASAN

Born in US to Palestinian parents
Joined the army and trained to be a psychiatrist
Treated soldiers returning from combat zones
Described as a devout Muslim
Said to have been unhappy about imminent overseas deployment


Profile: Major Nidal Malik Hasan
Of the 28 people who remained in hospital, 14 had required surgery but all were in a stable condition, Col Dr Steven Braverman said.

Deputy base commander Col John Rossi declined to comment on what might have triggered the attack. "We'll let investigators find that out," he said.

Maj Hasan was shot four times during the attack and is currently being treated in hospital under armed guard.

The policewoman who shot him first - named as Kimberly Munley, 34 - was among those wounded.

President Barack Obama described the shooting as "a horrific outburst of violence".

He said: "It is difficult enough when we lose these brave Americans in battles overseas. It is horrifying that they should come under fire at an army base on American soil."

'Could have been worse'

The shooting began at about 1330 (1930 GMT) on Thursday at a personnel and medical centre at Fort Hood - the largest US military base in the world, home to about 40,000 troops.

In an e-mail to the BBC, a US soldier stationed at the base described the venue as a large, open room where hundreds of soldiers were queuing up to get their pre-deployment checklists signed off.


SHOOTINGS AT FORT HOOD

Shooting started at 1330 local time at Soldier Readiness Processing Center in Fort Hood, the world's largest US military base




Timeline: Fort Hood shootings
Reaction: US base shootings
In pictures: Fort Hood shootings
Gen Cone said a graduation ceremony for a group of soldiers was taking place nearby.

"Thanks to the quick reaction of several soldiers, they were able to close off the doors to that auditorium where there were some 600 people inside," he said.

"As horrible as this was, I think it could have been much worse."

A picture is beginning to emerge of the suspect, a psychiatrist who was transferred to the Texas base in July.

Reports suggested that he had been increasingly unhappy in the military and that his work at his previous post - Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington DC - had been the subject of concern.

The gunman's cousin Nader Hasan posted a message on the Washington Post website on behalf of the family.

"We are shocked and saddened by the terrible events at Fort Hood," it said. "We send the families of the victims our most heartfelt sympathies."

The cousin also told US media that Maj Hasan had been opposed to an imminent deployment overseas, describing it as his "worst nightmare".

He said that Maj Hasan had been battling racial harassment because of his "Middle Eastern ethnicity".


FROM BBC WORLD SERVICE


More from BBC World Service
Surveillance video showed he was wearing religious attire on the day of the shooting.

A fellow Fort Hood soldier told the BBC that the incident could put pressure on Muslim American soldiers.

"It kind of puts a negative light on them and makes people distrust them because everybody is going to look at them [and think]: 'Well, you're probably going to pull something like this'," the soldier said. "And it's a sad fact that that will happen."

The New York Times said the FBI had been investigating internet postings by a man called Nidal Hasan that appeared to back suicide bombings - but said it was not clear whether it was the suspect.

Texas Governor Rick Perry ordered all flags in the state to fly at half-mast as a tribute to the victims.

BBC NEWS | Americas | US gunman 'faced Afghan posting'
 
I'd read he was under orders to deploy not to Afghanistan but Iraq.

"It kind of puts a negative light on them and makes people distrust them because everybody is going to look at them [and think]: 'Well, you're probably going to pull something like this'," the soldier said. "And it's a sad fact that that [suspicion] will happen."

Some might.

Here's the comment made today by a U.S. Army major of infantry with a tour in Iraq commanding a rifle company whom I know-

"These are two isolated cases in a war that's been ongoing for 8 years. There will be investigations that look at every angle and facet of this case. More will emerge. Maybe the suicide bomber posting will turn out to be a false lead, maybe it will be confirmed. Jumping to conclusions will not help, and condemning an entire class of people will not help either. There are dozens of Muslims working as soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, most of whom bring language skills that are saving American soldiers' lives. Let's not create a tone that drives away other Muslim patriots seeking to serve their country, the United States, and in doing so, place other American soldiers' lives in jeopardy thanks to the bad example of this case."

You might weigh the speculation of possible suspicion as offered by one soldier against these comment offered by another.

Our government and its citizens won't pursue any policies of intimidation or overt abuse against any ethnic, religious, or racial group of American citizens. Can we control the thoughts of individuals? No. Can we assure all that discrimination and prejudice doesn't exist or won't be manifested from time to time? No again.

Could you or any others here do so either?

So life will go on and 10,000 muslim soldiers will continue to serve-no better nor worse than their comrade soldiers of other creeds and we'll deal with events as they occur and judge by the individual and not a group I hope.

I doubt anybody else anywhere else could promise any better were it them instead of us.
 
Why do these people have to take a **** where ever they go?If you don't like US Army just don't join it.This is like Fundamentalist joins Pakistan Army and then shoots Pakistan Army Soldiers because they are killing his mujahids (talibans).This is bad for Muslims who genuinely wants to join US Military as fellow soldiers will be careful before trusting a fellow Muslim US Soldier.
 
Fort Hood Shootings: Don’t Let Racism Hide Truth

RedBedHead

BY NOW EVERYBODY ON THE PLANET KNOWS about the killing of 12 people and wounding of 31 others at Fort Hood in Texas. There’s no doubt that this is a tragedy for the families and friends of the slain. But from a tragedy like this there will inevitably issue forth a second tragedy – the racist, anti-Muslim hysteria that will follow because the man – Major Nidal Malik Hasan – was from a Palestinian background. And that hysteria – already in evidence in online newspaper comments boxes – will obscure the real issues and the real reasons for this tragedy. Hiding from the truth will only ensure more tragedies like this in the future. So, let’s go through some of the truths.

1) The sheer racism involved in immediately speculating on the religion of the shooter. Back in May, an Army Sgt. stationed in Iraq and suffering from PTSD shot and killed five of his fellow soldiers. That man’s name – John Russell – was Anglo Saxon. Nobody speculated on the role of his religion in the killing. In this instance, as an article in the New York Times makes clear, Hasan, who joined the military out of patriotism, faced harassment for being Muslim and wanted out, even pursuing a failed legal route to early discharge. As a psychiatrist, he had counseled many returning vets who suffered PTSD. The combination of these two things apparently made him “mortified” at the prospect of being sent to Iraq or Afghanistan.

2) This racism also provides a cover for the fact that men and women trained to kill and who experience the brutality of enforcing occupations in Afghanistan and Iraq, suffer from mental breakdowns, suicides and commit murders at far higher rates than the general population. A 2007 CBS News investigation into military suicides found:

“Veterans aged 20 through 24, those who have served during the war on terror… had the highest suicide rate among all veterans, estimated between two and four times higher than civilians the same age. (The suicide rate for non-veterans is 8.3 per 100,000, while the rate for veterans was found to be between 22.9 and 31.9 per 100,000.)”

And according to an article in the Washington Post, based in part upon an investigation by the Colorado Springs Newspaper, the rate of homicides amongst veterans from the Fourth Infantry Division’s Fourth Brigade were 114 times higher than the rate amongst the general population in Colorado Springs, where they are stationed stateside.

“During their deployment, some soldiers killed civilians at random — in some cases at point-blank range — used banned stun guns on captives, pushed people off bridges, loaded weapons with illegal hollow-point bullets, abused drugs and occasionally mutilated the bodies of Iraqis, according to accounts the Gazette attributed to soldiers who said they witnessed the events.”

Another study by the New York Times found that at least 120 people had been killed by returning vets. However, the Times itself assumes that this is a conservative number since it was reached only by looking at newspaper reports and it only includes active-duty soldiers and new veterans. The CBS survey used government statistics.

3) The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have led to the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of innocents and the destruction of infrastructure and social networks that will take generations to repair. The media and government are utter, utter hypocrites to condemn these murders while taking no note – or reporting as simply normal operation procedure – the families slaughtered wholesale by US drones that fire missiles at wedding and funeral parties, into Pakistani villages. In Afghanistan alone there have been an estimated 8,400 – 28,000 direct and indirect civilian deaths caused by ISAF and US forces.

4) Mass murder has become as American as apple pie with dozens killed in spree murders this year alone. What is it about American society that brings about such a large number of these types of violent acts? The roots have to be found in the fact that America is the world’s biggest, most violent empire, whose means of domination and largest single budget outlay goes towards the military. This year alone the military will take up to $700 billion directly with more indirectly through military aid to countries such as Israel and Colombia. This is a country jacked on violence. America, as the wealthiest nation on earth, also had the third highest levels of inequality and poverty in a study by the OECD released in 2008. The only two countries above the US were Turkey and Mexico. The combination of poverty and glorified violence, in the shadow of historically unprecedented levels of wealth creation is key to understanding the prevalence of violence in America.

There is a danger that in the days following the Fort Hood shootings, the right and the media will whip up terrible racism. Arguing wherever possible the real reasons for this terrible act will be an important part of the ideological struggle to maintain the momentum of opposition to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. We mustn’t allow the truth to drown in a sea of racist fil*h.
 
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