Cultural Enrichment Comes to Ft. Hood

Before you jump all over me: yes, I know that the deadly incident at Ft. Hood today might not be an incident of cultural enrichment. Major Nadal Malik Hasan (or Nidal Malik Hasan, or Malik Nidal Hasan, or Malik Nadal Hasan, depending on which news story you read) may actually have been angry about being redeployed to Iraq.

Or maybe he got up on the wrong side of bed this morning.

In any case, as Mark Steyn has often pointed out, there’s a noticeable trend in America these days: whenever an indiscriminate mass shooting occurs, there’s a better than even chance that the perp will have a Muslim name.

Just a coincidence, you know. Nothing to do with Islam, which never condones acts of violence.

Before he was killed, Maj. Hasan killed eleven people and wounded at least thirty. The deceased murderer was an army psychiatrist, and was born in (sigh) Virginia. Here’s his photo, and this photo may also include Maj. Hasan, although I’m not certain. His ethnicity isn’t evident, so there’s no telling whether any Muslim tendencies he might have had came to him naturally, or whether he reverted to Islam.

As far as I can tell the media are not using the M-word yet. It’s not included in this FOX news report (nor, in fact, is the dead shooter’s name):


The information in most of the media articles is tantalizingly sketchy. Here’s one report from News Channel 10, and this account from The Beaumont Enterprise has more detail than most.

Maj. Hasan is listed in a Washington D.C. doctors’ database, and appears appropriately enough at the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress (the CSTS server is evidently taking a lot of hits, and is down right now).

This Stars and Stripes tweet says that “Shooter Maj Malik Hasan’s unit was Darnall Army Medical Center.”

Vlad Tepes is watching TV so that I don’t have to. He reports that the Ft. Hood base commander was scheduled to speak at a press conference, but at the last moment his appearance was canceled.

Vlad also says that a general was on TV talking about an “ideology which overcame Maj. Hasan’s loyalty”.

What ideology might that have been?
- - - - - - - - -
Marxism?

Zoroastrianism?

Scientology?

Please don’t keep us guessing, sir!

One final indication: if Maj. Hasan was not a Muslim, why did CAIR feel compelled to issue a press release very, very quickly after the incident?

U.S. Muslims Condemn Attack at Fort Hood

Posted 11/5/2009 6:15:00 PM

(WASHINGTON, D.C., 11/5/09) — A prominent national Muslim civil rights and advocacy group tonight condemned an attack on Fort Hood military base in Texas that left at least 12 people dead.

In a statement, the Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said:

“We condemn this cowardly attack in the strongest terms possible and ask that the perpetrators be punished to the full extent of the law. No religious or political ideology could ever justify or excuse such wanton and indiscriminate violence. The attack was particularly heinous in that it targeted the all-volunteer army that protects our nation. American Muslims stand with our fellow citizens in offering both prayers for the victims and sincere condolences to the families of those killed or injured.”

Along with innumerable condemnations of terror, CAIR has in the past launched an online anti-terror petition drive called “Not in the Name of Islam,” initiated a television public service announcement (PSA) campaign against religious extremism and coordinated a “fatwa,” or Islamic religious ruling, against terrorism and extremism.

As I write this, CAIR is conducting a press conference about the Ft. Hood incident. There’s no word yet about what is being said.

A second suspect was captured at a golf course and is now in custody. If his name turns out to be Mohammed or Ahmed or Walid, you can bet that the news of it will be kept quiet for as long as possible.

After all, we wouldn’t want people to think that the army was engaged in “profiling”, now, would we?