It is strange. I have a pretty good memory, but I can’t seem to remember the religion of the students who perpetrated the Columbine High School massacre. Nor, for that matter, can I recall the religion of the young man who killed 31 people, and then himself, at Virginia Tech in 2007.
But, there was Sean Hannity last night asking an army officer, who knew the alleged shooter in yesterday’s killing spree at Fort Hood, Dr. Nidal M. Hasan, whether Hasan was a devout Muslim or not. I had gone to bed expecting to call this morning’s blogpost, "Hannity is a Pig." Then, this morning, the front page of the Washington Post has a headline "Suspect, devout Muslim from Va., wanted Army discharge, aunt said." Just imagine reading such a headline, say, about an IRA terrorist twenty years ago with the phrase "devout Catholic." Or imagine reading that Timothy McVeigh, who bombed the federal building in Oklahoma City, was a "devout Christian."
I am not naïve. I am aware that there are fanatical Islamicist forces bent on destroying America. I know that the Taliban and the Al-Queda hate Americans not for what we do but for who we are, because we cherish freedom we do not fear it, because we consider women equal, because we do not care whether a woman’s head is covered or a man’s beard is shaven, because we embrace science and humanism and the arts. Yes, we are at war and it will be a long war and there are times when I get frustrated with my fellow liberals for failing to appreciate the tenacity of our enemy or the stakes at issue. But, Dr. Hasan worshipped in Silver Spring, Maryland not in Saudi Arabia. He grew up in Virginia not Yemen. He was already in the U.S. Army when terrorists struck lower Manhattan on September 11, 2001. If he was "devout," then I would imagine that his devotion makes his alleged murderous act more difficult to explain, not less.
And SHAME on the Washington Post. In a courtroom, the admission of evidence is considered in terms of its prejudicial value. Some evidence is barred because while it might help a jury reach an accurate conclusion, something about that evidence is more likely to inflame the jury in such a way as to prevent them from assessing its evidentiary value. Lord knows (and Lord Blackstone knows) that the evidentiary rules of the court should not apply to the press. But, to put this piece of information about Dr. Hasan’s religion in the headline implies some connection between that information and the rampage yesterday, a connection that is simply not in evidence in the article that follows. Yes, we are told that he "endured some name-calling and harassment about his Muslim faith" but we don’t know whether he was harassed yesterday, do we? And why, eight years after the terrorist attacks of September 11, did he snap now? Has the harassment of Muslim members of the military gotten worse in the ensuing eight years?
No one ever completely grasps what motivated someone to commit an act of evil. I suspect Hasan’s murderous rampage yesterday had more to do with his impending deployment to Iraq and that, as a psychiatrist treating those who come back shattered from their tour of duty, he had many visceral reasons to not want to go. I can see how the military’s recruiting efforts – "Be All You Can Be" and the free college and medical school – lull a soldier into forgetting that the military is not there to provide education and personal fulfillment but to kill enemies, and that the reminder of this primary military mission took its toll on someone who, like most psychiatrists, has the occupational hazard of empathy with the human condition.
The aftermath of a mass killing is no time for political correctness. If it turns out that Dr. Hasan was motivated by extremist impulses that were rooted in his religious sensibilities, let us have the evidence and consider its consequences. But, we do not have such evidence today. The editors of the Post and Mr. Hannity should both do penance in front of the mosque in Silver Spring where Dr. Hasan worshipped. Those who worship there are entitled to the presumption that their faith is devout not fanatical, until someone proves otherwise.
There are plenty of Muslims in the military and we have had only one or two other military shootings that have to do with this association. Maybe if the US Army were attacking Rome, we might find a lot of Catholics willing to shoot their superiors and fellow soldiers in an act of frustration or even as a strategic move to stop the attack. There has been a lot of frustration with our two recent presidents and we see little other than fantasy that has been acted upon. Most are able to handle their frustrations. A very small few obviously cannot. What did the Army recognize in Major Hasan prior to yesterday? Was it acted upon and if not, why not? I personally would be interested in this last question.
Just as an aside and relevant to the comment made in Mr. Winter's first paragraph. The motivation for the Columbine murders did not have anything to do with a formal religion but I bet if it did, it would have been splashed all over the news rooms of this country. Especially if it had roots in a conservative Protestant religion or Catholicism. That fits the world view of the the left who dominate the news rooms and especially the editorial positions. What apparently motivated the Columbine shooters was a nihilism that pervades much of our current society and is rooted in an atheistic ideology. The shooters at Columbine had intense fascination with Darwin and natural selection. Now most who have a similar ideology don't act out as the Columbine shooters did.
But I doubt you will find few in the newsrooms in this country who would be willing to take on this association with Darwin so it was not widely circulated in the news stories about the event. It does not fit the world view of the news rooms. Since the teaching of Darwin's ideas are an essential part of the current curriculum and little dissent is allowed to this teaching, following the search for the causes of the Columbine shootings to their roots was probably not considered desirable. The shooters were deranged probably due to many causes but examining all of them would bring up this undesirable connection. So it is easy to see how certain connections do not make it to many news stories while others do. What are the world views of those writing the stories and how can they spin it.
I suppose it's possible that the reports of his crying ''Allahu Akbar'' before the shootings may turn out - like the reports of his death - to be incorrect. But news following events like this tends to be fragmented and provisional. I wouldn't want to draw any conclusions, but based on the scant evidence so far, the incident seems to be the act of one very troubled person who, strictly speaking, was not a terrorist, but whose actions seem to have been influenced by authentic acts of terrorism and cannot be entirely understood apart from them.
And if a relative makes a statement that he was a devout Muslim and wanted to avoid being deployed to Afghanistan, is the Post supposed to use the part about him not wanting to be deployed and suppress the part about his religion?
I believe Eric Harris wore a shirt that had two words on it the day of the Columbine shooting. Those words were ''Natural Selection'' and I believe there were writings and audio that expressed natural selection as a basis of what they planned to do. The fact that you do not know this supports my comment. It certainly wasn't the only thing but my point was that it was not discussed and if it there had been a religious connection, you can bet there would be no end of it.
As far as an agenda, I am a practicing Catholic educated by the Jesuits, Christian Brothers and more than one order of nuns, and this is what drives my view of the world. As such I try to decide for myself what is true and not try to spin it. I find nearly every opinion by Mr. Winters laced with spin and this is the first time I commented on what he has written. Some are over the top.
You are right that "people kill people" as the NRA knows so well BUT people have motives such as stess, fear, hopelessness, depression and yes religion. I think that you have to live in a cave to not have had some emotional and intellectual curiosity as to whether radical islam ideology was a factor in this tragedy.
Now someone who kills a bunch of people while shouting allahu akbar you just might think there was some religious component there. For someone who was posting on sites in favor of Islamic suicide terrorism and who listed his country as Palestine, you just might think that was a factor.
The challenge here is not to blame MSW but to figure out why this tragedy happened and how it can be prevented. This is what the Secretary of the Army Mr. McHugh said today: "We have to understand what caused that suspect to act in the way in which he did," so that such attacks can be prevented in the future (as reported in the Washington Post). What drove this man to such extreme behavior is the issue. Possibly some deep psychological wound against his sense of identity as well as a feeling of victimization related to the impending deployment to the Muslim world. If the evidence confirms this, it's the classical paranoid mind. Paranoia is latent among many human beings, sometimes the symptoms are discernible, but fortunately very few conduct massacres.
When I first heard the still sketchy news about the Fort Hood shootings, my immediate thought was that the shooter was a member of the U.S. military. Someone stressed, fearful and hopeless who had become homicidal and suicidal.
Decades ago, my best friend married a wonderful, intelligent and upbeat guy who went off to Vietnam to serve as a medic. He came back violent and abusive.
Religion doesn't kill people. People kill people. (Come on now. This works so well for the NRA.)
And that you were planning on using this title without thought to the nature of your blog host says a lot about you.
I know America employs you to be provocative, but often your comments are so nasty and unwarranted that it reflects badly on the magazine.
This is why many of us prefer to get our liberal Catholic fix over at Commonweal. I like articles that make me think, not wince.