The horrific incident at Fort Hood, Texas, should come as a wake up call to all those in the American academia who promote identity based politics:Gays, lesbians, minority, sexual preference, etc etc. Now the Muslim identity is becoming increasingly problematic in the USA and I believe that years and years of promoting identity politics has left the country without the means of even admitting to itself that the islamic identity clashes head long with that of a secular nation state.
This was a classical case of a member of a minority doing exactly what people say this minority is prone to doing.
Homosexuals and blacks have been mistreated in the US far worse than Muslims. But they are not known for running around and murdering people because of it. And prejudices against homosexuals and blacks are not based on what they actually do.
Prejudices against Muslims are based on what many, many self-proclaimed Muslims do.
The three major prejudices against Muslims I know if are "Muslims are anti-Semitic", "Muslims mistreat their women", and "Muslims celebrate their religion by murdering people". And guess what? For a large number that is exactly true.
The US media is already concluding that Major Hassan's crime does in no way reflect upon the patriotism of the Muslim-American population. May be so. My point is that the growing alienation of the Muslims from the mainstream of western collective life is contibuting to the sense of unease and the killings in Fort Hood stems from that feeling of unease.
On the contrary, I find that Hassan's crime creates a feeling of unease for non-Muslims.
I don't know how alienated Muslims feel from western society and how much of that has to do with the fact that many don't integrate. But I do know that they don't feel much unease, sine they hardly try to hide the fact that they are Muslims.
I am constantly told, by European liberals, that Muslims in Europe face discrimination and that they fear being singled out for violent attacks. But violent attacks against Jews in Europe are four times as likely as violent attacks against Muslims, and while many Jews do not advertisde the fact that they are Jewish on the street, I see thousands of Muslims on the streets in Europe who are obviously Muslims and do not seem to fear the fact that everybody around them sees it. How afraid and alienated can they really be?
Let me at the very out set condemn in the strongest possible manner the violence against the armymen and women at Fort Hood. My point is not to justify the crime but to say why it happened.
We know why it happened: the man is a terrorist.
It is true that these things can be avoided by giving in to their demands and doing what they want. But giving in to violence is wrong. Remember the homosexuals you mentioned? And the blacks I mentioned? For their sake we cannot give in to the terrorists. Because after the Jews they are numbers 2 and 3 on their list.
Finally, it would be a good idea not to deploy Muslims in the Army to serve in Irq and Afghanistan as they would have to fight fellow muslims. Secularists may not understand this, but practicing Muslims put faith above politics and the State.
In that case there is something wrong with the Muslim.
Many Muslims serve in the Israeli army. They fight for the Jewish state and they are proud of it. They are also among the best soldiers Israel has. In fact one of the top three Israeli war heroes is a Muslim.
The only thing Islam has to do with not fighting for one's country is the fact that it offers an excuse people in the west will believe. We in the west have been taught that Muslims do and don't do all sorts of weird things and these days the word "Muslim" is anough to explain or excuse absolutely anything.
The fact is that Muslims never ever had a problem killing other Muslims for politics. Iraqi Muslims did not worry about the fact that they killed Iranian Muslims when the _secular_ Iraqi government decided to attack Iran. Nor did Iraqi Muslims worry about Kuwaiti Muslims when Saddam decided to invade Kuwait. (Note that some Iraqi Muslims did have a problem with killing people. But those same Iraqi Muslims also had a problem with killing non-Muslims. You can find them in Kurdistan.)
There is a civil war between Muslims in Yemen.
There is a genocide perpetrated by Arabs against _Muslim_ Africans in Darfur.
Everywhere in the world the combination of Muslims killing other Muslims for politics is the most common piece in the Lego set that makes up wars.
Secularists like Saddam Hussein understood very well that Muslims will do absolutely everything for politics. Muslims follow their leader, regardless of who he is and what he wants. Even Hitler famously noticed that attribute of followrs if Islam.
I think what the US and the US military need is a stronger leadership. Muslim culture rewards strong leadership.
