Here is a very brief roundup of what people on the forums are saying about the Ft Hood massacre.
- Compared to the English-language jihadi forums, there is little discussion of the Ft. Hood attacks on the top-tier Arabic jihadi forums. When there is comment, it is driven by U.S. press reports.
- On Faloja, no one believes there are direct ties between the attacker and al-Qaida. It was either an individual act of conscience brought on by Muslim suffering or someone who had been ideologically influenced by AQ.
- Posters on Shumukh agree. If AQ were behind the attack, it would have been more spectacular. Other posters posit more individual attacks as American troops tire of the war.
- Anwar al-Awlaki, the cleric with whom Hasan had some contact, is not well known on the Arabic forums. For example, this reference to him relies on U.S. reporting and his English-language sermons. However, he is a very big deal in the English-language jihadisphere. Awlaki’s blog is part of the same cluster of blogs that includes Ignored Puzzle Pieces of Knowledge and Iskandari, whose author, Tarek Mehanna, was arrested by U.S. authorities several weeks ago.
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I am surprised that only a few have prosed that Nidal Hasan might have self-medicated himself into a psychotic episode that caused him to go postal: Fort Hood and Self-Medication.
BTW, I ran into Tarek Mehanna at the State House on Muslim lobby day a few years ago. It simply does not seem like the sort of activity in which a blood-thirsty jihadist would engage.
Rational analysis of material coming out of Boston must take into account the presence of extremist racist Jewish Zionists that are busily fabricating Islamic jihadist conspiracies as part of an explicit program of demonizing and marginalizing American Muslims so that they cannot take part effectively in the American political process and thereby have an effect on ME foreign policy: Aafia Siddiqui and “Islamist Threat”.
While there may be no direct links between Hasan and Al-Qaida, the episode at Fort Hood does not negate the threat AQ poses. Hasan’s act of terrorism is a reflection of how Islamic fundamentalism propagated by AQ and the like can take root in individuals who have no direct contact with it. If anything, it is the small scale outbreaks like Hasan’s that are potentially most dangerous because they are so easy to go undetected.
Hasan might be an isolated case but there are small sects of Muslims within America and Britain that sympathize with Osama Bin Laden and demand that Shariah law be enacted. Are these cases symptomatic of a resilient AQ, not in terms of organizational reach, but in terms of ideology?
Like many racist Islamophobic Zionist masbirim Jason attempts to conflate piety with extremism.
A reasonable framework for analysing terrorism should be rationally applicable to Jewish Zionist and Jewish Bolshevik terrorism since the late 19th and early 20th century.
By any reasonable standard the IDF routinely engages in terrorism as the Goldstone Report makes clear.
On the whole when I compare the Zionist terrorist literature with that of Arab Jihadists, I find far more in the way of qualms about harming noncombatants among Arab Jihadists than I do among Zionists, who draw on centuries of Jewish anti-Gentile hostility.
In addition while some Jewish Zionist terrorists claim to act from religious motivation, Jewish Zionist terrorists more often act out of ethnic fundamentalism or ethnic monism.
Arab Jihadist terrorists may have more similarity to historical Jewish Bolshevist terrorists, who claimed to act to for political and economic justice in accord with the historical dialectic, which is a sort of God-substitute.
Here are some relevant blog entries:
Comparing Psychosis: Hasan, Media, Nation.
Jewish Peril 1933 verus 2009
[Truthdig] Israel’s Toy Soldiers
Like many racist Islamophobic Zionist masbirim Jason attempts to conflate piety with extremism.
A reasonable framework for analysing terrorism should be rationally applicable to Jewish Zionist and Jewish Bolshevik terrorism since the late 19th and early 20th century.
By any reasonable standard the IDF routinely engages in terrorism as the Goldstone Report makes clear.
On the whole when I compare the Zionist terrorist literature with that of Arab Jihadists, I find far more in the way of qualms about harming noncombatants among Arab Jihadists than I do among Zionists, who draw on centuries of Jewish anti-Gentile hostility.
In addition while some Jewish Zionist terrorists claim to act from religious motivation, Jewish Zionist terrorists more often act out of ethnic fundamentalism or ethnic monism.
Arab Jihadist terrorists may have more similarity to historical Jewish Bolshevist terrorists, who claimed to act to for political and economic justice in accord with the historical dialectic, which is a sort of God-substitute.
Here is a relevant blog entry: Comparing Psychosis: Hasan, Media, Nation.
I briefly discuss Jewish Bolshevik terrorism in Jewish Peril 1933 Versus 2009.
The title is purposefully shocking because I know that discussing Jewish conspiracy or the Judeo-Bolshevik menace is verboten and that doing so in some parts of Europe may result in jail time, but I have looked at a lot of the historical materials that became available with the collapse of the Soviet material.
Judeo-Bolshevism was at least as real in the first half of twentieth century and as threatening then as Arab Jihadism is today.
Arab Jihadism enmeshment may be understood by analyzing Jewish Zionist American attitudes to IDF service: [truthdig] Israel’s today soldiers.
Facebook accounts of Jewish Zionists that have served in the IDF often indicate desire to brutalize or to slaughter Palestinians.
I’m not confusing religious piety with extremism. Look at Anjem Chaudary for instance, do you consider him pious? He inspires a sizable following in the UK, all it takes is for some or even one of his followers to plan an attack for it to go undetected. I’m not arguing that every fundamentalist has concrete links to AQ; I’m saying that we should not downplay such influences.
And believe it or not, I’m hardly an Islamophobe. I grew up in Singapore, a tiny island country right smack in the middle of two Muslim countries, Malaysia and Indonesia. I grew up with Muslim friends and I know some people who study in Madrassahs. I’ve spoken with many of them about their faith, and trust me, I can differentiate religious piety from extremism. Piety is when my friends follow the Ramadan, abstains from alcohol and pork, and go on the Haj BECAUSE he believes the Qu’ran and wants to consecrate himself for God. I respect that totally. Extremism is when a group of people calling themselves Muslims tries to blow up a train station near an army base just two blocks from where I live. (This really happened, but the terrorist cell was caught).
Jason
All I can say is WELL SAID!
I did not claim that extremism and piety are completely disjunct categories. Here is a recent Jewish example of the overlap: West Bank rabbi: Jews can kill Gentiles who threaten Israel.
I have yet to obtain a copy of the book, which may be somewhat misrepresented. The description suggests that Shapiro is directly contradicting the halakhot of war as described in the Mishneh Torah of Maimonides.
There may be an element of hucksterism in the cases of Shapiro and Choudary.
Shapiro seems to have a solider grounding in traditional Jewish Talmudic scholarship than Choudary in usul al-fiqh.
I have put up clips from Yeshayahu Leibowitz and Talal Asad. The videosegments discuss the relationship of religion and politics. They can be viewed at Yeshayahu Leibowitz versus Talal Asad.
I make a comment in Relentless anti-Westernism vs Relentless anti-Islamism that may help elucidate the apparent disaffection of people like Hasan or Choudary:
For example I have reliable information that an elderly wealthy Jewish Zionist heiress in California is funding Geert Wilders because she believes that as Dutch Prime Minister he would be the most likely to expel or to kill the Dutch Muslim population.
If a cabal of hyperwealthy Jews and Jewish intelligentsia seemed to be orchestrating
(1) the incineration of one Catholic country after another,
(2) the arrest and conviction of Catholic American leaders in political trials on trumped up or bogus charges, and
(3) a worldwide campaign of anti-Catholic incitement
Catholic military men might react badly to deployment to destroy a Catholic country while Catholic preachers might express completely understandable hostility both to the Jewish dominated political regime and to the organized Jewish community.
Joachim, I don’t know what your agenda is. But your ranting shows either a belief in or cynical desire to advance some spectacularly paranoid anti-jewish fiction. If you believe it, I suggest you seek appropriate educational or medical attention. If you are just advancing this crap, you are helping to insure a continued state of war between israel and its islamic neighbor countries.
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