Major Nidal Malik Hasan

U.S. Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, killed 13 people and wounded dozens more when he opened fire at Fort Hood. Given the misinformation flooding the airwaves yesterday, I waited before adding him to the list. Even today, his actions look more like simple mental imbalance than traditional terrorism. Another aggravating factor that has been reported was his imminent deployment overseas.

Nevertheless, there is mounting evidence that, at minimum, Hasan dressed his imbalance in the garb of religious ideology, and so his story is relevant here.

CNN obtains surveillance video of Hasan at nearby store

Reports: Hasan shouted 'Allahu Akbar' during attack

AP: Hasan defended suicide bombers in online postings

AP: Troubling portrait emerges of Fort Hood suspect

Washington Post profile of Hasan

WaPost: Hasan attended Muslim Community Center mosque in Silver Spring

UPDATE: Here's an excerpt from a Web posting believed to be written by Hasan:

There was a grenade thrown amongs a group of American soldiers. One of the soldiers, feeling that it was to late for everyone to flee jumped on the grave with the intention of saving his comrades. Indeed he saved them. He inentionally took his life (suicide) for a noble cause i.e. saving the lives of his soldier. To say that this soldier committed suicide is inappropriate. Its more appropriate to say he is a brave hero that sacrificed his life for a more noble cause. Scholars have paralled this to suicide bombers whose intention, by sacrificing their lives, is to help save Muslims by killing enemy soldiers. If one suicide bomber can kill 100 enemy soldiers because they were caught off guard that would be considered a strategic victory. Their intention is not to die because of some despair. The same can be said for the Kamikazees in Japan. They died (via crashing their planes into ships) to kill the enemies for the homeland. You can call them crazy i you want but their act was not one of suicide that is despised by Islam. So the scholars main point is that "IT SEEMS AS THOUGH YOUR INTENTION IS THE MAIN ISSUE" and Allah (SWT) knows best.

Update 2:56 p.m. EST: More details here...

Labels: American-Jihadists, Nidal-Malik-Hasan

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