Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Fort Hood: The killer is a Muslim!

Let's be clear about this. Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the psychiatrist-turned-wacko who is accused of murdering over a dozen people (and counting) in the Fort Hood massacre is a Muslim. This is not an incidental fact. The man's religion clearly informed his actions. As he opened fire he yelled "Allahu akbar!"

We must not ignore this fact in coming to grips with what happened. Before he launched his attack on his comrades, Major Hasan visited radical Islamist websites and chatted approvingly of suicide bombers. Video of him roaming a convenience store in traditional Arab garb, days after having told the store clerk he didn't want to fight fellow Muslims, offers another reason to reflect on the role of religious affinity.

This is the opinion of Irshad Manji, a scholar with New York University and the European Foundation for Democracy and author of The Trouble with Islam Today. "While we should be careful not to reduce the story to Islam, let us be equally alert not to erase Islam altogether. Understanding is served by analyzing, not sanitizing."

You can read her thoughts, as published in today's Globe and Mail, by clicking here.

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