There is much speculation going on about the Ft. Hood shooting. The latest report says that soldiers heard the shooter, Major Hasan, yell "Allahu Akbar!" before he started firing. There are basically three possibilities, none of which has been ruled out.
1. Hasan was just a lone maniac who happened to be a Muslim. This would fall under the nuts do crazy things category, that is often the best explanation for murderous rampages.
2. Hasan's actions were motivated by his religious beliefs. For example, he might have felt that the U.S. wars in the Middle East were wars against Islam, or had other religious-based beliefs that motivated him to carry out the shooting. From what I have seen, there may be some evidence supporting this scenario.
3. And finally, Hasan might have had actual connections with radical Islamists. So far I've seen no evidence this was the case.
Since Hasan is alive and in custody, not killed in a shoot-out as originally reported, an investigation should be able to uncover the details and find which of these three scenarios applies.
I think that number 1 is probably likely, but for what it's worth number 2 is looking possible. I'm happy to read your post on the subject, however, because you're the first person not to go nuts over the Muslim issue. Thank you for being sane.
ReplyDeleteOr even some combination of 1 & 2. People who are disturbed, often seem to act basd partly on religious motivations, and if not on motivations that are religious-like in intensity. I may be wrong, but I can't think of a good example where some atheist went on this type of rampage.
ReplyDeleteBut even if Hasan did act based on his religious beliefs, that's no reflection on Muslims as a whole. There are millions of Muslims in the U.S. being good citizens and not going on murderous shooting sprees.
It's sad that he could have easily found a religious text to justify his insane murderous rampage. Could he have found it in the Bible as well as the Koran?
ReplyDeleteUNRR - do not be surprised if a crazy atheist can also find justification for murder in religious texts. When one is crazy, nothing really has to make sense. And atheism is not a barrier to being a nutcase.