A Muslim soldier, Nidal Hasan, shot dead 12 soldiers and a civilian at Fort Hood on Thursday, shouting the Muslim expression "Allahu Akbar." But in an absurd display of political correctness, media reports barely mentioned the religion angle, choosing instead to highlight the fact that the killer was an "army psychiatrist" or the false claim that he was a veteran with PTSD (which he wasn't: he never even served overseas). Oh, those violent psychiatrists!
The killer had previously said that Muslims should rise up against the military, "repeatedly expressed sympathy for suicide bombers," was pleased by the terrorist murder of an army recruiter, and engaged in hate-speech against non-Muslims, publicly calling for the beheading or burning of non-Muslims, and talking "about how if you’re a nonbeliever the Koran says you should have your head cut off, you should have oil poured down your throat, you should be set on fire." But nothing was done to remove him from a position where he could harm others. Although his views were common knowledge, "a fear of appearing discriminatory . . . kept officers from filing a formal written complaint," the Associated Press noted. Moreover, “a key official on a review committee reportedly asked how it might look to terminate a key resident who happened to be a Muslim," notes NPR.
Intelligence officials knew he was trying to contact Al Qaeda, reports ABC News today. The killer used to pray with some of the 9/11 terrorists, reports the London Telegraph.
The military is not like the outside world. In the civilian world, hate speech, and often even incitement to commit violence, are protected speech under the First Amendment (under Supreme Court decisions like R.A.V. v. St. Paul, Brandenburg v. Ohio, and Forsyth County v. Nationalist Movement, and appeals court decisions like Dambrot v. Central Michigan University).
But in the military, soldiers get punished for bigotry all the time -- except for this guy. The courts have held that hate-speech or speech that "discriminatorily harasses" others can generally be criminally punished in the military, unlike in the outside world, and accordingly, white supremacists get disciplined for their views. (So, too, do soldiers who express disloyalty to their country or merely contempt for their Commander in Chief. Rooting for the death of your fellow soldiers is obviously not protected speech.) But not this soldier, who was more dangerous than your typical white supremacist.
In court cases like Goldman v. Weinberger and Brown v. Glines, the Supreme Court has said that soldiers have less free speech rights, and less freedom of religion, than in the civilian world. The military cites this all the time when it wants to punish soldiers for bigotry, like the soldier who was punished for a sexist insult about liberal Congresswoman Pat Schroeder (D-Colo.) in the aftermath of the Tailhook Scandal. (The Air Force Court of Appeals did overturn one military "harassment" regulation as too vague, in an unpublished ruling, but it held that such bigoted speech could be banned under a clearer regulation, and most such regulations have been upheld).
But the military did not apply not apply its standard policy against seditious, bigoted hate-speech to this soldier, perhaps because political correctness exempts Muslims from the rules that members of other religions have to follow, in the eyes of the liberal Obama Administration officials and lawmakers to whom the military is accountable.
Even if his anti-American hate speech had been protected speech in the sense of not being punishable, the speech would still be circumstantial evidence of unfitness for his position working with injured American veterans, warranting his departure from the military for a more appropriate line of work.
Obama could barely bring himself to mention the tragedy, much less express sympathy for the victims, in his initial remarks about it Thursday, in which he buried any expression of sympathy in the middle of a speech filled with "wildly disconnected" ramblings about an unrelated topic, starting with a "joking shout-out." Even for liberal journalists, President Obama's initial response to the tragedy was embarrassing. Even the liberal Boston Globe, which endorsed Obama in 2008, chided the President for a speech lacking in "empathy" for the victims.
Despite the shooter's open hatred towards America, the military, and America's non-Muslim majority, Obama still insists that the shooter's motive for the killings is unknown.
I am not arguing for a ban on Muslims in the military. The military has a critical shortage of , and need for, translators who speak languages like Pashto (spoken in Afghanistan), Urdu (spoken in Pakistan) and Arabic. These translators are often Muslim, and they should be welcome in the military. But neither should the military exempt Muslims from the rules of conduct imposed on soldiers of other religions. That is an insult to the principle of equality under the law.
Another factor in the tragedy, say critics of the Obama Administration, is a gun-control policy that disarms soldiers while on military bases to create “gun-free zones,” leaving them defenseless in the face of an attack. The policy succeeded in disarming the killer's victims, but not the killer himself.
Even after the killer's religious motive for the shootings became obvious, many liberal commentators, like The Atlantic's Max Fisher, were quick to deny it and jump to the opposite conclusion. Fisher lectured his readers that the killer "appears to not have been motivated by his Muslim religion, his Palestinian heritage . . . or any related political causes," and falsely suggested that those pointing to contrary evidence were "Islamophobic."
In an absurd display of political correctness, early media reports chose to harp on the unsupported claim that the killer had been subjected to harassment (support groups for Muslim soldiers say they have received no reports of Muslim soldiers being harassed). Anything to divert attention away from the disturbing truth about his motives.
BREAKING NEWS, November 7:
The House passed a massive health-care bill just before midnight. It will raise taxes, increase state and federal budget deficits, raise insurance premiums, reduce medical innovation, and break Obama's campaign pledges about not raising taxes on the middle class.
Comments
You have a lot to say about what the military did or did not do ...why don't you get your facts in order before you throw blame on the military. The military is not responsible for his actions he is. Why not spend your time mourning those we have lost instead of pointing fingers. I care more about my lost battle buddies, at the end of the day we are all responsible for our own actions. You are not in the military, stationed at Fort Hood, and you are not in his unit you have no idea what they may or may not have done or tried to do.
This article makes some good points, but the author really should reconsider the content of the fourth-to-last paragraph, which contains assertions that seem premature or speculative.
Reader, your point is well-taken. I have revised that paragraph a bit. Thank you for your constructive criticism.
"...PERHAPS because political correctness exempts Muslims from the rules that members of other religions have to follow"
Perhaps, eh? In other words, it's a possibility and not fact, eh? Well, sorry to bust your bubble (actually, I'm not), but that's not the case, no one is exempted from any rules, and the facts of the case weren't even five minutes old before this wave of right-wing loudmouths started doing their whole Muslim Bogeyman thing. However this unfolds, you are no better than those you're crying about. And it's not political correctness to say that. Its just correct.
This is yet more evidence that Obama is a socialist Muslim.
This sciolistic article attempts to judge a tragedy barely two days old, written by a hack more in tuned with DC than what it takes to ship out. Instead of playng Glenn Beck and judging what you cannot understand until you make the same sacrifice, giving up your rights to serve your fellow man, it's best to keep on your SCOTUS beat and leave being a man to those that can.
This is more proof that Obama is a socialist Muslim.
Of course the emphasis would be on the fact that he was an Army psychiatrist -- any reporter would know that. Because that's a very compelling and shocking fact; here's someone who is counseling soldiers and he opens fire! Wow! This certainly doesn't happen every day. The fact that he is Muslim, Jewish, German or other is secondary.
I feel the solution would have been to let this man leave the military if they knew he was writing this kind of hatred, but I read they weren't sure he did that.
Your article has more hate and bigotry in it (especially for Obama) that you probably realize. Plus, you seem to know very little about the military. Why don't YOU serve?
How on God's green earth do you know what the hell he said before the massacre. They are still investigating the case. I am an Examiner too and know we get paid for how many hits we get, but this is terrible yellow journalism.
Maybe you could read the links to press accounts and other sources in the above commentary "I'm with U.S. soldier."
Frankly, I doubt "U.S. soldier" is in fact a soldier, since the+ soldiers I know are bothered by the military's increasing political correctness to cater to stupid liberal Congressional leaders who have a veto over military funding and promotions.
Geez. Some writers here want to discount the testimony of witnesses to this slaughter. I wonder why that would be.... By the way, there are still some Christian Arabs not yet slaughtered as "infidels" and "unbelievers" by Muslim Arabs, and those Christians could teach Arabic to our soldiers and translate intercepted enemy messages for the US military. As for languages other than Arabic, maybe there are enough useful and willing speakers to concentrate at one of the training schools.
The Obama Administration created the political climate in which this tragedy could happen, and the problems leading to it could fester, unaddressed, because of soldiers' fear of being falsely accused of racism for reporting the shooter's extremist attitudes.
Well, the camel has his nose in the tent --- so what can you expect? I'm talking about the White House, by the way --- not Fort Hood, Texas.
If he dresses like a jihadist, and talks like a jihadist-he likely is a jihadist!!! All this pc bs is getting us all killed.
This guy should never have been part of the military, but then again, he was on Aboambi transition team. Strange huh..
Obama is a muslim, admitting it on you tube, go to www.americanthinker blog, and watch it.
No wonder Bambi could only rattle off some weird incoherent ramblings.
Thanks for the glimpse into the mind of a racist. You think the media is pushing the idea, "Oh, those violent psychiatrists" and instead they should be suggesting "Oh, those violent Muslims."
They are reporting the facts: 1) the guy is a Army psychiatrist (MD) and is probably the only one who has opened fire on fellow soldiers on any Army base, 2) the guy is a Muslim which is also a fact in the story, 3) the motivation will not be truly known until an investigation and Obama has learned not to speculate until all the facts are in.
BTW, this Muslim also attended Virginia Tech, which trains nutcases to open fire on innocent people. There's another generalization you can use.
You know, before we turn this into a left/right, conservative/liberal argument, shouldn't we question the official story coming out of Ft. Hood? I mean, a 12 year old can see the holes in this story from 50 ft. away.........
Why don't you just write that you are a racist and you think the shooter did it because he is Muslim with brown skin?
You know, before we turn this into a left/right, conservative/liberal argument, shouldn't we question the official story coming out of Ft. Hood? I mean, a 12 year old can see the holes in this story from 50 ft. away.........
Any crazy person like Major Hasan can pretty much use anything (like their religion) to justify their extreme thinking and actions.
Any racist person like Hans Bader can pretty much use anything (like what happened in Fort Hood) to justify their extreme thinking and actions.
The hostile, idiotic left-wing commenters below unwittingly prove the author's point: that reflexive, bogus charges of racism are commonplace -- so commonplace that they could create a political climate in which terrorist sympathies by a Muslim soldier are ignored or overlooked.
Most Muslim soldiers are no doubt loyal. But there are those who aren't loyal, and are anti-American, and it is a shame that the ostrich-like Obama Administration had ignored that reality, which poses a grave danger to some of our troops.
In addition, I agree with a lot of the comments on here. Let's all be responsible, and find out what really happened first. Not trying to defend this crazy guy. What he did was hideous, but to make such definite statements about what happened or this guy's true intent, based on what the news is reporting, is simply irresponsible. Remember that only yesterday he was reported to be dead, then he was alive but in stable condition, and now he's in a coma.
Obama is an anti-American race-obsessed left-winger. So are many of his political appointees, like "diversity" czar Mark Lloyd (an admirer of dictator Hugo Chavez), former Green Jobs Czar Van Jones, race-baiting attorney general Eric Holder, and State Department counsel Harold Koh.
Hans,
Every other word out of your pen is "hate"....
Got a problem?
I agree with what James said: "Obama is an anti-American race-obsessed left-winger. So are many of his political appointees, like 'diversity' czar Mark Lloyd (an admirer of dictator Hugo Chavez), former Green Jobs Czar Van Jones, race-baiting attorney general Eric Holder, and State Department counsel Harold Koh."
I agree with Hans. America would never have put up with all of this politically correct BS 40-50 years ago. However we now live in a world where the flying Imans are able to successfully sue the Airlines despite very supicious behavior on their flight post 9/11. We need to be able to call a spade a spade or we are all doomed. The enemy is taking full advantage of this weakness of our current culture. It needs to change. I also wrote on this very subject with much the same conclusion. Our first ammendment rights need to be upheld. It is time to take back America from the far left liberals. We are fighting extremist Muslims and they are the ones who are extremely racist. They want all non-muslims to be killed. We need to shake off the Stockholm syndrome and stop catering to their every need!
we are not fighting against flesh & blood but against Principalities.
I agree with Hans. America would never have put up with all of this politically correct BS 40-50 years ago. However we now live in a world where the flying Imans are able to successfully sue the Airlines despite very supicious behavior on their flight post 9/11. We need to be able to call a spade a spade or we are all doomed. The enemy is taking full advantage of this weakness of our current culture. It needs to change. I also wrote on this very subject with much the same conclusion. Our first ammendment rights need to be upheld. It is time to take back America from the far left liberals. We are fighting extremist Muslims and they are the ones who are extremely racist. They want all non-muslims to be killed. We need to shake off the Stockholm syndrome and stop catering to their every need!
Oh good heavens, what kind of nonsensical obfusication is this: "...a 12 year old can see the holes in this story from 50 ft. away..."?? What, aliens did it, not a Muslim man intent on jihad?? Puh-leeeeeeeeeeeeease.
I keep hearing about "lets not jump to conclusions" and the like. Sounds great and I agree, but didn't the president do exactly that in Massachussetts when he criticized the police for their treatment of his friend Professor Gates, even after admitting he didn't know all the facts then? Oh wait, thats ok because the one being criticized was white, and thats ok in America today....
Jumping to conclusions only applies as long as it can be used to political advantage. Since it's not PC to call out one Muslim extremist for what he is, it won't happen (regardless of truth).
PC and DS is killing this country, like it is in this news story....
Sometimes I wonder what we are fighting for . Has the author seen active service ? I think not . Does he understand the saying “ Some of you young men think that war is all glamour and glory, but let me tell you, boys, it is all Hell! “ ? I think not . Some of those placed in intolerable situations are going to break and others are going to try to put them back together . I could not do this job , give me command of a force in contact with the enemy any day .
Please let us honour and bury the dead and put the politics aside .
I concur with Ken and James, who wrote that
"Obama is an anti-American race-obsessed left-winger. So are many of his political appointees, like 'diversity' czar Mark Lloyd (an admirer of dictator Hugo Chavez), former Green Jobs Czar Van Jones, race-baiting attorney general Eric Holder, and State Department counsel Harold Koh."
Obama's Green jobs czar Van Jones was also a 9/11 Truther and a self-described Marxist.
The truth must prevail. Examine the facts, not personal or political adjendas. I am a retired investigator, and as such, can only search for truth, much differently than the obviously biased defenders of radical Islam. If this attacker had been a Christian, how different would the language by people espouting their unreasonable defense of this sensless, evil act against innocent and fine members of society, be? They cannot logically present their views in a believable form. As said by Pogo; " I have seen the enemy and he is us." Another saying that I like is, 'If the shoe fits, wear it'.
Sometimes I wonder what we are fighting for . Has the author seen active service ? I think not . Does he understand the saying “ Some of you young men think that war is all glamour and glory, but let me tell you, boys, it is all Hell! “ ? I think not . Some of those placed in intolerable situations are going to break and others are going to try to put them back together . I could not do this job , give me command of a force in contact with the enemy any day .
Please let us honour and bury the dead and put the politics aside .
As Kelly noted below,
"Obama is an anti-American race-obsessed left-winger. So are many of his political appointees, like 'diversity' czar Mark Lloyd (an admirer of dictator Hugo Chavez), former Green Jobs Czar Van Jones, race-baiting attorney general Eric Holder, and State Department counsel Harold Koh. Obama's Green jobs czar Van Jones was also a 9/11 Truther and a self-described Marxist."
For the umpteenth time it is not racist to criticize someone for their religion! Religion has NOTHING to with ethnicity! Stop propagating this malicious LIE!
The author of this article did not propagate the notion that criticizing a religion is racism (however common that may be among radical Islam's politically correct enablers).
He merely correctly quoted an Associated Press story on MSNBC's web site accurately quoting soldiers as saying that THEY feared being accused of discrimination for reporting the anti-American, hate-filled rantings of the man who would later massacre his fellow troops in the name of Allah.
These muslims are winning and they need to be stop before is to late!!!!!!!!!!
Why is America so stupid? Shut down every mosque and outlaw islam. Enough with the sensitivity nonsense! What r we waiting for? Another attack will surely happen as sure as the sun rises unless muslims are afraid of consequences. Right now they are not afraid.
I"m still trying to figure out what the heck this has to do with the supreme court
I don't understand Shon's gripe. The column discusses 5 Supreme Court decisions, and how Supreme Court decisions gave the military plenty of leeway to remove the Fort Hood terrorist from the military -- if they had bothered to do so, and not been too politically correct to apply to the Fort Hood shooter the rules that apply to everyone else.
If Hasan is being accurate when he says that the Koran states that "non-believers" are to be beheaded, oil poured down their throats and set afire, then where does the larger problem lie?: with Hasan who will soon be executed for his murders, or rather, with a book and its "religion" which commands devout followers to do such things to non-Muslims? The question answers itself.
Muslims worship some evil Devil they call Allah. He is not the God of Abraham, Moses and Jesus, despite whatever they might think or say.
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