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Fort Hood Texas Army Base mass shooting: Allahu akbar--the cry of a mentally ill man or a terrorist?
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Col. John Rossi, right, looks on as Col. Steven Braverman speaks
during a media briefing 11/6/09.
Witnesses described the mass shooter as yelling, "Allahu akbar" as he fired. Was that the cry of a mentally ill individual or the cry of a terrorist?
One translation of Allahu akbar is "God is great!" The Page One Examiner gives further explanation about the translation.
Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the alleged shooter, is described by many as a wonderful psychiatrist who really cared about his patients. And also described as a religious man who was friendly and caused no problems.
However, he heard the horror stories from soldiers returning from war. He was assigned to work with those who had or were at risk of developing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). PTSD is an anxiety disorder that may develop after a person has been exposed to a traumatic event. At times, those helpers, who debrief or counsel those with PTSD, may develop a version of PTSD as well. When that happens, it's called secondary traumatization, meaning the helper wasn't exposed to the trauma itself but was traumatized by hearing of the horrors.
Secondary traumatization was frequently experienced after 9/11.
It's quite possible that Major Hasan was a victim of that as well. However, it's rare that a caregiver would go to the extreme of a mass killing and shooting spree.
There's an additional piece of information since the killings happened: Major Hasan was to be deployed to a war zone and didn't want to go. This happens to a lot of people. And those people either choose to go anyway or decide to refuse. Again, it's rare for an episode of this magnitude to happen because of the cognitive dissonance of a psychiatrist.
Mental illness is one possibility of why he may have done this. However, most mentally ill people are not violent--even those who may be psychotic.
Another possibility that people are discussing is that Major Hasan might be a terrorist. He's an American citizen and an American Army officer, yet he is a Muslim of Jordanian descent. However, the action he did goes against the beliefs of a religious man who has never shown signs of being a radical. Or at least those signs haven't been uncovered. But of course, seeing his name, hearing what he shouted, many people are thinking--terrorist.
For whatever reason it happened, this massacre is a horrific and traumatic experience for Fort Hood and for many Americans.
Where can someone be safe? Certainly the men and women at Ft. Hood, many of whom were to be shipped out to Iraq or Afghanistan, thought they were safe on post.
We are left with more questions than answers. And as the personality profile of this man is being built, we'll learn more.
Mentally ill or terrorist? If he lives we may know the truth soon. If he dies, the truth dies with him.
The conversation continues with you.
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