Hicham Maged's blog Inquisitive curiosity paves knowledge path

Underneath Fort Hood Shooting

Few days passed since the tragedian shooting took place in Fort Hood and it is clear that ignorance by “Islam” and “Muslims” is the theme of this period as Islamophobia is now favorable by the mass-media and this is what I called tragedy and stereotype in my previous elaborations.

Nevertheless, I am not going to participate in the “attacking versus defending” scenario; I am rather concerned by going underneath Fort Hood shooting done by Major Nidal Malik Hasan, of course without any intention for legitimating his actions since what happened is clearly labeled under crime and betrayal from someone that requires punishment by the corresponding authorities regardless his faith and his race.

Underneath Fort Hood Shooting

Fort Hood Tragedy: Analyze That

My trial to go underneath Fort Hood shooting starts by highlighting that despite we still know nothing about what is really inside the shooter’s head till investigation show up, I have three points to ponder about:

1. his citizenship status;
2. his ranking position;
3. his linking to radicals.

Point One: He is an American citizen with high education, good job and was raised on the soil of the states not just an immigrant which means that this has nothing to do with hating America because of his roots or religion but rather something else went with him.

Point Two: Initial reports told about problems he had because of the pressure applied on his shoulder either for being anti-war or harassment. I do not fully buy this not only because many people are anti-war who will have other ways to express this but mainly because of his career as a physician in army who is supposed to be trained for facing this and cure people from non-physical troubles. Nevertheless, even if he had mental troubles that let him went to the end like this, how come that his leaders did not notice any kind of symptoms in any of his follow-up report since he is not a civilian but an army officer?

Point Three: Initial reports also mentioned that FBI was investigating his suspicious internet activity as an army officer so how come that this has not ring any red alarm? I do not know whether he is following the ideology of radicals or the worst that he has been in touch with them; however again I wonder about the follow-up reports since he is an army officer not a civilian and this means more efforts should be done to go underneath the shooting!

Tragedy and the Division Bell

I think this tragedy is an evidence for errors that happened; something that need more investigations to understand and thus to prevent in the future by fixing the errors, not just braking at both his roots and religion. What happened with all tragedian aspects of the shooting cannot be a way to condemn and portray millions of Arab and Muslim American citizens who are living on the soil of the states either being civilians or serving the army of their country.

On the other hand, if people want to educate themselves away from stereotyping, do not just rely on the media and go for resources either books, Islamic centers, or trustworthy sites about Islam. There is no problem if you know nothing about since nobody knows everything about whatever subjects but the worst is when you just follow the wave of generalizing.

Finally, I am placing these ramblings in a loud voice since our dear folks on different mass media-outlets have not spent good effort for analyzing what happened and go underneath the shooting in a rational way but rather their efforts and enthusiasm were targeting to ring the fake bells of stereotyping which is another tragedy itself that I explained while discussing the scary movie of the 21^st century back in 2005!

Related Quotes and Sayings

There is nothing to fear except the persistent refusal to find out the truth, the persistent refusal to analyze the causes of happenings. — Dorothy Thompson

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Tags: fort hood shooting, islamophobia
Categories: Critiques
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