Hasan Nidal Triggers A War On Islam
HASAN Nidal, the Fort Hood mass murderer, dominates the news and the newswires. You can read our round-up here.
Is Nidal Hasan a jihadi or a nutter, or both? The press is uncertain, each writer going with their own prejudices. Sky News says as a psychiatrist Nidal would have heard lots of harrowing stories from returning soldiers and may have been sent mad. He’s the victim?
A man who murders 12 people is only one thing: a mass murderer.
While religion and politics merge into a bloody mess, The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the US’s largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization, is to hold a news conference tonight at its Capitol Hill headquarters in reaction to the attack at Fort Hood.
At the news conference, American Muslim leaders will reiterate their condemnation of the shootings and urge calm as the nation reacts to today’s tragic events.
Meanwhile, back in Britain, the Sun delivers this front-page news: “HE WAS THE DADDY – Pregnant Muslim bride salutes her dead hero husband”.
Inside: “Our son will never know his dad but he will know his legacy.”
The Sun gets it right. While no news organisation focusing on any of the 12 murdered US soldiers, with all eyes on their murderer and speculation as to his motives, the Sun looks at a victim. Death in the news is delivered in numbers but it only when we see one life taken that readers can relate to it:
THE wife of massacred soldier Darren Chant yesterday revealed he was due to be a father again. Muslim Nausheen, 30, is six months pregnant.
Chant and four other soldiers was murdered by 26-year-old Gulbuddin – a Afghan police officer who was shot in the leg but remains at large.
But how relevant is Mrs Chant’s religion?
The widow, who is a non-practising Muslim, said: “Our unborn son will never meet his father. But he will know him through his legacy.”
But to the Sun she is “Muslim”. It’s front-page news. But there is no war on Islam. That is what the enemy wants you to believe. There is a war on the Taliban in Afghanistan. There is a war on Al Qaeda in Iraq. Is either group a friend to Islam, or typical of Muslims? Only a fool or bigot would answer “yes”.
Mrs chant’s private grief is in the public sphere. But should religion have any factor in the story? The biggest outrage is hidden later in the article:
His mum Elizabeth, 59, told how he would bark at Prince Harry on parade: “Get your legs up, Windsor!” She tearfully accused the PM of betraying Our Boys, raging: “My son said Afghanistan was a living hell. They need more of everything, more equipment, more troops, more rifles and more clothes and boots which fit properly.“
We send our solders – white, black, Asian, Christian, Jew or Muslim – to fight ill equipped for battle. That is the outrage.
Madeleine McCann: Let’s Blame The Muslims
Posted: 6th, November 2009 | In: Reviews Comments (2) | TrackBack | Permalink
