In light of the recent tragedy in Texas, I would like to send my condolences and apologies to the family of the victims. Though many of the details are unknown at this time, I felt obliged to give my two cents to the discussions surrounding this matter. The alleged shooter, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, was of Jordanian descent and he is presumably a Muslim. He was also a psychiatrist who listened to the problems of soldiers with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which means that he heard countless stories about the harsh realities of war. In the last decade, America has been at war with Iraq and Afghanistan, two countries with an overwhelmed population of Muslims. Hasan must have had a special interest in people who share a common way of life with him. He probably had a special affinity and sympathy for them and their plight, which grew with every session that touched on the issues of Iraq and Afghanistan.
I can only imagine the stress and strain that one endures as a psychiatrist, even a psychiatrist without a special connection to his cases. My mind is befuddled at a customer service rep whose job is to listen, empathize, sympathize and correct problems all day, every day. He/she has to be beaten down by the end of the week from constant negative sentiments, even if it is just about the service at your local fast food restaurant. How much more intense is the conversation that a psychiatrist has with a soldier who has spent the last few years in a war zone under the most dangerous conditions imaginable? Then add to this the fact that the psychiatrist is soon to be deployed for his first tour in Iraq. Apparently, this was his last straw. This is the point where religion steps in.
In Islam, there are three stages that one takes when they disagree or dislike a thing. The first is to hate the sin or crime in your heart. Presumably this is what was happening as Hasan was listening to his patients. He had distain for the war and its byproducts. The second stage is to speak out against the injustice. And the third stage is to physically stop the injustice. It has been reported that Hasan had expressed some negative sentiments towards being deployed to Iraq, which is the second stage of his religion, but I feel that he could have and should have gone further with this stage, if he truly felt that a grave injustice was being done.
Instead of taking matters into his own hands physically, he should have refused to go to Iraq for ideological reasons and/or quit his position as Major which he had recently acquired and faced the consequences similar to what another famous American Muslim, Muhammad Ali, did jeopardizing his career and millions of dollars for his beliefs. He could have protested the war and its ills. As a man who felt strongly enough to lose all that he had worked for and face prison time, his voice would have been heard loud and clear and I am sure it would have not been the only voice heard. Perhaps there are others who have the same convictions that Hasan has about the war. Perhaps some of the 12 killed and 31 wounded victims shared his sentiments. But he did not give them a chance.
Islam is a “do something” religion. Unfortunately many Muslims do the wrong something and make it harder for their brothers and sisters in faith and it casts a dark cloud over their actual gripe and concerns. In fact, their actions oftentimes prolong the suffering of those which they wish to help. It is unIslamic to punish people who have not committed a crime, even if you assume that they may commit a crime in the near future. They are innocent until they are in the process of committing a crime and by killing them, he became a criminal. He now has made it more difficult for American Muslims, Iraqi Muslims, Afghani Muslims, and most certainly the American Muslim soldier. In an effort to help, he was done great damage to his fellow Muslims and to at least 43 families.
As a teenager, I was vehemently pursued by military recruiters, but luckily I was wise enough to know that I never wanted to fight and kill a people who I felt did not deserve it. As a student of history, I felt that it was not out of the question that as a soldier, I might one day be fighting to gain political and economic advantages instead of fighting for the safety and security of Americans and others. So I did not put myself in that position. If some find themselves in that position, the best thing to do is extract yourself from that situation and speak out about the things that you view as an injustice. You may have to deal with the consequences, but your crime will not be as bad as murder or attempted murder.
As a Muslim, it is hard to say something disparaging about another Muslim, but it is incumbent for Muslims to speak the truth no matter who it affects.
Al-Qur’an 4:135O you who believe! be maintainers of justice, bearers of witness of Allah's sake, though it may be against your own selves or (your) parents or near relatives; if he be rich or poor, Allah is nearer to them both in compassion; therefore do not follow (your) low desires, lest you deviate; and if you swerve or turn aside, then surely Allah is aware of what you do.
We should also bear in mind that Nidal Malik Hasan may have decided to use violence to stop what he saw as an injustice with the potential for more death and destruction , but this is not the first preemptive strike done in recent history. If it is a crime for Hasan to shoot American soldiers who are not in combat, than it is a crime for America to preemptively strike a country that we presume and assume will attack us one day. It is a “horrendous tragedy” that 12 people were killed and 31 wounded in one day. With what words do we describe the death of 100,000 civilian deaths in almost 7 years in Iraq?
Peace
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