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Nidal Hassan Did the Right Thing

This is a cross post by Anwar Al Awlaki, former Imam of the Dar al-Hijrah mosque in Great Falls, Virginia, where his congregants included Major Hasan and two of the 9/11 hijackers

Nidal Hassan is a hero.

He is a man of conscience who could not bear living the contradiction of being a Muslim and serving in an army that is fighting against his own people. This is a contradiction that many Muslims brush aside and just pretend that it doesn’t exist. Any decent Muslim cannot live, understanding properly his duties towards his Creator and his fellow Muslims, and yet serve as a US soldier. The US is leading the war against terrorism which in reality is a war against Islam. Its army is directly invading two Muslim countries and indirectly occupying the rest through its stooges.

Nidal opened fire on soldiers who were on their way to be deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. How can there be any dispute about the virtue of what he has done? In fact the only way a Muslim could Islamically justify serving as a soldier in the US army is if his intention is to follow the footsteps of men like Nidal.

The heroic act of brother Nidal also shows the dilemma of the Muslim American community. Increasingly they are being cornered into taking stances that would either make them betray Islam or betray their nation. Many amongst them are choosing the former. The Muslim organizations in America came out in a pitiful chorus condemning Nidal’s operation.
The fact that fighting against the US army is an Islamic duty today cannot be disputed. No scholar with a grain of Islamic knowledge can defy the clear cut proofs that Muslims today have the right -rather the duty- to fight against American tyranny. Nidal has killed soldiers who were about to be deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan in order to kill Muslims. The American Muslims who condemned his actions have committed treason against the Muslim Ummah and have fallen into hypocrisy.

Allah(swt) says: Give tidings to the hypocrites that there is for them a painful punishment -

Those who take disbelievers as allies instead of the believers. Do they seek with them honor [through power]? But indeed, honor belongs to Allah entirely. (al-Nisa 136-137)

The inconsistency of being a Muslim today and living in America and the West in general reveals the wisdom behind the opinions that call for migration from the West. It is becoming more and more difficult to hold on to Islam in an environment that is becoming more hostile towards Muslims.

May Allah grant our brother Nidal patience, perseverance and steadfastness and we ask Allah to accept from him his great heroic act.

Ameen

Anwar Al Awlaki has appeared or been invited to appear by videolink by a large number of British Islamist groups, including the East London Mosque and Cage Prisoners.

In his leisure time, he enjoys the company of prostitutes. Unsurprisingly.

Comments

Steven    
  9 November 2009, 3:26 pm

Why are you posting this attempted justification for murderer here?

M-o-r-g-o-t-h    
  9 November 2009, 3:29 pm

I thought it would have been obvious, Steven.

Ana    
  9 November 2009, 3:44 pm

Steven, no one here agrees with this view. But as this man has thus far been allowed to influence Muslims in the UK, I think it is only right that we know what he is telling them. Having said that, I think the new banner is a wee bit melodramatic. Is it an Al Awlaki special or is it here to stay?

David Galant    
  9 November 2009, 4:33 pm

Major Hasan had the option of resigning from the army. An act which would have peacefully resolved his problem. Only a maligned bloodthirsty idiot would argue otherwise.

gtm    
  9 November 2009, 4:40 pm

Fuck me – that makes for shocking reading.

sHAM wOW    
  9 November 2009, 4:45 pm

“Nidal Hassan is a hero.He is a man of conscience who could not bear living the contradiction of being a Muslim and serving in an army that is fighting against his own people.”

Uhm yeah, maybe he should join al-Qaeda, Hizbulah, the Taliban etc, at least the’re muslims that are not fighting against they’re own people!

Shep    
  9 November 2009, 4:58 pm

I’ve never understood this line of logic. If we’re all stranded in our god-given roles, does that mean the west (according to the Islamic extremists) should just bomb the hell out of the middle-east? I remember some Palestinian Imam saying that Muslims should start kidnapping and marrying Israeli Jewish women. I was like — Dude, the Talmud says the same thing.

Malcolm Armsteen    
  9 November 2009, 4:58 pm

David Galant – I read (somewhere) that Hassan had applied for release from the army, but this was denied. I don’t know if that is true. It doesn’t excuse anything, however.

Abu Faris    
  9 November 2009, 5:02 pm

What gtm wrote.

Jako    
  9 November 2009, 5:14 pm

The inconsistency of being a Muslim today and living in America and the West in general reveals the wisdom behind the opinions that call for migration from the West.

Is there a tendency amongst Islamists to call for migration from the West? Interesting. Let them see how great life is like in places with ‘90% Islam’ like Saudi Arabia. As long as the demented Muslim-bashers don’t use this as an excuse to call for “chucking ‘em all out”.

thesheikhofalamut    
  9 November 2009, 5:22 pm

I don’t see what this website hopes to achieve by re-posting radical views like these. To tell us there are extremists out there? I think we know that. To scare us? Again, we know these people exist.

Essentially it seems to be some sort of rallying cry for the eternal War on Terror. “See! Look what these crazy people are saying! Once more unto the breach!”

And yet since none of us here are able to argue with the likes of Anwar Al Awlaki (to his satisfaction) and since none of us are crimefighters (and if he acts it is a criminal matter) there’s not much we can do about it.

I can only conclude then that the purpose of posts like these is to try and maintain a sort of low level hysteria among HP followers, in case they forget that *evil people* are out there, and we must *fight* them. Maintaining the hysteria is necessary I think because otherwise people might notice what is obvious to anyone who actually thinks about it: that our wars merely create more enemies.

Slzxungat    
  9 November 2009, 5:24 pm

Nidal Hussein is not a hero. The United States is not fighting a war on Islam. Apart from that, the rest of Anwar Al Awlaki’s argument is perfectly sound.

Mam Tor    
  9 November 2009, 5:47 pm

” I can only conclude…” Actually you started off saying this and concluding with it.

By this measure no link to a radical message would be used lest it be suspected of rabble rousing, nice thinking (you did think about it, didn’t you? I’d hate to overstate it).

vildechaye    
  9 November 2009, 5:58 pm

Sheikh of alamut: The problem with your so-called “hysteria” thesis is that there ARE evil people are out there, and so we MUST fight them. Exactly where is the hysterical part?

Nick (Ex South Africa)    
  9 November 2009, 6:13 pm

gtm wrote:

that makes for shocking reading.

If you mean shocking as in surprising, not in the least, not even vaguely.

Out of 553,000 active-duty troops, its records show a mere 1,563 active-duty soldiers who identify themselves as Muslims as of April 2008, along with 436 Army National Guard members, or well under one half of one perecent. That means that Muslims are less than half as much represented in the army than in the U.S.population as a whole. (In addition, 581 Army reservists list themselves as Muslim.)

source

It’s also worth having a squiz at what’s being written about Al Awlaki’s comments by the faithful over at ummah.com.

Al-Qanaas Al-Masri    
  9 November 2009, 6:15 pm

I imagine this post might take HP perilously close to falling foul of the Terrorism Act – which in its most recent incarnation criminalises the online distribution of statements which *might* be percieved by others as glorifying terrorism!!

XofTheX    
  9 November 2009, 6:20 pm

I imagine this post might take HP perilously close to falling foul of the Terrorism Act – which in its most recent incarnation criminalises the online distribution of statements which *might* be percieved by others as glorifying terrorism!!

It would be a delicious irony if those involved in running HP were prosecuted under the very authoritarian terrorism laws that so many here extol.

Jack R    
  9 November 2009, 6:21 pm

But maybe ‘Harry’s Place’ will ban me instead; I’m critical of Islam.

Trofim    
  9 November 2009, 6:21 pm

“The inconsistency of being a Muslim today and living in America and the West in general reveals the wisdom behind the opinions that call for migration from the West.”

See, there’s always a silver lining.

Jim M.    
  9 November 2009, 6:32 pm

“The inconsistency of being a Muslim today and living in America and the West in general reveals the wisdom behind the opinions that call for migration from the West.”

Don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out!

Josh Scholar    
  9 November 2009, 6:47 pm

I hope this is reprinted in a newspaper in Great Falls Virgina along with Anwar Al Awlaki’s picture, his address and his license plate number.

Josh Scholar    
  9 November 2009, 6:52 pm

Actually it’s easy to find his picture, just google his name.
And the story is already in the papers.
Do these people forget that Americans are armed?

All Must Have Spiders    
  9 November 2009, 6:59 pm

With a little luck, he will become an hero.

Lbnaz    
  9 November 2009, 7:02 pm

And yet since none of us here are able to argue with the likes of Anwar Al Awlaki (to his satisfaction) and since none of us are crimefighters (and if he acts it is a criminal matter) there’s not much we can do about it.

…what is obvious to anyone who actually thinks about it: that our wars merely create more enemies.

shorter thesheikofalamut: If you refuse to grant misanthropic extremist imams who incite Muslims to murder as an Islamic virtue, an unfettered pass and instead expose their sermonizing, I promise you will be threatened with more enemies.

At first I thought the sheikh of alamut (which I suspect, but stand to be corrected if wrong, translates as death or doom from Arabic) was just a wind up merchant, but if you go to his politicoassassin blog (linked to his moniker), you find out that he’s an out and out anti-political nihilist:

The only jokers I want to see are in my court. The rest must be cleared away to make space for politics without the politicians, and the creation of power without joker intermediaries.

SheikofKharbasheh (i.e. bullshit) is more apt.

Josh Scholar    
  9 November 2009, 7:02 pm

Spiders: “An hero” is an internet joke for a suicide.

If this freak kills himself, he will no doubt take out a shopping mall with too. That’s not what I was hoping for him.

Anaximanders other sandal    
  9 November 2009, 7:09 pm

“I think because otherwise people might notice what is obvious to anyone who actually thinks about it: that our wars merely create more enemies.”

OR

In other words it’s our foreign policy stupid, change it, submit and there will be peace, that is what this theshiekhofalamut fucker is saying, isn’t it
thesheikhofalamut.

Mr Islamist or Communist, whatever you are, your wet dream of world conquest is simply that, a dream, a fantasy, the delusions of an childlike intellect, people like you are from the same mould as the supporters of Stalin and Mao, nasty little people with nasty little beliefs.

So defending oneself against a malignant ideology is simply a “recruiting tool” for these maniacs, so we, the West should just kneel to these sick malignant bastards should we, bet you would have been all for the Chamberlain approach to Hitler, wouldn’t you.

The “Wars create more enemies argument” is bullshit, it is what little girls say, sure wars are bad, horrible, terrifying but they create more enemies? Fuck off with your attempts at being all 1930s fabian, all intellectual, I really can’t stand little pricks who try the no soldiers = no war, peace in our time bullshit, people such as yourself make me feel nauseous, so do me a favor and save your “it’s the biggest recruiting sergeant” bullshit for the children of the Left, try CIF they will love your bullshit, it is full of your kind of people.

Koppers    
  9 November 2009, 7:12 pm

Reading the comments at the bottom of Anwar Al Awlaki’s rant is quite interesting. More interesting, however, is that I did a search on where his site is hosted – it’s hosted in the US by a company called ‘Wild West Domains’ which would appear to be a wholly legitimate US hosting company.

As I understand it, Anwar Al Awlaki is a fugitive from US and Yemeni justice. You would have thought they could track him down from a) The ip address from where he is uploading content to his website and/or b) The payment details of who is paying the hosting company for hosting the website.

Koppers    
  9 November 2009, 7:23 pm

It’s also worth having a squiz at what’s being written about Al Awlaki’s comments by the faithful over at ummah.com.

Ach sis man! Nick you beat me to it.

Koppers (ex South African).

tevya    
  9 November 2009, 7:29 pm

sheikh of alamut (which I suspect, but stand to be corrected if wrong, translates as death or doom from Arabic

Josh, I was hoping it was a Carry on Up the Khyber joke, but is in fact a nom d’web after Hassan al-Sabah, leader of the assassins

MITNAGED    
  9 November 2009, 7:40 pm

I am sick and tired of it being suggested that I should bend myself out of shape to “understand” perpetrators of Islamist-inspired murder, or cave in to them. No!

So he couldn’t stand the cognitive dissonance of serving in the military. So what? Life ain’t fair for a lot of people but very few of them engage in killing sprees.

Why murder? Why be cowardly enough to kill rather than resign his commission?

Tim Allon    
  9 November 2009, 7:49 pm

There was some speculation that this was the act of a lone nutter (a view that HP’s Brownie endorsed), that Nidal Hassan had ‘gone postal’, and so it could not rightly be considered an act of terrorism. Do these postal workers – prone as they are to act of extreme and arbitrary violence – do they also join organisations whose members are have been involved in ideologically motivated mass murder, and whose leaders write gushing articles justifying these supposedly spontaneous acts?

The guy wasn’t getting laid. That’s all it was about, right?

Lbnaz    
  9 November 2009, 8:07 pm

Josh, I was hoping it was a Carry on Up the Khyber joke, but is in fact a nom d’web after Hassan al-Sabah, leader of the assassins

You were replying to my comment not Josh’s, but thanks for that info Tevya.

And I agree wholeheartedly with Tim, Brownie’s special pleading for Hasan being a lone wolf “gone postal” seems less and less credible. Instead, it seems he did have an ideological support network that supported and encouraged him to murder unarmed US military personnel.

Abu Faris    
  9 November 2009, 8:17 pm

Closer inspection of Anwar Al Awlaki’s website produces some interesting (if unsurprising) finds.

In a thread dedicated to a review of Sayyid Qutb’s “In the Shadow of the Qur’an”, we get the following comment left by one “Abu Ninja”:

Abu Usamah ath-Thahabi… advised in one of his lectures for people to listen to the lectures of Anwar al-Awlaki

http://www.anwar-alawlaki.com/?p=28

Abu Usamah is a well-known Islamist hate preacher, who happens to be an imam at Green Lane Masjid in Birmingham.

Abu Faris    
  9 November 2009, 8:21 pm

Elsewhere, we find a defence of suicide bombing, pretexted this time by reference to the suicide of 700 Muslim prisoners of war during the Crusades.

Al-Awlaki, with relish, comments:

Today the world turns upside down when one Muslim performs a martyrdom operation. Can you imagine what would happen if that is done by seven hundred Muslims on the same day?!

http://www.anwar-alawlaki.com/?p=71

Margie    
  9 November 2009, 8:22 pm

He is a man of conscience who could not bear living the contradiction of being a Muslim and serving in an army that is fighting against his own people.

Would have been a better idea to have resigned or not to have enlisted at all. Somehow, hard as I try, I can’t see that killing all those people who trusted him could have been heroic.

CookieCutter    
  9 November 2009, 8:28 pm

then some USA nutter reasons that if they are “out to get us and pick us off when they have a chance then we better get our retaliation in first”.

Race riots, burning crosses, hundreds dead, martial law……

Anaximanders other sandal    
  9 November 2009, 8:44 pm

Abu Faris you are very well informed man, are you one of the good guys from the excellent Spittoon site?

Colin    
  9 November 2009, 8:51 pm

A BBC news report has it the Major Hassan is ‘said to be a devout Muslim.’ My instant reaction to the choice of ‘devout’ is positive, reading it as is meaning that he is said to be a ‘very pious and sincerely earnest’ Muslim, definitely not, say, a Muslim nutter. So let’s not jump to hasty conclusions.

armaros    
  9 November 2009, 8:57 pm

He is awake now.

So it is either Military justice (if he can stand up to be shot)

Or Texas justice, where he will be put to sleep like a sick dog.

Amen

Abu Faris    
  9 November 2009, 9:19 pm

Anaximanders Other Sandal,

Thanks for the compliment.

Yes, I have written on The Spittoon site.

cowboy    
  9 November 2009, 9:39 pm

This guy was treated like a pampered child by the Army. Why? Outreach! Multiculturalism! Broaden the social base of the officer corps! He never did anything in the Army but go to school at our expense.

virgil xenophon    
  9 November 2009, 9:54 pm

Sadly, amaros, we now have earlier reports confirmed through the mouth of no less than the Chief of Staff of the Army himself that there are “serious” debates going on within Team Obama as to whether Hasan should, wait for it, wait for it, be tried in CIVILIAN courts rather than in a military one. Now since we have in this instance an Army officer on active duty while in full uniform committing the act smack dab in the middle of the largest Army installation in America, if this act doesn’t qualify for trial under the UCMJ than nothing does. Might as well do away with the entire UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice) and JAG (Judge Advocates Corps) and be done with it. Think of all the salaries, housing allowance, and pension and medical costs that could be saved! Another example, if it actually happens, of the ability of Team Obama to get things totally “FUBBed.” (F**Ked Up Beyond Belief) exactly as he has done with the detainees at Gitmo.

Now under normal circumstances one might hope that normal, saner heads would prevail–but alas there is nothing either normal OR sane about Team Obama.

Anaximanders other sandal    
  9 November 2009, 10:12 pm

Thanks, keep up the good work, it is sites such as the Spittoon that give me a glimmer of hope that all this antagonistic madness can be quelled by sensible people who have had enough of this hatred and religious “my god is better than your god” bullshit.

I am an Atheist, I dislike all religions but I don’t dislike all religious people, I do however have zero tolerance for Zealots, the leader of a fanatical genocidal group of lunatics attacked America on 911, he claims he is a Muslim, millions of others who also claim to be Muslims will back up that claim and indeed may follow this psychotic maniac down the path to armageddon, it is Muslims themselves who must stop this madness because eventually someone is going to do something so horrific that it will lead to an unbelievably severe response, that is my greatest fear, this madness could lead to a devastating world war, a war were the use of nuclear weapons could not be prevented.

Alarmist I know, Hysterical even, but I have seen the change in people in regard to Islam, tolerance is not infinite, there comes a time when the limit is reached, eventually the people will snap, eventually they will say enough is enough, not all the people in the West are left wingers, we don’t all subscribe to the ‘West is evil’ self hating that is so prevalent among the western intelligentsia.

What worries me most is that we have our own fanatical psychotic lunatics, the almost daily actions of Islamist Lunatics is giving our own lunatics a veneer of plausibility, it is creating an illusion that they and only they can stand up to these maniacs.

The West in particular is perceived as being weak but we, the Westerners can be just as vicious as any other civilization, if not worse.

Please don’t take this comment as a slight or an attack on all the people of Islam, it is simply my view of where this nightmare may take us, I hope for all our sakes it is simply my paranoia gaining the upper hand, my imagination, I hope I am wrong.

Sue R    
  9 November 2009, 10:53 pm

To be honest, I think Obama could well end up being the most reviled President in American history, more than Nixon, more than G W Bush.

Abu Faris    
  9 November 2009, 11:20 pm

I certainly do not take what you write as any sort of attack, AOS. Indeed, there is so much in what you have written with which I fundamentally agree. Religious sensibilities should certainly be given no freer a pass than any others – actually, perhaps, because of the utter mayhem religion has too often introduced (especially when lethally in cocktail with politics), less so.

I am firmly committed to secularism and I would heartily concur with what Peter Tatchel has written and said about there being better and worse models of social and cultural organisation. Frankly, religious models have had the unfortunate effect of being down-right unpleasant too often.

There is a nightmare possible future – and you are quite right, it is up to the Muslim community, in particular, to be at the heart of averting such a catastrophe – a hell that would engulf not just them, but all of us, of all creeds, confessions and none.

Islamism is a clear and present danger. After the collapse of the last bout of more-or-less non-religious totalitarianism (of “left” or “right” forms), now we are faced with a new form, which grotesquely capers about dressed in medieval garb, the clerical fascism of Islamism. Muslims need to be in the vanguard of fighting this threat to democracy, secularism and – in all – universal human rights and the highest achievements of our often too stupid species.

In particular, Muslims need to reject at every point any and all manifestations in their community of racism, misogyny, and homophobia, especially when these are falsely pretexted as matters of faith.
Further, and more boldly, the faith community needs to be about a thorough-going reformation of the very roots of Islam. We need to become more reflective and critical. No thoughtful Christian or Jewish believer would believe that historical actors or actions taken in the names of those faiths are above criticism. Yet, in Islam even the faintest suggestion that the Prophet, or his followers ever made mistakes, ever acted in morally inappropriate manners is furiously and sometimes lethally rejected. This is simply unacceptable.

Equally, we need to be about a thorough inspection of so much we have taken for granted: jihad – given its propensity to be used as a vehicle for barbarism and intolerance, is it not time we jettisoned such talk? It is not a pillar of the faith, even.

Of course, for the Islamists this makes me apostate, at least hypocrite. Let them call me names. I reject their violence, their hate and their refusal to allow difference. A curse on their house, it is not somewhere I would want to call my own.
Thank you, AOS.

SigmundSauer    
  9 November 2009, 11:27 pm

Allah Akbar!!!
This is what these extremist muslims cry after commiting cowardly acts such as this one. I bet this whimpy little creep would not have started shooting if the other soldiers were armed! This is a reoccuring theme amongst so-called “Muslims”. Attack unsuspecting, unarmed people going about their daily lives. This is why I and other like-minded Westerners are so infuriated with these zealots. You want to fight? Lets do it standin up! Toe to toe. Ya know…the way men fight. Not cowardly little girls.

Furthermore, you dont hear about Americans bombing Muslim Cultural Centers screaming “Jesus Rocks!” afterwards. Thats because we arent a bunch of sexually repressed, chauvinistic, weak-minded followers like much of the Muslim World.

Allah Akbar!!!

SigmundSauer    
  9 November 2009, 11:27 pm

Allah Akbar!!!
This is what these extremist muslims cry after commiting cowardly acts such as this one. I bet this whimpy little creep would not have started shooting if the other soldiers were armed! This is a reoccuring theme amongst so-called “Muslims”. Attack unsuspecting, unarmed people going about their daily lives. This is why I and other like-minded Westerners are so infuriated with these zealots. You want to fight? Lets do it standin up! Toe to toe. Ya know…the way men fight. Not cowardly little girls.

Furthermore, you dont hear about Americans bombing Muslim Cultural Centers screaming “Jesus Rocks!” afterwards. Thats because we arent a bunch of sexually repressed, chauvinistic, weak-minded followers like much of the Muslim World.

Allah Akbar!!!

Alec M    
  9 November 2009, 11:35 pm

>> It would be a delicious irony if those involved in running HP were prosecuted under the very authoritarian terrorism laws that so many here extol.

And it would be quite funny if you contracted leprosy, Daniel.

Anaximanders other sandal    
  9 November 2009, 11:36 pm

“Thank you, AOS.”

No, Mr Abu Faris, Thank you, it really is in people such as yourself that I have high hopes for the future of all our children.

I have been guilty at times, in my own frustration, of making some very hurtful and frankly nasty comments, after which I have had to look into the mirror and ask myself ‘is this what I am becoming’, a hateful vindictive person whose fears are getting the best him.

I don’t like it, I react with anger at what I perceive is a threat to my way of life and to that of my children. How then can I expect others to react to their perceived fears in a different way than I do, ultimately we will all lose if ‘my’ way of reacting becomes the norm.

I sincerely thank you for wisdom, it gives me hope for the future.

Alec M    
  9 November 2009, 11:45 pm

Could I confirm that this is genuine, as Awlaki’s page ain’t responding.

Alec M    
  9 November 2009, 11:54 pm

Has the page been taken down?

Insider    
  9 November 2009, 11:56 pm

Outrageous

Abu Faris    
  9 November 2009, 11:58 pm

Alec M

I’m getting an Error 500, internal server error message from Awlaki’s website too. It was up earlier this evening, so I assume that something has gone awry since. Intriguingly it was beginning to break down earlier when I was scanning through its pages – I might be wrong, but I suspect that the site has been attacked. There were a number of recent posts on his site from US military personnel which did not auger well for the jihadi scum-bag. Either that or Awlaki has taken down his own site as prelude to his catching one almighty cyber shit-storm.

However, I can confirm that Awlaki’s statement is genuine.

AOS – Again many thanks. Together we are strong.

Alec M    
  10 November 2009, 12:02 am

Ta’, Abu Faris. Error 500 does suggest DoS rather than 404 for being taken down.

Jim M.    
  10 November 2009, 12:02 am

@ Abu Faris:

“No thoughtful Christian or Jewish believer would believe that historical actors or actions taken in the names of those faiths are above criticism.”

I fear, my friend, that the Islamists have no monopoly of allowing their faith to take them way beyond the bounds of reason. I see the same irrationalities expressed by the extreme elements of all the faiths, be they major or minor, mono- or polytheistic.
I suspect the root causes of such behaviour to be essentially human; anger, frustration, tribalism, envy, fear, pride etc. The religions seem to provide a framework upon which the disaffected can pin these feelings, perhaps finding common purpose and support for their insecurities.

Some faiths may seem more prone to attracting the extreme, but surely it is only a question of degree. A loon is a loon, regardless of their political or religious affiliations.

Abu Faris    
  10 November 2009, 12:09 am

Jim M

I agree with you on this.

Hence me appending the adjective “thoughtful” to “Christian or Jewish believer”.

I think you are right about religion serving to articulate all too human states of being and of acting too often as a framework for the disaffected. Equally, however, I also can see ways in which it does not have to so be. In other words, I don’t see this as a necessary condition of religion, but as a contingency about which we need to be constantly concerned.

I would also agree that some faiths seem to act as stronger magnets for the extreme than others; and that all do attract their fair degree of oddballs, the deranged and the dangerously so. But the mad and the bad are also met in these faiths by the sane and the good.

A loon is a loon, regardless of their political or religious affiliations.

I agree entirely with this.

Alec M    
  10 November 2009, 12:15 am
Jim M.    
  10 November 2009, 12:25 am

Abu Faris:

I can live with the oddballs; I secretly like the deranged. Mad does not necessarily equal Bad!
It’s those dangerous fuckers that get my goat!

You have earned some respect here, my friend. To command politeness and deference from AOS is a rare gift indeed!

;-)

Abu Faris    
  10 November 2009, 12:40 am

Cheers, Jim!

Alec M – I really wish people wouldn’t do DoS attacks on sites unless it is really necessary (national security, etc). For example, now I cannot continue to track through all the highly revealing comments left by the various wannabe jihadi left on Awlaki’s site. Now all the bum-fluffed wannabe Bin Ladins on the various Islamist forums will be claiming that Awlaki is the victim of a vast anti-Muslim conspiracy; and what is worse it will be difficult for his opponents to continue to expose the violence inciting rat for what he really is (a rat).

Abu Faris    
  10 November 2009, 12:45 am

Now don’t get me wrong – I don’t see this as a free-speech issue. If there was anybody who was a worthy candidate for renditioning to some Black Site in Outer Mongolia it is Awlaki.

Rather, I see this as an issue of inadvertently making the tosser a cyber-martyr in the eyes of some – and denying his opponents the information needed to bury the bastard beneath a pile of his own venomous bigotry.

I fully understand the temptation to pull the switch on him, however. How many times have I longed for the IT skills to burn such as he!

Josh Scholar    
  10 November 2009, 3:39 am

I’m getting an Error 500, internal server error message from Awlaki’s website too.

It gives an error if you direct link to that page, but if you go to the front page it’s listed and the link works just fine.

Apparently Anwar Al Awlaki is skilled enough to make his site refuse direct links to that article.

Ivan    
  10 November 2009, 6:39 am

In his leisure time, he enjoys the company of prostitutes. Unsurprisingly.

Give him a few more years, he’ll take the missus and the debutante too, in emulation of Mohamed.

Abu FAris    
  10 November 2009, 10:01 am

Josh,

I’m getting “Error establishing a database connection” when I go to the home page of Awlaki’s site. An Error 500, in fact.

I’ll try via a proxy when I get home to see if it something to do with the IP.

Alec M    
  10 November 2009, 11:01 am

Tiny URL is your friend.

http://tinyurl.com/ycjxlvx

Josh Scholar    
  10 November 2009, 11:13 am

Abu FAris the main page works for me.

Alec M    
  10 November 2009, 1:14 pm

Now DNS recognition appears to have been withdrawn.

Thankfully Google Cache hasn’t heard:

http://tinyurl.com/yg2ysqa

Abu Faris    
  10 November 2009, 2:07 pm

At http://tinyurl.com/ycjxlvx I am now getting a page that records that “this domain may be for sale”… intriguing.

Abu Faris    
  10 November 2009, 2:12 pm

Thankfully Google Cache hasn’t heard

They have now!

http://tinyurl.com/yg2ysqa

now displaying the same “this domain may be for sale” notice.

Alec M    
  10 November 2009, 2:36 pm

Someone’s in a lot of dog’s doo.

thesheikhofalamut    
  10 November 2009, 8:59 pm

Wow, the world is very simple for a lot of posters here. You’re either for us or against. Ho ho.

Anyone would think I was defending the extremist views posted, rather than questioning the intention of posting them here.

Anyone would think I’d expressed pacifist views. I didn’t.

And anyone would think that I suggested we do nothing about radical Islam. Again that is reading something I didn’t say.

These misreadings seem to spring from the idea that if I don’t agree with you I must be one of the *disgusting evil people*. My logic for not agreeing with many of you is that your minds seem to have been overcome by a red mist.

I admit I’m not sure what it would take to clear that red mist away – my posts don’t seem to be helping :p

thesheikhofalamut    
  10 November 2009, 9:00 pm

Wow, the world is very simple for a lot of posters here. You’re either for us or against. Ho ho.

Anyone would think I was defending the extremist views posted, rather than questioning the intention of posting them here.

Anyone would think I’d expressed pacifist views. I didn’t.

And anyone would think that I suggested we do nothing about radical Islam. Again that is reading something I didn’t say.

These misreadings seem to spring from the idea that if I don’t agree with you I must be one of the *disgusting evil people*. My logic for not agreeing with many of you is that your minds seem to have been overcome by a red mist.

I’m not sure what it would take to clear that red mist away – my posts don’t seem to be helping :p

qidniz    
  11 November 2009, 1:27 am
Chris    
  11 November 2009, 8:17 am

You’re actually supporting this murderer?! It doesn’t matter what his view of Muslims was overseas, if you join the Army, you should expect to go where they need you. He murdered 13 innocent people, there’s no just cause for that!

Alec M    
  11 November 2009, 10:19 am

Chris, don’t worry… this is all part of the Free Rope service which Harry’s Place offers.

wanda    
  12 November 2009, 1:17 am

so if you muslims feel the way you do towards us amercians..why do you come here in the first place? it is so you can take advantage of our freedoms and way of life that you are denied in your own country and to get a free education in our military so you can go back there and used it against us. our god is an awesome GOD and you are going to pay,mr.hassan..wait and see…be sure your sins will find you out…from our HOLY BIBLE

wanda    
  12 November 2009, 1:17 am

so if you muslims feel the way you do towards us amercians..why do you come here in the first place? it is so you can take advantage of our freedoms and way of life that you are denied in your own country and to get a free education in our military so you can go back there and used it against us. our god is an awesome GOD and you are going to pay,mr.hassan..wait and see…be sure your sins will find you out…from our HOLY BIBLE

wanda    
  12 November 2009, 1:17 am

so if you muslims feel the way you do towards us amercians..why do you come here in the first place? it is so you can take advantage of our freedoms and way of life that you are denied in your own country and to get a free education in our military so you can go back there and used it against us. our god is an awesome GOD and you are going to pay,mr.hassan..wait and see…be sure your sins will find you out…from our HOLY BIBLE

wanda    
  12 November 2009, 1:17 am

so if you muslims feel the way you do towards us amercians..why do you come here in the first place? it is so you can take advantage of our freedoms and way of life that you are denied in your own country and to get a free education in our military so you can go back there and used it against us. our god is an awesome GOD and you are going to pay,mr.hassan..wait and see…be sure your sins will find you out…from our HOLY BIBLE