Sunday, July 30, 2006 at 6:14 pm by Darryl
“But, Wasn’t He One of them Muslim Terrorists?”
The shooting last Friday at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle was truly a tragedy.
It was a tragedy for one dead person and her family. It was a tragedy for the injured. It was a tragic episode for Mr. Naveed Afzal Haq, who will likely be a ward of the state for the rest of his (possibly shortened) life. It was a tragedy for Seattle.
And it was a tragedy in another important way: it gave Wingnuts a new platform for their hatred, bigotry and xenophobia.
When people only knew that Mr. Haq had an “Arab sounding” name, he was decried as a Muslim terrorist.
The fact is, Mr. Haq was born and raised in the United States. In fact, his family is not Arab and not from the Middle East. They are from Pakistan, which is in South Asia.
Matt Rosenberg at Sound Politics decried that the press couldn’t “broach the ‘T’ word,” in effect asking, “Why can’t they accept that this is terrorism?”
Why terrorism? I think the wingnut answer would be: clearly he is a Muslim extremist terrorist who shot Jews because he hates them.
Except that some of the people shot were not Jewish.
Oh…and it is not clear that he hates Jews (my emphases):
“I want these Jews to get out.”
“I’m not upset at people, I’m upset at your foreign policy,” Haq said in a recorded conversation with police dispatchers that was detailed in court documents. “These are Jews and I’m tired of getting pushed around and our people getting pushed around by the situation in the Middle East.
“I just want us to get out of Iraq,” Haq reportedly said. “I’m an American too, but I want our people out of Iraq.”
This sounds like a man with a lot of confused thoughts going through his head. Is this a man who is undertaking Islamic terrorism? Or, is Rosenberg slapping the “terrorist” label on him because he has dark skin, an “Arab” name, and is a Muslim?
The fact is Naveed Afzal Haq had recently convert to Christianity:
He told friends he felt alienated from his own family, in part because his career had disappointed his father and also because he had disavowed Islam last year, converting to Christianity.
Haq had begun studying the Bible, attending weekly men’s spiritual group meetings, only to stop coming a few months after his baptism.
[…]
The group’s leader, Albert Montelongo, said Haq started studying the Bible and in December he underwent a water baptism at the non-denominational church, performed by Montelongo. He said Haq accepted his new faith, though he knew that he would also be offending his own family and its deeply rooted culture.
The Wingnuts were wrong. I ran with the Christian theme in a satirical, mocking piece at HorsesAss.
(Yes…it really is Satire, in which I respond like a Wingnut extremist, except for substituting “Christian” for “Muslim.” Really…I don’t believe suspicious Christians should be rounded up and put in a detention camps in rural New Mexico!)
If not terrorism, what was it? The only explanation that fits the evidence to date is that the man flipped as a result of many problems in his life, including his frustrations with American and Israeli foreign policy. I highlight some of the problems in Mr. Haq’s life wrapped in Wingnut satire:
Sure…there will be apologists who will point out that Mr. Haq suffered from bipolar disorder, that he had a previous arrest for anti-social behavior (exposing himself at a shopping mall), that he was well-educated but minimally employed at a Home Depot, that he felt isolated from his family after renouncing Islam, that he was lonely, that he badly wanted a romantic relationship, that he suffered discrimination as a brown-skinned person with a suspicious-sounding name in a lilly-white Pacific Northwest, or that all he desperately wanted was to “fit in.†Some have even suggested that his job led him to “go Depot.â€
All of these are excuses made by touchie-feelie liberals who refuse to accept that America is under siege by Christian terrorists.
No, Mr. Haq’s violence was not the premeditated terrorist actions of an Islamic extremest (or a Christian extremist, for that matter). Nothing makes sense except that Haq was a confused and desperate man who finally snapped.
Sunday, July 30th, 2006 at 9:39 pm
Wow, I can’t believe that people jump to these conclusions. The first thing I thought of was, “It’s just Columbine all over again.” These things happen when people are confused and desperate, when their brain chemistry is all out of wack, and they just want to be paid attention to.
That doesn’t mean that some nefarious entity couldn’t be pulling the strings somehow, either through brainwashing or top-secret mind control, but it doesn’t really tell us anything. For all we know, the church that this guy went to could be a front for a CIA MK Ultra Mind Control outfit, with the ultimate goal of the attack to provoke sympathy for Israel despite their devastation of Lebanon.
Without all the facts, everything we surmise just isn’t credible. Thanks for laying it all out in the open, so folks can see what this really is. A problem of our collapsing economy, crappy healthcare system, and lack of intervention for mental health patients.
As someone with a close family member with bipolar disorder, this kind of terrible outcome is something we always have to worry about. I just wish someone could have stopped him before he took a life.
Monday, July 31st, 2006 at 9:41 am
I might be shocked by how many people took that post at horsesass.org to be serious… but then again you have Tom Delay and others saying what a fine conservative that Stephen Colbert guy is too.
Sheesh!
Monday, July 31st, 2006 at 11:40 am
Darryl, I like this article much better! However, he is still a Muslim. The Olympian online has a story on him that quotes a family friend as saying the last time he saw Haq was when he (Haq) attended Friday prayers at the mosque two weeks ago. It also said he has been going to a psychologist for 10 (TEN) years.
Whether he did it to get attention or he did it to prove to someone that he is Muslim and he can Jihad with the best of them, it’s still terrorism. When you deliberatly kill innocent people to make a religious or political point, it’s terrorism. It doesn’t matter whether it’s one person doing the bombing/shooting or dozens, it’s still terrorism. Was Timothy McVeigh a terrorist? Yes, he was. It is sad and it is a tragedy as you state. The bigger tragedy is that with zealots on many different sides of the equation, it is impossible to stop.
Tuesday, August 1st, 2006 at 4:08 am
sgmmac, based on that then the US governmnet and the Israeli government are also both terrorist organizations. I agree.
Tuesday, August 1st, 2006 at 6:21 am
I wonder if wingnuts know that there are actually Arab Christians living in the ME.
Tuesday, August 1st, 2006 at 9:00 am
You’re right about Christian Terrorists. The Identity Church is a neo-Nazi church allied with domestic terrorist groups. These guys are DANGEROUS. They have lots of weapons and have had WMD’s. Some of these right-wing terrorists were arrested driving to Las Vegas with enough ricin to kill everybody in town.
The Christian Right wants to turn the US into a theocracy where the Bible trumps the Constitution. They are dangerous people and our government needs to protect us from them.
Tuesday, August 1st, 2006 at 9:07 am
Thanks y’all for the comments. I’ve been a little busy with guest blogging for the last few days, so I’ve not responded much here.
There is some discussion about this post, including a responses to sgmmac’s comment in this thread at Horsesass.
Tuesday, August 1st, 2006 at 9:22 am
Funny that Malkin has posted her “Gallery of Random Shootings” on her website as if to say that a handful of shootings from Muslims somehow designates a trend. If that were the case, then how about those guys Timothy McVeigh and Eric Rudolph. Those crazzzzzy Christians blowing shit up, it must be a trend. Lock them all up and throw away the key!
Thursday, August 3rd, 2006 at 9:09 pm
these goddamn christian terrorists. we should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to atheism.
Friday, September 22nd, 2006 at 2:34 am
Either you ppl have no COMMON SENSE or even 2 CENTS of a brain or more likely paid posters to put out HATE POSTS aka PROPAGANDA. So which MSM is providing your paychecks?
The majority of christians (who /feign shock/ are not celebs or leaders in this world) do not back up any type of terroristic behaviours. Their main “concern” is not “hating” or “war” … their concern is about growing in Christ Jesus. It/they have nothing to do with the wars started by politicians who claim to be any type or all types of religions. You know the current administration is just using christianity platform for its own gains, just like Catholics have through the ages in the “other parts of the world” — puleeeeeeeeeeez — you are on the level of the ones youre attacking and stand “against” (the government and MSM)
The day I see J. Stewart and S. Colbert “attack” JUDAISM in any form, is the day when I believe they do not have their own agenda, that being attacking true christianity using the props of the false christian leaders in the world.
Its strange how the anti-Jew becomes the anti-Christian via a Jewish media and why? its fun, its easy! its the “flow!”
“Being wise in their own minds they became FOOLS” — stop posting stupid foolish garbage! Make some real sense and some changes! not more uncalled for HATE! You are putting yourselves on the very same level as that which you mock.