Hasan: Is he a ‘terrorist’?

What part of “Allahu Akbar” don’t we understand? said Charles Krauthammer in The Washington Post. Two weeks after Major Nidal Hasan killed 13 and wounded 31 at Fort Hood in Texas, our president and much of our media still refuse to call him an Islamic terrorist. Never mind that Hasan shouted “God is great” in Arabic—“the jihadist battle cry”—as he opened fire, or that he had the letters “SOA,” for “Soldier of Allah,” on his business cards. For the Left, being “culturally sensitive” and avoiding any trace of “Islamophobia” is more important than acknowledging the pattern that could help us spot, and stop, the next Hasan before it’s too late. A terrorist is defined by his motive, said The Washington Times in an editorial. Hasan, clearly, was “a jihadist seeking martyrdom who was trying to take down as many ‘infidels’ as he could in the process”—or, as such figures are commonly known, a “terrorist.”

Actually, one study found at least 109 definitions of “terrorist,” said Juliet Lapidos in Slate.com. Some say any act of premeditated mayhem that has no monetary motive—the Columbine massacre, for instance—counts as terrorism. Others insist that terrorism consists of politically motivated attacks on civilians designed to intimidate nations or governments. Hasan may have seen his grievances through an Islamic prism, said James Fox in USA Today, but he closely fits the profile of a typical workplace killer. Like most of the lonely, middle-aged men who show up at work one day and open fire, Hasan had recently suffered “profound episodes of failure”—anti-Muslim slurs from fellow soldiers, an inability to find a wife or a girlfriend, and a string of negative performance evaluations. Hasan appeared to be “seeking vengeance for personal mistreatment,” even singling out certain co-workers to be shot. Is personal revenge truly terrorism?

What I don’t understand, said Robert Kaplan in TheAtlanticOnline.com, is the purpose of labeling Hasan a terrorist. By insisting that his rampage was an act of jihad, we turn the mass shooting at Fort Hood into a military victory for al Qaida. We also feed into the narrative that the U.S. is at war with all Muslims, including those who live in America. Worst of all, by focusing on Hasan’s religion, we may deter other American Muslims from enlisting “for fear of retribution or prejudice.” Given that our military is desperately short of soldiers who understand both Islamic culture and languages, “we need more Muslims in the ranks of the U.S.—not fewer.”

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