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Human Events U
Sudden Jihad Syndrome
by Daniel Pipes
Posted Mar 14, 2006
Individual Islamists may appear law-abiding and reasonable, but they are part of a totalitarian movement, and as such, all must be considered potential killers. I wrote those words days after 9/11 and have been criticized for them ever since. But an incident on March 3 at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill suggests I did not go far enough.
That was when a just-graduated student named Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar, 22, and an Iranian immigrant, drove a sport utility vehicle into a crowded pedestrian zone. He struck nine people but, fortunately, none were severely injured.
Until his would-be murderous rampage, Taheri-azar, a philosophy and psychology major, had an apparently normal existence and promising future. In high school, he had been student council president and a member of the National Honor Society. A number of UNC students told the Los Angeles Times that he was a serious student, shy but friendly. One fellow student, Brian Copeland, was impressed with his knowledge of classical Western thought, adding He was kind and gentle, rather than aggressive and violent. The university chancellor, James Moeser, called him a good student, if totally a loner, introverted and into himself.
In fact, no one who knew him said a bad word about him, which is important, for it signals that he is not some low-life, not homicidal, not psychotic, but a conscientious student and amiable person. Which raises the obvious question: why would a regular person try to kill a random assortment of students? Taheri-azars post-arrest remarks offer some clues.
· He told the 911 dispatcher that he wanted to punish the government of the United States for their actions around the world.
· He explained to a detective that people all over the world are being killed in war and now it is the people in the United States[] turn to be killed.
· He said he acted to avenge the deaths of Muslims around the world.
· He portrayed his actions as an eye for an eye.
· A police affidavit notes that Taheri-azar repeatedly said that the United States Government had been killing his people across the sea and that he decided to attack.
· He told a judge, Im thankful youre here to give me this trial and to learn more about the will of Allah.
In brief, Taheri-azar represents the ultimate Islamist nightmare: a seemingly well-adjusted Muslim whose religion inspires him, out of the blue, to murder non-Muslims. Taheri-azar acknowledged planning his jihad for over two years, or during his university sojourn. Its not hard to imagine how his ideas developed, given the coherence of Islamist ideology, its immense reach (including a Muslim Student Association at UNC), and its resonance among many Muslims.
Were Taheri-azar unique in his surreptitious adoption of radical Islam, one could ignore his case, but he fits into a widespread pattern of Muslims who lead quiet lives before turning to terrorism. Their number includes the 9/11 hijackers, the London transport bombers, and Maher Hawash, the Intel engineer arrested before he could join the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Mohammed Ali Alayed, the Saudi living in Houston fits, the pattern because he stabbed and murdered Ariel Sellouk, a Jewish man who was his one-time friend. So do some converts to Islam; who suspected Muriel Degauque, a 38-year-old Belgian woman, would turn up in Iraq as a suicide bomber throwing herself against an American military base?
This is what I have dubbed the Sudden Jihad Syndrome, whereby normal-appearing Muslims abruptly become violent. It has the awful but legitimate consequence of casting suspicion on all Muslims. Who knows whence the next jihadi? How can one be confident a law-abiding Muslim will not suddenly erupt in a homicidal rage? Yes, of course, their numbers are very small, but they are disproportionately much higher than among non-Muslims.
This syndrome helps explain the fear of Islam and mistrust of Muslims that polls have shown on the rise since 9/11.
The Muslim response of denouncing these views as bias, as the new antisemitism, or Islamophobia is as baseless as accusing anti-Nazis of Germanophobia or anti-Communists of Russophobia. Instead of presenting themselves as victims, Muslims should address this fear by developing a moderate, modern, and good-neighborly version of Islam that rejects radical Islam, jihad, and the subordination of infidels.
dilloduck said:You and WJ are sounding so much alike. Justification of fear or hatred somehow makes phobias and bigotry ok?
We have to be wise as serpents, gentle as doves, dillo. Treat Muslims with respect, but keep your eyes open, too.dilloduck said:You and WJ are sounding so much alike. Justification of fear or hatred somehow makes phobias and bigotry ok?
mom4 said:We have to be wise as serpents, gentle as doves, dillo. Treat Muslims with respect, but keep your eyes open, too.
dilloduck said:It would be nice to think that rational heads would prevail. Acting out of fear and anger tends to get messy.
rtwngAvngr said:You're uniting with the libs at DU, how does that feel? :rotflmao:
dilloduck said:stop RW--the kool aid is killing your mind---you have lost all perspective and sense of self.
rtwngAvngr said:Only DMP can unleash the dreaded STOP IT command with the requisite authority. You're pissin in the wind.
oh ya--my bad
dilloduck said:It would be nice to think that rational heads would prevail. Acting out of fear and anger tends to get messy.
GotZoom said:But it is OK for this clown to act out his fear and anger against the United States?
dilloduck said:Which clown you talking about?
GotZoom said:Grab some coffee and keep up. :cof:
The driver of the van. The guy in the first post of this thread.
Until they are capable of different motivations, aren't we responsible for keeping an eye out for ourselves? We have to watch our behinds!dilloduck said:I thought you might be calling RW a clown.
Of course not--the driver of the van is a perfect example of what happens when people act out of hatred, fear, and ignorance.
mom4 said:Until they are capable of different motivations, aren't we responsible for keeping an eye out for ourselves? We have to watch our behinds!
Nuc said:If our government had not allowed this idiot into the country in the first place, he could not have driven that car into 9 people.
CSM said:I agree. Stop all immigration of Arabs into this country until the Muslim world figures it out for themselves!
mom4 said:Until they are capable of different motivations, aren't we responsible for keeping an eye out for ourselves? We have to watch our behinds!
So.... what do you suggest?dilloduck said:true--but looking backwards with paranoia makes us vulnerable to assaults from other places. We can't win this one by fighting a defensive battle.
dilloduck said:true--but looking backwards with paranoia makes us vulnerable to assaults from other places. We can't win this one by fighting a defensive battle.
