The Fort Hood Tragedy – not another 9 11
What happened looks like an act of a crazy loner. And his “craziness” appears to have come from the cultural dislocation inherent in being an outsider, and in this case, a member of a pariah group. Cultural dislocation hits even the most integrated of us. I am a white male who grew up in an intact family in a middle class home – I have blue eyes, and our family is fair skinned and blondish, yet even there I felt the sting of cultural dislocation.
I grew up as a Catholic in the 1950s and quickly recognized that the religious figures who appeared on TV shows and movies were not Catholic priests. Still, our Catholicism wad accepted as Christian, we read the same Bible, and the big Christian holidays were ours too. Catholics were still exotic, but much has changed in 50 years, with Catholics playing many prominent roles in US cultural political life.
Jews no doubt felt an even greater dislocation – especially over Christmas. Unlike Asians who are so far enough removed from Christianity as to not be threatened by Christmas, some Jews are (though many are not). But even assimilated Jews would probably experience a deeper sense of dislocation than Catholics would, and those whose backgrounds are East Asian would feel even more like aliens.
For many immigrants, the cultural dislocation lessens over time. For those who immigrated in the great period of immigration, from the late 1800s to 1914, many lived in or near large cities, and remained close to others like themselves. Catholics and Jews formed strong communities in many Eastern and Midwestern cities. Our different religions were accepted – Catholics and Orthodox Christians became familiar to a mostly protestant America, and Jews too became an accepted minority. Of course, had our families gone south, it might have been different – but for the most part, we didn’t.
Fast forward to the Fort Hood massacre. Malik Nadal Hasan is a 39 year old who was born in the US (reportedly) of Palestinian Muslim parents. As a first generation immigrant, his experiences could have been similar to my mothers – but his Muslim religion would have been much less usual or understood. Even if Muslims remained invisible before September 11, to the extent that images of Muslims appeared in fiction, the image would be a stereotyped, often that of a crazy robed Arabs. After September 11, Muslims were more widely seen as dangerous foreigners.
An example of the stereotypes that we accept without thinking can be shown in this brief note about a book, Bride of Islam: The True Story of My Marriage To An Iranian. Read this paragraph from Amazon:
A young, blonde, American girl finds herself trapped in a frightening culture clash when she meets and marries an Iranian national. Nothing in her brief life experience could have prepared her for the challenges such a marital union would throw her way. Sandra learns the hard way that the Muslim life-style is not an easy burden for a woman to bear. She and her sons suffer isolation, deprivation, and physical abuse. Sandra soon finds herself entangled in an Islamic web of intrigue that threatens to separate her from her little twin sons forever. To her horror, the United States government does nothing to protect her sons from abduction by their father, and the police refuse to get involved when Houdi attempts to murder her. She has only her wits, and an unshakable faith in Almighty God on her side. Can an American Girl Scout outwit a selfish and sadistic Muslim husband?
It is larded with an evocation of danger and strangeness (and the danger and strangeness = a Muslim Iranian). Although my personal prejudices make me ready to accept that Iranian social customs are backward and even threatening, I decided to rewrite the statement, making the man an Israeli – I hope the contrast makes my point.
A young, blonde, American girl finds herself trapped in a frightening culture clash when she meets and marries an Israeli man. Nothing in her brief life experience could have prepared her for the challenges such a marital union would throw her way. Sandra learns the hard way that the Israeli life-style is not an easy burden for a woman to bear. She and her sons suffer isolation, deprivation, and physical abuse. Sandra soon finds herself entangled in an Israeli web of intrigue that threatens to separate her from her little twin sons forever. To her horror, the United States government does nothing to protect her sons from abduction by their father, and the police refuse to … to murder her. … an unshakable faith an Almighty God on her side. Can an American Girl Scout outwit a selfish and sadistic Israeli husband?
I know that the circumstance would never be the same – to begin with, Israel is Western, with reliable and independent courts of law – and our two nations are very close, still the contrast should make one think. And at this very moment, brave Iranians are risking their lives for democracy and the rule of law, so perhaps the husband is a special case, and not representative?
So… think of the life of a 39-year-old Muslim who tries to ignore the insults and smears that appear everywhere about Muslims – in his case, Palestinians, and the bad guys in the struggle of Israelis to make a peaceful home for themselves, surrounded by Muslims. He made a mistake – in order to get free medical school, he made a deal with the devil and joined the military. His military service would have started some time around 1997 and continued after September 11 and the war on terror. For a Muslims, I can only imagine how much the war on terror exposes their outsider status. So, our officer cracked. Its not a great act of terrorism, nor should it alter how the US deals with Muslim recruits. All soldiers can crack, and many do – some with an anger turned inward, some who push out.
Still the political right is eager to have an act of terrorism to blame on Obama and so the story is being spinned, read this from the NY Post:
On Thursday afternoon, a radicalized Muslim US Army officer shouting “Allahu Akbar!” committed the worst act of terror on American soil since 9/11. And no one wants to call it an act of terror or associate it with Islam.
What cowards we are. Political correctness killed those patriotic Americans at Ft. Hood as surely as the Islamist gunman did. And the media treat it like a case of non-denominational shoplifting.
This was a terrorist act. When an extremist plans and executes a murderous plot against our unarmed soldiers to protest our efforts to counter Islamist fanatics, it’s an act of terror. Period.
When the terrorist posts anti-American hate-speech on the Web; apparently praises suicide bombers and uses his own name; loudly criticizes US policies; argues (as a psychiatrist, no less) with his military patients over the worth of their sacrifices; refuses, in the name of Islam, to be photographed with female colleagues; lists his nationality as “Palestinian” in a Muslim spouse-matching program, and parades around central Texas in a fundamentalist playsuit — well, it only seems fair to call this terrorist an “Islamist terrorist.”
But the president won’t. Despite his promise to get to all the facts. Because there’s no such thing as “Islamist
Sure, our shooter’s being Muslim had something to do with this. But other than helping to make him a stressed out mess, there is no reason to generalize further.
