Over the weekend, Army Chief of Staff, Gen. George Casey, became the latest "enabler" of Islamic terrorism, warning that the Ft. Hood shooting could cause a backlash within the armed forces and praising the Army's diversity:
“I've asked our Army leaders to be on the lookout for that,” General Casey said in an interview on CNN's “State of the Union. “It would be a shame — as great a tragedy as this was — it would be a shame if our diversity became a casualty as well.”
General Casey used almost the same language in an appearance on ABC's “This Week With George Stephanopoulos,” an indication of the Army’s effort to ward off bias against the more than 3,000 Muslims in its ranks.
“A diverse Army gives us strength,” General Casey, who visited Fort Hood Friday, said on “This Week.”
I've argued before that Islamophobia is a threat to our national security and I won't rehash those arguments here. Hopefully those of us who are using the Ft. Hood shootings to suggest that Muslims shouldn't be allowed to serve in the armed forces, or that Muslim servicemen should be treated as potential traitors will heed Casey's warning -- people like Rep. Sue Myrick, Michelle Malkin, Allan West and Brian "pure genes" Kilmeade. Somehow I doubt they will.
In the meantime, investigators seem to have tentatively concluded that Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan acted out "under a welter of emotional, ideological and religious pressures," and that the shootings were "not part of a terrorist plot." The Miami shootings that occurred on Friday should have reminded us that there a number of reasons why people snap: The fact that Hasan was a Muslim does not mean that his rampage was an act of terrorism. But even if it was, the notion that all American Muslims should now come under a cloud of suspicion does not follow.
-- A. Serwer
