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Islam in the US after Fort Hood massacre â€“ EXCLUSIVE

Islam in the US after Fort Hood massacre â€“ <font color=red> EXCLUSIVE </font>

12 November 2009 11:53 (UTC +04:00)

Washington. Isabel Levine â€“ APA. Islam and Muslims became again a theme of anxiety and fear in the United States. The reason for that - Nidal Malik Hassan, the US Army major accused of gunning down 12 soldiers and a civilian at the Texas army base Fort Hood last Friday, APAâ€™s Washington correspondent reports.

While the whole country is in a state of shock and is mourning the victims of the massacre, the media outlets are often questioning â€“ are those who practice Islam something Americans should worry about?
Is Nidal Malik Hassan a terrorist affiliated with Al-Qaeda or is he just someone with psychological problems? A number of US TV stations started showing some â€œterrorism propagandizing Islamists in New York who are saying that all non-Muslims are enemies and should be terrorizedâ€ and are connecting these events with each other.

American Azerbaijanis, also mainly Muslims, say they feel very sad about what happened. A social sciences student Tural Akhmadov says he is angry: â€œWho is this guy? Who gave him the right to affiliate himself and his problems with Islam? Muslims are peaceful people, they wouldnâ€™t hurt anyoneâ€.
He says he didnâ€™t feel yet any change in Americansâ€™ outlook after the massacre in Fort Hood, but Tural believes he will feel it soon.

Yvonne Haddad, Ph.D., is Professor of the History of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations at the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, says that while the Muslim world welcomed Obamaâ€™s speech in Cairo earlier this year, they took a wait and see attitude waiting to see if it represented more than rhetoric and if there were any changes in the policies:
â€œRecently the Obama administration has taken several decisions that have angered the Arabs. Mrs. Clinton praise Netenyahu’s policies on the issue of the settlements (a major reversal of the promise of the Cairo speech) and agreed with the Israeli spin on the Goldstone Report about Gazaâ€.

According to professor, â€œboth the US Federal Government and the military are emphasizing that there should not be any attack on Muslims because of what happened. The response of the people will be influenced by how the politicians and the press represent the massacreâ€.

Another expert, Professor Ivan Strenski from the Department of Religious Studies from the University of California says that those Muslims he knows â€œAre mortified, especially since the killer splashed his Muslim identity all over this deed. Some ask whether he had the right to act as some kind of spokesperson for Islam, or to claim his deed was warranted by Islam. Who was he to take on such authority within the umma? What give him the right to speak, and then act as if he were an authority?â€

He also thinks there will be no fear about Muslims in the US society: â€œThere will be some natural wariness. And the lunatic fringe will make this another reason to hate Muslims. But Americans know Muslims in their everyday life, and know betterâ€.

Speaking of Azerbaijanis in America, professor says there will be no change in Americansâ€™ understanding about them, as â€œAzerbaijan is not affiliated with extremist Islamism as far as I know, and Azerbaijan is a secular state according to constitutionâ€.

Shams C. Inati, a specialist in Islamic philosophy and theology, says that â€œthe Muslim world is outraged. They think that by such kind of actions Islam is misrepresented. The whole idea of suicide and attacking harmless people is prohibited by the Holy Koran. We donâ€™t know yet, who this Nidal Malik Hassan is, so it is early to judge yet. But many of those Muslims I know are unhappy with what happened. Muslims are not dangerous, they are peaceful peopleâ€. The professor says we should wait and see what the reasons Hassan did this are â€“ so far there is no evidence.

But Shams Inati says that Americans are quite educated about Islam now, and there will likely be no fear, not like it was after September 11th: â€œPeople donâ€™t affiliate it specially with Islam â€“ remember, just some time ago there was a gunman who shot harmless people â€“ college students â€“ and he wasnâ€™t Muslim â€“ so this is not about religion, those people are just having psychological problemsâ€.

Professor Inati says some of those Muslim women who wear yashmaks are feeling that people are sometimes feeling scared of them.

A US Navy officer in reserve Naimi Amiraliyev, native Azerbaijani, speaking about the Fort Hood shooting, says that he doesnâ€™t think one should â€œassign any religious value to what happened â€“ there are lots of people with psychological problems, and it has nothing to do with religionâ€. Mr. Amiraliyev thinks that these events â€œwill certainly effect those who are in Muslim religion, but Iâ€™d like to treat it as individual case only.. Itâ€™s a terrible tragedy; he betrayed the trust he hadâ€.

Mr. Amiraliyev also mentions that in terms of religion Azerbaijan might be compared with the US â€“ it is â€œagnostic and secularâ€. He says â€œAzerbaijanis are not only Muslims â€“ there are Christians and others too, I wouldnâ€™t treat Azerbaijan as a unique religion countryâ€.