[Jihadica] Forums on Fort Hood

Intriguing info from academic specialists on Arabic jihadism

Forums on Fort Hood

Editors

November 11th, 2009 USA

Here is a very brief roundup of what people on the forums are saying about the Ft Hood massacre.

• Compared to the English-language jihadi forums, there is little discussion of the Ft. Hood attacks on the top-tier Arabic jihadi forums. When there is comment, it is driven by U.S. press reports.
• On Faloja, no one believes there are direct ties between the attacker and al-Qaida. It was either an individual act of conscience brought on by Muslim suffering or someone who had been ideologically influenced by AQ.
• Posters on Shumukh agree. If AQ were behind the attack, it would have been more spectacular. Other posters posit more individual attacks as American troops tire of the war.
• Anwar al-Awlaki, the cleric with whom Hasan had some contact, is not well known on the Arabic forums. For example, this reference to him relies on U.S. reporting and his English-language sermons. However, he is a very big deal in the English-language jihadisphere. Awlaki’s blog is part of the same cluster of blogs that includes Ignored Puzzle Pieces of Knowledge and Iskandari, whose author, Tarek Mehanna, was arrested by U.S. authorities several weeks ago.

My Comments

1. I remain amazed that practically no commentator has asked whether Nidal Hasan might have self-medicated himself into a psychotic episode that caused him to go postal: Fort Hood and Self-Medication.

2. I ran into Tarek Mehanna at the State House on Muslim lobby day a few years ago. It simply does not seem like the sort of activity in which a blood-thirsty jihadist would engage. Rational analysis of material coming out of Boston must take into account the presence of extremist racist Jewish Zionists that are busily fabricating Islamic jihadist conspiracies as part of an explicit program of demonizing and marginalizing American Muslims so that they cannot take part effectively in the American political process and thereby have an effect on ME foreign policy: Aafia Siddiqui and “Islamist Threat”.

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