Fort Hood

There has been a lot of discussion in the media recently regarding the Fort Hood shooting, and the perpetrator of the attack, Maj. Nidal Hasan. On the one hand, he is considered to be a mentally unstable soldier who simply could not handle the stress of deployment and had a complete mental breakdown. On the other hand, people are accusing him of being a Muslim extremist who went on a killing spree to "punish" the West. The latter theory is given credibility by the apparent connection between Hasan and radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Aulaqi, who has been an outspoken supporter of extremism and has called for attacks against America.

I found an article from the Washington Post here that discussed the FBI's investigation of the mosque that Hasan attended, and also some of the reactions from other Muslims who attend the mosque. I thought that it was pretty fair to mainstream Muslims in that it showed the perspective of most American Muslims- that is, shock and disbelief at the attack.

I personally believe that Maj. Hasan was just a mentally unstable soldier whose impending deployment pushed him over the edge. He was able to find people like Anwar al-Aulaqi who took advantage of his instability and used this breakdown as a way to strike out at American soldiers. I don't think that the fact that he was a Muslim was the ONLY factor in the attack, although it may have turned a suicide into a terrorist attack.