Jihadi denial syndrome

Melanie Phillips:

After the 7/7 London transport bombings woke at least some people up to the phenomenon of British ‘sleeper’ Islamic terrorism – and, equally important, to the way this was continuing to be denied by the British establishment – the reaction across the pond was, to say the least, complacent. What on earth had happened to the British lion? Americans asked, scratching their heads in amazement at how a country which had once stood united in determination to fight the enemies of democracy on the beaches was now apparently indifferent to the spread of jihadi fanaticism and support for religiously inspired violence amongst its own citizens. Americans were particularly astounded that Islamists were even being recruited to serve in the British police and other parts of the establishment.

The fact was, however, as I have written and said on a number of occasions, America was going in a similar direction, albeit more slowly and with a quite different demographic. While the vast majority of its Muslim citizens appeared to be people who really had come to the US to get a slice of the good life and had signed up to American values, there was a growing element amongst US Muslims which was becoming steadily radicalised. Worse still, the FBI and other counter-terrorism agencies had been influenced by their appeasement-minded British cousins in the security world peddling their wholly false analysis of Islamic terrorism as having nothing to do with religion, encouraging US officials similarly to downplay or passively allow the rise of US radicalisation. (See for example this story about the silence over a Hizb ut Tahrir conference in Chicago.)

Now we have seen the horrific outcome – the Fort Hood attack which left 13 people dead and dozens more injured by army psychiatrist Major Nidal Malik Hasan, who reportedly screamed the jihadi battle cry ‘Allahu akhbar!’ before he opened fire. There can be no doubt whatever that this was a jihadi attack upon America, not least from the evidence that has now surfaced of Major Hasan’s attitudes for months before his rampage – evidence that the US authorities simply ignored. The Times reported:

His name appears above radical internet postings praising Islamic suicide bombers — something that the FBI was alerted to six months ago. He had frequent arguments with soldiers at Fort Hood because of his declarations that fellow Muslims ‘should stand up and fight against the aggressor’, and his vocal opposition to US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. He even appeared to celebrate the shooting dead of a soldier at an army recruiting centre in Arkansas in June, carried out by a Muslim convert. He said at the time that Muslims should strap on suicide bombs and detonate them in Times Square.

These were the extraordinarily provocative statements and actions of the army psychiatrist Major Nidal Malik Hasan in the months before his deadly shootings at Fort Hood — a massacre that began with him shouting ‘God is Great’ in Arabic.

Yet not only did the US authorities ignore these warning signs that its army psychiatrist was an Islamist fanatic – it has been revealed that he was even a member of the Homeland Security panel advising on the presidential transition -- but much of the media reaction to the atrocity on both sides of the Atlantic has demonstrated an astounding state of denial....

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Islam has become something of the pit bull of religions. You never quite know when one of its members is going to lose it and start attacking everyone around them. It happens much more rarely in the US but it is happening around the world, yet too many of us don't want to be seen as disapproving.

Look, I know there are a lot of fine people who adhere to this religion. but there are also those who kill their daughters are engage in mass murder for Allah. There just are not many Methodist or people from other faiths doing this nutty stuff. There is a sickness with in the ranks that is destroying respect for Islam much more than any cartoonist ever could. There is also a deep sense of denial about the sickness as can be seen in Pakistan where the mass murder attacks for Allah are blamed on the US or Israel.