The second reason why Hasan’s belief is disturbing is because it means that, to a certain extent, the terrorists are right.  The more we as a culture and our government as an organization marginalizes and oppresses individuals from a certain ethnic or minority group, the more “justified” the actions of radicals becomes.  Of course, this does not mean that terrorism is ultimately justified.  But it does make the job of our military personnel that much more difficult.  How are we to convince the people of the Muslim world that we don’t think that they are all mad-eyed suicide bombers if our own news organizations are calling for what amounts to racial profiling?  How are we to convince the people of the Muslim world that we don’t fear their religion and their very ethnicity if we arrest people wearing t-shirts with Arabic script in airports?

The logic that one uses when one assumes that all members of a group are exactly the same is faulty to a horrifying degree.  Our country fought for over 100 years to bring legal equality to minorities, specifically African-Americans, and the election of Barack Obama to the presidency has reignited a rather lengthy debate.  To this day we hear family members or friends occasionally make hasty generalizations about minorities or individuals that belong to a particular group, and we typically recognize those comments for what they are, issue some form of correction, and go on our merry way without worrying too much about it.  But what if we followed that line of thinking to its logical conclusion?

Well, James Earl Ray, the man who shot Martin Luther King Jr. was white, so we can safely assume that all white people hate black people.  Scott Roeder was a Christian, so we can safely assume that all Christians think murder can be justified in the right circumstances.  Seung-Hui Cho was Korean, so we can safely assume that any Korean that gets his or her hands on a gun will kill as many people as possible before killing themselves.  Michael Vick was black, so we can safely assume that all black people abuse animals and like to bet on blood sports.  Jeffrey Dahmer was a homosexual, so we can safely assume that all homosexuals are serial killers and probably have the bodies of their victims strewn about their apartments in various states of decay.  He also primarily killed people who were not white, so this fits in with the James Earl Ray theory as well.  Aileen Wuornos was a woman and a lesbian, so we can safely assume that all women are lesbians, prostitutes, and serial killers.  Do I need to continue?

The easy answer to the recent events at Fort Hood is that Hasan did it because he was a Muslim.    But it’s not the correct answer.  Even if it turns out that his only motivator was that he believed that Allah directly ordered him to kill as many people as he possibly could, still it will not be the correct answer.  The correct answer was that he was a deeply disturbed individual who did something without reason or rationality.  It’s not a particularly great answer, and it doesn’t really solve any problems.  But it’s the only answer we will be able to come up with.

We can learn nothing from this event, other than that people are often sick and evil, and they often do sick and evil things simply because they are scared of something that they don’t understand, whether it be in themselves, others, or the entirety of society.  By singling out Muslims we almost justify the actions of terrorists.  And we can never let that happen.  We must always, without exception, be the ones who err on the side of caution.  I’ll sign off with a link to an article by James Fallows, writer for The Atlantic Monthly.  He said it better than anyone could.

Fin