Quiet Spoken Muslims Who Turn
to Terror
By DANIEL PIPES
The New York Sun
March 14, 2006
"Individual Islamists
may appear law-abiding and reasonable, but they are part of a totalitarian
movement, and as such, all must be considered potential killers." I wrote
those words days after September 11, 2001, and have been criticized for
them ever since. But an incident on March 3 at the University of North Carolina
in Chapel Hill suggests I did not go far enough. That was when a just-graduated
student named Mohammed Reza Taheriazar, 22, and an Iranian immigrant, drove a
sport utility vehicle into a crowded pedestrian zone. He struck nine people
but, fortunately, none were severely injured.
Until his would-be murderous
rampage, Mr. Taheriazar, a philosophy and psychology major, had a seemingly
normal existence and promising future. In high school, he had been student
council president and a member of the National Honor Society.
The Los Angeles Times said a number of UNC students found him "a serious
student, shy but friendly." One fellow student, Brian Copeland, "was
impressed with his knowledge of classical Western thought," adding,
"He was kind and gentle, rather than aggressive and violent." The
university chancellor, James Moeser, called him a good student, if "totally
a loner, introverted and into himself."
In fact, no one who knew him
said a bad word about him, which is important; for it signals that he is not
some low-life, not homicidal, not psychotic, but a conscientious student and
amiable person. Which raises the obvious question: Why would a regular person
try to kill a random assortment of students? Mr. Taheriazar's post-arrest
remarks offer some clues.
He told the 911 dispatcher that he wanted to "punish the
government of the United States for their actions around the world."
* He
said he acted to "avenge the deaths of Muslims around the world."
* He
portrayed his actions as "an eye for an eye."
* A police affidavit notes
that "Taheri-azar repeatedly said that the United States government had
been killing his people across the sea and that he decided to attack."
* He
told a judge, "I'm thankful you're here to give me this trial and to learn
more about the will of Allah."
In brief, Mr. Taheriazar
represents the ultimate Islamist nightmare: a seemingly well-adjusted Muslim
whose religion inspires him, out of the blue, to murder non-Muslims. Mr.
Taheriazar acknowledged planning his jihad for more than two years, or
during his university sojourn. It's not hard to imagine how his ideas
developed, given the coherence of Islamist ideology, its immense reach
(including a Muslim Student Association at UNC), and its resonance among many
Muslims.
Were Mr. Taheriazar unique in
his surreptitious adoption of radical Islam, one could ignore his case,
but he fits into a widespread pattern of Muslims who lead quiet lives before
turning to terrorism. Their number includes the hijackers responsible for the
attacks of September 11, the London transport bombers, (All
of them being upscale educated in the west muslims and One of them being a
professor) and the Intel (Computer
parts manufacturer) engineer arrested before he could
join the Taliban in Afghanistan, Maher Hawash.
A Saudi living in Houston,
Mohammed Ali Alayed, fit the pattern because he stabbed and murdered a Jewish man,
Ariel Sellouk, who was his one-time friend. So do some converts to Islam;
who suspected a 38-year-old Belgian woman, Muriel Degauque, would turn up in
Iraq as a suicide bomber throwing herself against an American military base?
This is what I have dubbed
the Sudden Jihad Syndrome, whereby normal appearing
Muslims abruptly become violent. It has the awful but legitimate consequence of
casting suspicion on all Muslims. Who knows whence the next jihadi? How can one
be confident a law-abiding Muslim will not suddenly erupt in a homicidal rage?
Yes, of course, their numbers are very small, but they are disproportionately
much higher than among non-Muslims.
This syndrome helps explain
the fear of Islam and mistrust of Muslims that polls have shown on the rise since
September 11, 2001.
The Muslim response of
denouncing these views as bias, as the "new anti-Semitism," or
"Islamophobia" is as baseless as accusing anti-Nazis of
"Germanophobia" or anti-communists of "Russophobia."
Instead of presenting themselves as victims, Muslims should address this fear
by developing a moderate, modern, and good-neighborly version of Islam that
rejects radical Islam, jihad, and the subordination of "infidels."
Mr. Pipes (www.DanielPipes.org) is
director of the Middle East Forum and author of "Miniatures"
(Transaction Publishers).
http://www.nysun.com/article/29080
This article attests to the madness within these
people that they can at a moments notice be seized upon by the devil to kill,
murder, and bomb Christian Jew and Muslim alike.
Martyrdom of Isaiah 2:2-10 And clung
fast to him. And Manasseh forsook the service of the God of his father, and he
served Satan and his angels and his powers. And he turned aside the house of
his father which had been before the face of Hezekiah the words of wisdom and
from the service of God. (The whole house of Hezekiah is turned
to darkness) And
Manasseh turned aside his heart to serve Beliar; for the angel of lawlessness,
who is the ruler of this world, is Beliar, whose name is Matanbuchus. And he
delighted in Jerusalem because of Manasseh, and he made him strong in
apostatizing (Israel) and in the lawlessness which was spread abroad in
Jerusalem (This is powerful stuff) And witchcraft and magic increased and divination and augulation,
and fornication, [and adultery], and the persecution of the righteous by
Manasseh and [Belachira, and] Tobia the Canaanite, and John of Anathoth, and by
(Zadok) (This man was the high priest) the chief
of the works. And the rest of the acts, behold they are written in the book of
the Kings of Judah and Israel. And when Isaiah the son of Amoz saw the
lawlessness which was being perpetrated in Jerusalem and the worship of Satan
and his wantonness, he withdrew from Jerusalem and settled in Bethlehem of
Judah. And there also there was much lawlessness, and withdrawing from
Bethlehem he settled on a mountain in a desert place. (this is also recorded in
revelation) [And Micaiah the prophet, and the aged Ananias, and Joel, and Habakkuk,
and Isaiah's son Josab, and many of the faithful who believed in the ascension
into heaven, withdrew and settled on the mountain.] They were all clothed with
garments of hair, and they were all prophets. And they had nothing with them
but were naked, and they all lamented with a great lamentation because of the
going astray of Israel.