Ms Anthropia,

I remember when that convert to radial Islam, Carlos Bledsoe, opened fire on the recruiting enter in Arkansas and killed two young soldiers. There was, literally, no coverage of it by Salon. At all. Whereas the Tiller murder, whih occured at around the same time, got gallons and gallons of ink. Why so-called liberals are so unwilling to discuss the dangers posed by a profoundly illiberal philosophy are pretty much beyond me. My best guess is that they don't want to be seen as behaving like slack-jawed rightwing toolbags. But surely there is a middle ground between "ignore the problem" and "rant about it like a bigoted assclown"...isn't there?

As I mentioned in a previous letter, I was a US Army officer. I was also a religious minority (Jewish). While, admittedly, Judaism is a religion that religious conservatives find far more congenial than Islam, I saw very little evidence of aggressive Christian evangelism in the service. A few ofifcers droppped mentions, here and there, of their Bible-believing ways. I got a few impolitic questions and wary glances upon mentioning my religion. A few chaplains explicitly invoked Jesus in "public" prayers (ie. invocations/benedictions at ceremonial events, rather than voluntarily-offered religious services)--I challenged them every time it happened and received well-thought-out, cogent defenses. But a pervasive, aggressive, systematic Christian evangelism simply did not exist in the officer corps. (My understanding is that the US Air Force has somewhat more serious problems in this regard). I would imagine that being Muslim in the Army is considerably more fraught than being Jewish same, but I did know a few Muslim soldiers (including one cadet) who did not seem to receive particular approbrium.

But let's say that I just wasn't paying attention, that MIkey Weinstein is not only right but understates the case, and overt Christianity is the order of the day in the US Army. That *still* wouldn't mean that Christian evangelism "caused" the Fort Hood murders--what caused it was Major Hasan deciding to open fire on his fellow soldiers with two pistols. Officers don't get bullied and harassed, for religious reasons or any other; they just don't. Especially not if they are in the learned professions such as medicine. This isn't a guy who was subject to getting pushed around or beaten up by rowdy GIs in the barracks (and, even if he was, there are other ways to deal with this problem besides 'start killin').

I think it's safe to cast out a bit of informed conjecture at this point. Hasan joined the Army, presumably, out of the same mix of ideology, self-interest, and psychology that motivates most recruits (desire to serve, desire to prove you're good enough to hack it, college tuition, etc. etc.). In the mid-1990s, it was utterly uncontroversial and unproblematic for a mainstream American Muslim to join and serve, and many did, like the good First Sergeant mentioned in this article.

9/11, and more specifically the US response to that terrible day, changed all that. It is easy to interpret the "Global War on Terror" as a war on Islam (I don't think it is, being as our local-national partners in Iraq and Afghanistan with whom we partner on a daily basis are almost all Muslims, too--but I can also see how one can reach that conclusion, particularly if one is of the faith). Hasan pretty obviously did just that--and cast his lot with his faith rather than his country. More particularly, he cast his lot with the most pernicious, radical, and violent form of his faith. In short, his disenchantment with US foreign policy led him to be recruited by Islamic terrorists. (This is not to say he's necessarily a member of any orgnaization, or that this business represented a pre-arranged sleeper-cell type plot, but merely that he became an adherent to the cause of global jihad).

The circumstances Hasan found himself in would be, without a doubt, trying to anyone. The solutions he found to those cirumstances are reprehensible, depraved, downright evil. The idea that Christian evangelism in the US Army "caused" this is bullshit of the highest order.