The horrific incident at Fort Hood, Texas, should come as a wake up call to all those in the American academia who promote identity based politics:Gays, lesbians, minority, sexual preference, etc etc. Now the Muslim identity is becoming increasingly problematic in the USA and I believe that years and years of promoting identity politics has left the country without the means of even admitting to itself that the islamic identity clashes head long with that of a secular nation state. The US media is already concluding that Major Hassan's crime does in no way reflect upon the patriotism of the Muslim-American population. May be so. My point is that the growing alienation of the Muslims from the mainstream of western collective life is contibuting to the sense of unease and the killings in Fort Hood stems from that feeling of unease.
Let me at the very out set condemn in the strongest possible manner the violence against the armymen and women at Fort Hood. My point is not to justify the crime but to say why it happened. Major Nidal by all accounts was being radicalised and his peers at Walter Reed had drawn attention to a presentation he made in which he seems to have justified suicide bombings. If thiswas indeed the case why did the Army not pay any attention. The practice of identity based sensitivity forced the authorities to turn a blind eye to the increasing radicalisation of one of their own. In a conflict between secular law and identity based fith based customs the Army must enforce the secular law and in the name of minority rights it cannot permit the radicalisation of its members.
Major Nidal seem,s to have been harassed for his muslim beliefs and humiliated for praticing his religion. By the same token, if an armyman or woman is humiliated the authorities concerned must make a full and complete inquiry and set right the fraying human relations. This is absolutely essential in a heterogenous army.
Finally, it would be a good idea not to deploy Muslims in the Army to serve in Irq and Afghanistan as they would have to fight fellow muslims. Secularists may not understand this, but practicing Muslims put faith above politics and the State.