WASHINGTON: As word spread that a gunman had opened fire at Fort Hood leaving a trail of carnage, a chilling realization swept across the US Muslim community: He has a Muslim name.
From a professor who just testified in Congress, to a White House adviser appearing before a Jewish group and a former Marine driving home from work, Muslims across the country were shocked, angry and afraid that the attack would erode efforts to erase anti-Islamic stereotypes.
Many Islamic leaders said the Fort Hood tragedy could likely post the sternest test for US Muslims since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
“A lot of us work very hard for this country, to make America a better place,” said Muqtedar Khan, a progressive Muslim scholar who has just given Congressional testimony on US foreign policy in Afghanistan before Thursday’s attack. “And this one nut like Maj. Hasan comes along and in one crazy episode of a few seconds he undermines these years and years of hard work we are doing to make American Muslims part of the mainstream in the community.”
Meanwhile, the grandfather of Major Hasan said on Saturday he found it impossible to believe his grandson had committed the act.
“He is a doctor and loves the US” Ismail Mustafa Hamad told Reuters in an interview at his home in the Palestinian town of Al-Bireh. “America made him what he is.”
“Whether he became angry or something else, I don’t know... what I do know is that it is impossible that he would do something like that,” Hamad, 88, said.
US President Barack Obama on Saturday sought to reassure US service men and women the tragedy had also displayed “the best of America.” “Thursday’s shooting was one of the most devastating ever committed on an American military base,” Obama said. “And yet, even as we saw the worst of human nature on full display, we also saw the best of America.”
