Shooting
UPDATE: The gunman forced his way through a security door by holding a gun to a 13-year-old girl’s head, the police chief said Saturday. Once inside, police say, Naveed Afzal Haq opened fire with two semiautomatic pistols he had purchased days before. He has been pulled over by police hours before the shooting for a traffic related cause. Apparently Seattle’s finest didn’t see the guns as he was caught speeding.

Fresh from Seattle, a lunatic kills opens fire at the Jewish Federation. KOMO News Reports:

SEATTLE – One person was killed and five other people were wounded by gunshots Friday afternoon at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle and one person was arrested, police said….

[A] witness says the gunman then walked into the Jewish Center and said he was a Muslim-American and he was very upset about what was going on in Israel. He then pulled out a gun and started shooting, the witnesses said….

Police say they believe the gunman was acting alone and not part of any larger organization.

The FBI says on July 21 and 26, the Seattle office sent general warnings to local law enforcement agencies to be on heightened alert around Jewish-related buildings given the hostilities in the Middle East.

About the author

Rabbi Yonah

64 Comments

  • I live in Seattle, and this has been an incredibly painful day for us. Members of my synagogue were among the shot, but thankfully they did not die. Please lend a prayer to the families of the person who died, and for everyone, Jew and non-Jew alike, affected by this heinous terrorist act.

  • It sucks when one random guy succeeds in perpetuating the stereotype of the “radical Muslim extremist.”

  • All of the people shot were women. One of them, was pregnant. What a sick coward. I’ve been talking about buying a gun for a long time, my next paycheck, it becomes a reality.

  • Uh, yeah, CH. Good point there. ‘Cause when I was reading this horrific story of my fellow Jews being slaughtered before Shabbat, my first thought was, “won’t someone please think of the perception of Muslim-Americans?!”

  • We have an American version of the Yalla Ya Nasrallah song, and it goes something like this: “Yalla Ya Nasrallah, your mom’s a bocchinara, we’ll blow you back to Allah, so don’t f*ck with the Jews.”

    That goes for any other insane sicko with a gun and a bloodlust for Israel.

    My heart goes out to our community in Seattle. May HaShem see this and act quickly on our behalf.

    Shabbat Shalom– May Israel have peace as she prepares for battle.

  • I’m continually shocked at how many crazy people are out there running around. And I don’t why.

    One of the many things that I find ominous about this is that CNN is reporting that “Robert Jacobs, Pacific Northwest Regional director for the Anti-Defamation League…it would be better for Jews ‘not to congregate in one location that might be an obvious site.'” I’m not sure that hiding is the way to go because then “they” will have in some part been successful in intimidating the Jewish community.

    I said a prayer for the Seattle community last night and will keep it in my thoughts.

    Shabbat shalom.

  • Uh, CH…there are, in fact, “radical Muslim extremists”,and they are “perpetuating the stereotype” all over the world on a daily basis. Not all Muslims are radical and extremists, but the ones that go in to places and say they are upset about the Mid-East and then kill innocent people, whether they are acting alone or being in connection with a terrorist organization, should rightly be labeled “radical Muslim extremist” in addition to being called “fuckin’ crazy homicidal sociopath bastard”. And, in fact, many Muslims, NOT ALL, do deserve both labels, sorry if that bothers you.
    My prayers to Seattle and maybe the people in my town won’t think I’m nuts for not sending my kids to Jewish Federation camp this summer when we just happen to be located next to the largest population of Muslims on the East coast, some of whom may be perfectly wonderfully moral, good people, and some of whom may be “radical Muslim extremist fuckin’ crazy homicidal sociopath bastards”.

  • I never said the guy wasn’t a radical Muslim extremist. My point is that he is one, and that it’s a shame how more and more people act as he did every day, causing more and more people to harbor ill feelings towards everyone of their religion. And then everyone is expected to be “fair” when it comes to judging them, which isn’t fair to us.

    I’m sorry my comment was taken so wrongly. I am in no way sympathizing with someone who just shot my fellow Jews in my own hometown.

  • Why should we be expected to be “fair” when judging our enemies as a collective? Because it’s “nice”? A presumption of guilt should apply if an individual is a member of a sect whose basic tenents involve the abolishment of the Jews.

  • All I can say this makes me sad. I hope all the people in the hospital a speady recovery. There are fanatics in all communities. So it I guess that would make me anti-Fanatic.

  • Ch, he’s not one random guy. There is unfortunately, a level of radicalism amongst muslims, that is threatening world stability.

    People who are worried about our environment, and global warming, and rightly so, tend to ignore this larger and more immediate threat.

    Unfortunately, you cannot talk to these people anymore. they are aligned w/ hitlerite mentality. They can and must be crushed and destroyed.

    Unfortunately, we see how they embed themselves amongst civilians in Lebanon and other places.

    This makes it painful to kill both, but it must be done.

    Personally I would destroy the whole damm Iran, because it is the present regime there that is the main cause and backer of all of this unrest.

    Really none of us care what you think of us or our opinions. We Jews here for example in most places are victims of hate. so it makes us a bit harsh ourselves maybe. Maybe you are nice all the time and have never met a low life, but I have. Many a time they yell obscenities at me for example when I am walking home from temple. So I yell back or throw a rock in some cases if one is near by.

    This is the world unfortunately that we have to live in.

    and in Israel they are facing up to this hatred in a noble, if a bit soft way. We support their actions there to wipe out this most dangerous purveyour of hatred, the Radical Islamists.

  • He was so looking forward to killing the infidels that he got a speeding ticket on the way.

    How Muslim-icious of him!!

  • Wandering Jew: We don’t ordinarily remove comments for any reason. However we do get tons of spam and your comment may have been accidentally deleted. Please feel free to comment again and accept my sincerest appologies.

  • I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again.

    “Remember Amelek”

  • Hi everyone here. I stumbled on this site, looking for reactions to the Seattle shootings. I’m not a Muslim, Christian, or Jew . . . still, I’m outraged at that man for what he did. It’s another nail in the coffin of American public opinion of Muslims. Normal Muslims need to slap some sense into their fringe element, if that’s what it is.

  • KSF,
    What percentage of Muslims out of the worldwide total population would you categorize as “normal”. By normal I mean that don’t have a religious belief that the Jews should be completely removed from the land of Israel. Just curious. Anyone care to venture a guess? Somehow I’m thinkin’ the so-called “fringe” is the majority, but maybe I’m wrong.

  • Thanks, Ck. I appreciate your clarifying what happened.

    Steves – Many of your points are well taken, but I think you (and others) might be missing the substance of CH’s observation. If I may presume to “interpret” a moment, it seems to me that CH is merely saying that in addition to the horrible consequences we as Jews suffer due to radical Islam, many, many Muslims also are harmed by it. (In addition to having to live in countries ruled by extremist Muslims, I note.) Do these nonradical Muslims suffer in the same way we do? Of course not. But it is nonetheless a real harm to be lumped in with terrorists when the core principles of one’s religion–and to be clear, Islam–denounce and reject that terrorism. If anything, our history as Jews must make us deeply sensitive to any such assertions of collective guilt.

    Moreover, it is not in our interests to blur at all the very clear differences between Islam per se and those Muslims who do us no harm, on the one hand, and those individual, organizations, and government that seek to destroy us. As individual Jews and as members of Am Israel, we have to forge connections with the millions of Muslims, Shi’ite Sunni, and otherwise, and the many organizations, literally around the world, who denounce the terrorism we denounce and who value and respect Jews, Judaism, and the nation of Israel.

    Of course we have to fight. Of course innocent lives, Israeli and otherwise, will be lost. Of course wide swaths of the Muslim hate us and want nothing but to see us disappear from the land and from the world. But nothing in those truisms warrants totalizing Islam and Muslims, in intent or in effect, as our necessary enemies. To do so is factually inaccurate, morally wrong, and undermining of our safety and security.

  • Folks – to understand the action you must try to put yourself into the shooter’s shoes. WHY did he do it? What drove him to do it.

    If you don’t understand the underlying reasons then you will not be able to prevent this in the future.

  • Gosh, that sounds suspiciously like a justification. I’m sure he had a perfectly good and valid reason for making the world a better place, one shot pregnant Jewish woman at a time. Because when Jews are killed, there’s always a good reason behind it. Right?

  • There you go – twising words around to fulfill YOUR agenda. you know damn well what I meant. Did I in any way justify or approve of what the gunman did? No I did not. Michael you are quite ignorant and it is ignorant people like you that continue problems instead of resolving them.

    Maybe this guy had family in Lebanon that just got killed. Maybe he was depresses, angry, irrational and carried out an insane act.

    Once again – you are an ignorant person Michael

  • So if he was depressed, angry and irrational and carried out an insane act, we should try to put ourselves in his shoes and understand why he did it? And putting ourselves in the shoes of an insane person is going to resolve the world’s problems how?

    I mean, far be it from me to question the logic of such decisions. Obviously, I’m just ignorant, so I can’t see how plumbing the motives of the insane will bring about solutions. So thank God we have people like you to liberate us from our own ignorance and set everything right. One appeal for justification of shooting pregnant Jewish women at a time.

  • Michael – I can see your level of sophistication. The one thing you are good at is playing the victim card. We don’t understand why everyone hates us – we never did anything to anyone.

  • Victim card? Which one of us is asking people to understand the motives of a non-Lebanese man in shooting unarmed non-Israeli Jewish women in the United States?

    But as long we’re playing the victim card, can we agree that history proves that no underlying motive is needed to want to kill Jews? Or did the Germans, Poles, Romanians, Russians, Dutch, French, Italians, Greeks, Serbs, English, Moroccans, Algerians, Egyptians, Syrians, Iraqis, Iranians, Yemenites and Ethiopians (I could go on) all have a reasonable motive for oppressing and murdering their local Jewish populations well before the establishment of the State of Israel? Should we put ourselves in their shoes too?

  • Hmmm – I was once told in school that if one person has a problem with you that it is their problem – if two people have a problem with you that it is not your problem – but if everyone has a problem with you then you should wonder about what you are doing wrong.

    I personally don’t have anything against Israel or the Jews – but you gotta wonder why do all these people have problems with you? Are they all jealous of you? Is it your “Chosen People” status – that God does not like any of the rest of us? Is it your enthnocentic anti-gentile philosophy found in your holy books?

    You like to say that there is no underlying motive – but that is an excapist fantasy. There must be an underlying motive – you just have to be willing to find it and accpet it and change it.

    Maybe all that is needed is that you learn to play nicer and share with the other children in the schoolyard.

  • Okay, you’re not Jewish, so please, listen to someone who is. First, the doctrine of Chosenness is widely misinterpreted. Chosen does not mean “better,” chosen means the Jews were selected by God to carry out a divine task. One midrashic interpretation of the Jews’ being chosen states that the Jews were chosen because they were the lowest of all nations, and their success therefore would be attributed to God, not their own inherent attributes.

    As far as our “ethnocentric anti-gentile philosophy,” I quote the Talmud, tractate Sanhedrin: “The righteous of all nations have a place in the World to Come.” Does that sound anti-gentile to you? And please don’t dig up the “Proof that the Evil Jew Talmud Hates Gentiles!” lists from Stormfront. They’re not accurate.

    But really, the more alarming thing is your insinuation that “ethnocentrism” (which is a charge that could be lobbied at every single ethnic group in human history) and an innocuous, misunderstood religious doctrine are ample justification for the oppression and slaughter of Jewish people in almost every country they found themselves in. How could a people who never constituted a majority in any country for 2000 years be so dangerous? Just because they said they were chosen? How to do we find, accept and change the underlying motive? Stop existing?

    Yeah, you don’t have anything against Jews at all.

  • I am Canadian.
    I know how to compromise
    I know how to live with all cultures
    I understand that in any argument both sides have valid points.
    Real Canadians are therefore not ethnocentric.

    Since Jews – an enlightened group of people – have lived in the West and understand the value of multi-culturalism in this modern day and age why can Israel develop a multi-ethnic fully multicultural state open to all that are willing to contribute to that country and its economic and social wellbeing?

  • “Real Canadians are not ethnocentric”

    Give me a break!

    Before and after WWII Canada’s policy towards Jewish refugees was “None is Too Many” (title of a major book about the study)

    AFTER WWII Canadians of Japanese descent who had already been forcibly evicted from the Pacific coast to Saskatchewan were incredibly pressured to re-patriate to Japan. It was not until the 1950’s that Canadians of Japanese descent were allowed to live on the Pacific Coast.

    “Native Canadians”, “First People”, or whatever the term-de-jour for those previously known as Indians and Eskimo were not allowed to hire a lawyer until the 1960’s. They were required to ask the government for a lawyer. And if they wanted to sue the government, well. tough luck.

    Compromise! Are you old enough to remeber the War Measures Act of 1971 when the streets of Montreal were full of soldiers in full battle gear and all human rights were suspended? I was there.

    And finally, whetever happened to that teenage Somali kid tortured by Canadian “Peacekeepers” just for the fun of it?

  • Because there’s already a Canada. We don’t want or need another one here. Given that the most enlightened powers in the world mass-murdered us and the multi-ethnic and multi-cultural countries in the Americas refused to come to our aid, or even let in our refugees, and given that the 19th and 20th century philosophies which were supposed to ensure the liberation and dignity of all men consistently excluded the Jews, we decided we’d be better off with our own spot.

    You may have noticed that dozens of countries are built around an ethno-religious identity, including the entire Arab world, parts of Africa, much of Europe and much of Asia. The majority of Israeli Jews, by the way, are not Western, nor have they ever been Western. And of course, Israeli’s citizens include Arabs, Bedouin, Druze, Circassians and all manner of non-Jews.

    Essentially, we don’t want a multicultural state based on Western parameters. We want a state that we can be sure will ensure our safety. And there’s nothing wrong with that. Demanding that we be just like Canada is Western cultural imperialism foisted upon an Eastern people. So if you want to be consistent, go harass the Saudis or the Serbs or the Iranians or the East Timorese or the Japanese or any other ethnic state before you come crying to us.

  • The idea that “everyone has a problem with you therefore you are wrong” only works if there is a moral light behind it. The problem is, these nations that condemn Israel:

    1) Hate Jews to begin with or at least have a history of hating Jews

    2) Have no moral guidance; they refuse to see anything as absolutely wrong or absolutely right.

    Consider that most nations condemning Israel do not really want to come out and call the Huzzies terrorists…even though they purposefully target civilians. A lot was said about Israel accidently killing civilians today, and though a tragedy, it was an accident. Yet these Hezholes are targeting Israeli civilians on purpose, yet we do not hear a peep.

    Thus, the majority is not always right…the majority can most certainly be wrong when judging the minority (such as early Americans accepting the genocide against Native Americans or Germans supporting the Nazis in WWII). Just because the majority opinion is against Israel does not mean Israel is wrong.

    Instead, look to the facts of the situation. Of the 40 major wars/conflicts going on right now in this world, 28 involve Muslims (either as the government or the rebel group). Only two, the conflict in Lebanon and conflict in Gaza, involve Jews…and even these conflicts involved Muslims. Let us use logic. Only 5% of the major global conflicts involve Jews…whereas 70% involve Muslims. Why then would you make Israel out to be the agressor in this war? 65% of the other Muslim conflicts involve the Muslims as the aggressors…so why is it in this instance it’s different?

  • Also, to add to the “multicultural” argument…Canada doesn’t exactly have many cultures, and of the ones it does have none of them opt to blow themselves up to prove their point. I haven’t seen any French Canadians strapping bombs to themselves and going into a market place or getting on a bus in order to prove they should have their own nation.

    I assure you that many in Israel would opt for a multicultural approach IF they didn’t have to wear a flak jacket in order to support this idea.

  • Joel – are you serious? There are not a lot of cultures in Canada? We have every culture in the world. We have Chinatown, we have the Greek area, we have little Italy… we have EVERYONE living together in harmony today.

    From what I hear from the comments – what Jews want in Israel is a Jewish state which revolves around Jewish values and Jews are first class citizens and the rest can live there as long as they know their place.

    Not a country I would want to live in – unless of course I was one of the first class citizens. Sounds too much like the US with African Americans a century ago.

    If someone stole my house – I would probably try to blow it up rather than let then live in it also.

  • Did we Canadians make mistakes – yes.
    Are we learning from them – yes.
    Are we building a better country – yes.

  • As I stated, you don’t have a lot of culture. Sure, you have certain sub-cultures, or cultures within your culture, but all migrated there with the intention of becoming Canadian (why is beyond me). The point I am making is none of them are attempting to blow you up to enforce their culture.

    Furthermore, under your logic, any Native Canadians would be fully justified in killing you to try and get their land back. Would you agree that it is okay for Native Americans/Canadians to kill people, specifically civilians in mass, if it is to accomplish the goal of gaining back their land? Would you leave Canada and go back to say, England, if the Native Canadians/Americans decided they wanted their land back and were willing to die for it? Under your logic, this is what you should do.

    You also ignore the point about the majority being wrong or having the capacity to be wrong…shall I take this as your agreement that you had no idea what you were talking about?

    As for Jews wanting Israel to be solely Jewish, it is true that many of the religious Jews want that. I am a Christian and therefore would have a difficult time getting into Israel under certain Jewish beliefs. However, this is by no means the majority of Jews. The reason they want a majority is simple:
    1) If they do not hold a majority then they can easily be overthrown by Muslim beliefs/practices
    2) They have not held a majority in any nation for well over 2,000 years and have suffered because of it
    3) There is strength in numbers. When you have been persecuted for 2,000 years (the holocaust was merely the climax of what had been occuring for years) you want to be the majority so you are protected in a better fashion.

    They do not want to be the majority because they believe they are supreme or better, they want it so they can survive.

  • Nobody’s asking you to live in Israel. And as far as Israel’s “second-class citizens,” they vote, they get municipal services, they have their own political parties and MKs, and nobody is burning crosses on their lawns and hanging them from trees or hiring them as sharecroppers. So go find some better analogies.

    And characterizing the creation of Israel as “stealing a house” displays a gross lack of information about the history of Jewish settlement in the region. Please go read a book before you consider yourself qualified in political debate.

    But since you support the violent murder of “house stealers,” I guess you wouldn’t mind if a Canadian Indian who had his land taken by the white man went and blew up your house. I mean, it’s only fair. You’d do the same in his place.

  • Zed, I think you’ve wasted more than enough of decent folks’ time on this thread. Why won’t you do yourself a favor and watch this? I guarantee that this will be the most productive 1 hour and 17 minutes of your life. You may even thank me for it.

  • He may or may not be random, but it’s rather clear that Naveed Haq was downright nuts. He was an extremely confused, angry man, and he needs treatment as much as he needs containing.

  • Hi Chutzpah,
    I’ve read that about half of all Muslims support radical Islam. That would be about 500 million people. I can only go from there with my own observations of Muslims I’ve met and known, here in America and abroad.
    Some of my friends have definitely been Anti-Semites (sorry not sure on spelling there) to the point where I would be trying hard not to laugh at their ridiculous beliefs about Jews. I’ve found that these same Arabs tend to be Anti-American as well. The funny thing about not being a Jew is that if you’re quiet and keep biting your tongue, some Arabs will relax around you and begin to say what they really think of your country and Jews. The quieter you are, and the more times they see you build their trust, the truth eventually spills out . . . from there I have to decide if this is the kind of person I want in my life – I think you can figure out that I don’t continue the friendships from there. This has been a good litmus test to use on Muslims that I’ve encountered.

  • KSF, I still think that Israel should try to make peace, even tho, there’s a war now. I don’t abide by the right wing wheeze that goes, there will never be peace.
    Maybe there willnever but I feel that we have to try.
    I don’t think that Israel’s position is weakened for trying, but I do think that Israel should increase the bombing and brutality. That is all that the arabs respect.

    When and if G-d Forbid there is another suicide bombers, Israel should send over a couple dozen car bombs in the arabs cities.

  • Thanks KSF, my next question was going to be “can anyone venture a guess as to what percentage of Islam/Muslim/Moslem/Arab people are Anti-American? I would say maybe 2nd and 3rd generation people of this descent who are University educated here are the only ones who may NOT be. As for the 50-50 odds that anyone I else I may meet of this descent having strong anti-semetic or anti-american beliefs, um… explain to me again why I should give them the presumption of innocence?

  • I’ve known many Arabs and Muslims. Christian Arabs I’ve known tend to strongly dislike Muslim Arabs (no surprise) so when I say Arabs, I’ll only concentrate on Muslims.
    I have to admit that after knowing many Muslims, I assume they hate Israel . . . and just wait for time to pass until they tell me so. It barely lifts an eyebrow from me anymore. I truly can’t say if they hate Jews, though. I can only go by what they SAY to me. Obviously, not being Jewish, there are many things I miss but when they are Anti-American and they live in America, that really pisses me off. Why be here if you hate us? Just to use our freedom, I suppose.
    I knew this Arab professor who would tell us that America had polluted the moon by going there, that Europe had ripped apart the great (and giant) former Arab nation – who knows; maybe it’s true . . . but anyway, after some Muslim friends of mine were murdered in the Taba Hilton bombing, he had NOTHING to say about that . . . no condemnation, no, “I’m sorry your friends died”, only “You should come to our mosque”. That’s when I realized he was cold-hearted (I knew him as a friend before he became my professor).
    In answer to your question, Chutzpah, I would venture that a good 80% of Muslims are Anti-American, easily. In the U.S., amongst American Muslims, it hopefully is lower . . . hopefully way lower. My former friend/professor never once said anything positive about the U.S.A. in all the time I knew him.
    Lastly, I do have a Muslim Arab friend who never ever has said anything hateful about anybody.

  • Today Monday 31st July 2006 is the Day of Mourning for the 37 Lebanese children and more than 20 Lebanese adults killed by an Israeli missile yesterday.

    “This day will live in infamy”
    Frankiln D. Roosevelt

  • KSF, I’m a non-Arab Muslim, with a Jewish mum. I’m not allowed to be anti-Semitic, but I do oppose human rights abuses and unjust policies wherever they occur- especially the U.S. I am opposed to the harming of civilians, whether they be Israeli, Lebanese, or Lesbian :P. I’m an American Muslim, and I engage in a healthy critique of U.S. policies, while protected by the Constitution I love dearly. I do not tolerate anti-American bigotry, however, and oppose stereotypes of Americans, Arabs, Muslims, Jews, Israelis, earthlings in general. I’m not that weird; all of my Muslim friends would agree with what I have just said. I’m sorry you’ve not come across better folk.
    BTW, Chutzpah and KSF: I’m an American Muslim, and like just over half of American Muslims, my family has been here for well over 200 years (I’m actually FFV.) So, keep in mind when you say American Muslims, over half of the people of which you speak are not recent immigrants- and a growing number are more native than some of you.

  • Hey Zed, FYI…the shooter was American of Pakistani origin. No connection between Israel and Pakistan. Just saying. Some people just hate. Some people are just broken (it seems like this guy had a history of mental illness). But if we spend all our time looking for reasons to explain the irrational then we aren’t spending time figuring out the ways to protect ourselves.

  • Oh and Zed…inform yourself before making ignorant, misinformed statements. Israel IS multi-cultural. It has Arab members of the Knesset, of its Supreme Court, openly gay members of the Knesset, people from Ethiopia, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Morocco, Russia, etc…etc…I am so fed-up with ill-informed people claiming to “understand” a situation they know nothing about.

  • I would also hope the less than 80% of American Muslims are anti-American, but there are plenty of other types of people here that are anti-American as well. The anti-Israel/anti-semetic bias of most “Middle Eastern Studies” Professors in U.S. Colleges is not a myth.

  • Nakia – no offense but yada yada yada . . . your strangers voice and politically correct writing is drowned out by the psunami of personal Muslim experiences I’ve encountered. I’m glad you are proud to be American but your ill ilk are destroying your religion’s reputation. Find me ONE Anti-American Cambodian, Tongan, Australian, etc. who had ever walked into a Jewish center and murdered a Jew. I guess I’ll have to wait centuries for your response.

  • KSF- I wonder how one could not take offense at such a crude, ill-informed comment, except to completely dismiss it. Naveed Haq was an anti-American Ex-Muslim who walked into a Jewish center and killed a Jew. There are those who have opposed the American way of life, and killed Americans who were not Muslim; there are those who hate Jews and have killed them, without being Muslim. Naveed Haq falls into that category. I’m not sure what nationality has to do with it, however, but Europe is a hotbed of anti-Semitism, so you’ll find plenty of Jew-bashing in the history books and police blotters. As far as anti-American terrorism, well, that can be found within the contiguous 48, American history books, and the FBI would be great sources for as many examples as you could desire.
    I can oppose what the likes of ObL do at the top of my voice, but for those who believe in collective punishment, it won’t be enough, only the death of innocents would suffice.
    I’d recommend that you work on your patience as well, KSF. You’ve had to wait just under 8 hours for my response- as I am not a lady of leisure, I must have a few hours a day for work.

  • KSF, I have some bad news for you. If your mum is Jewish, then YOU ARE TOO, whether you like it or not.

  • Grace, I’m not Jewish. Anyway, Nakia, Naveed walked into that center and said, “I’m an American Muslim . . . “. He didn’t say he was a former Muslim. But I will add that I don’t want to be perceived as you put me; that’s the truth. Understand that I’m just completely pissed off at how many Muslims want to kill Jews. Why no outcry from normal Muslims about this?

  • Grace…hate to break it to you but someone isn’t merely Jewish based on genetics. It’s a choice we all make each and every day (both those of us born to Jewish parents and those of us who weren’t and chose–or I prefer to look at it as—to return to Judaism. KSF isn’t Jewish precisely because KSF chooses to be what KSF wants to be, whether it be Jew, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Atheist, etc…

  • Naveed Haq was baptized years before, and had made no attempts to undo that conversion that his family or friends could see. Perhaps he was referring to his cultural background, as the conflation of race with religion leads some folk to assert that they are “cultural” Muslims, while being agnostic, atheist, or even adopting another faith. I’m completely pissed off at how many people want to kill people- period. There are loads of Muslims that don’t want to kill Jews, or even give them the flu. I could introduce you to quite a few, as they are the only Muslims I associate with, and I live, work, and socialize with mostly Muslims. There is an outcry… alas, it’s not well-covered by news media outlets. Visit a good mosque, hang around decent Muslims, and you’ll hear it. And Grace, my mum is Jewish, and I’m fairly tired of hearing about the whole genetics thing. It’s tough enough being a Muslim who gets cravings for latkes, not to mention my inordinate love of liver knishes.

  • MAKE it known. Hold up signs outside of your mosque. Call up the media. Your religion is going down in flames – urge your fellow Muslims to do something, if that’s really how they feel.

  • Great. There is a big ANSWER rally planned in DC in about 10 days. That should be one wonderful Jew-baiting-fest. Oy. One of the bigwigs was just on the news and refused to call Hezbollah a terror group (of course he did call Israel a terrorist state). And thus why we are where we are.

  • KSF, I don’t have a mosque. If you’re talking about mosque attending Muslims, who are about 10% of American Muslims, why are you focused on such a small segment? I’m too busy working on elected and “elected” officials, as well as relief efforts, to try to get a bunch of folk who are disinclined to listen to non-Arab young women to do jack. Yes, I will say it; like all conservatives, conservative Muslims can be racist, sexist, and disinclined to listen to young persons. Time is too short to argue with people over who gave me permission to open my mouth. I will work with whoever wants to work with me, some of them are Muslim; some are not. The vast majority don’t attend the mosque. And we are doing something; holding rallies, participating in relief efforts, contacting the print, radio, TV news outlets, circulating petitions, contacting officials by phone, fax, email, and postal mail isn’t nothing.

  • Nakia, this is good news. What you need is something that will lure in the media – something eye-catching . . . you need media attention to bolster your efforts.

  • Adam, who was this bigwig, and what news outlet? After I locate the article or interview, I want to share this information. We’ve got enough hate going around not to need dudes like this.
    BTW, please don’t confuse my reminders that Naveed was probably not a Muslim at the time of the shooting as an attempt to shirk any responsibility. Fighting hatred is a human problem, and we all have to accept responsibility for it, no matter who’s doing the hating, or who’s being hated.
    Dang it, KSF, I deal with journalists enough as is. I know, it’s my fault for making friggin’ history, but some folks just get all excited over stuff they’ve never seen before.

  • Oh, and the interview was on Fox News (yipes, did I just admit to watching Fox News…sigh, I suppose I did) yesterday afternoon (the chap’s first name was Bruce, didn’t catch the last name and he was based in their Washington D.C. office). Thanks for chiming in on this Nakia, there’s lots more between us than what separates us. Unfortunately some people can’t see through their anger.

  • I just got an email for one such rally now. I’m tempted to a)form a counterrally, or at least b)join one. I could, however, purposely walk by that rally and give it a rather obvious snub. As it’s tomorrow,
    I probably couldn’t do a), so I’m looking into b)or c).
    I have a hankering to watch “The Passion of the Jew” – anyone seen that South Park episode?

  • Just so everyone knows, the guy was a born again Christian, NOT a Muslim Radical. I’m not saying what he did was right, just that the media loves to put out the wrong information, and jumps to conclusions.