What is 'doing the 'right' thing?Anwar al-Awlaki is the former imam of the Dar al Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Virginia, which Hasan frequented -- as did three of the 9/11 hijackers.
"Nidal Hassan Did the Right Thing," by Anwar alAwlaki, November 9 :
Nidal Hassan is a hero. He is a man of conscience who could not bear living the contradiction of being a Muslim and serving in an army that is fighting against his own people. This is a contradiction that many Muslims brush aside and just pretend that it doesn't exist. Any decent Muslim cannot live, understanding properly his duties towards his Creator and his fellow Muslims, and yet serve as a US soldier. The US is leading the war against terrorism which in reality is a war against Islam. Its army is directly invading two Muslim countries and indirectly occupying the rest through its stooges.Did Nidal Hassan do the 'right thing'?Nidal opened fire on soldiers who were on their way to be deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. How can there be any dispute about the virtue of what he has done? In fact the only way a Muslim could Islamically justify serving as a soldier in the US army is if his intention is to follow the footsteps of men like Nidal.
The heroic act of brother Nidal also shows the dilemma of the Muslim American community. Increasingly they are being cornered into taking stances that would either make them betray Islam or betray their nation. Many amongst them are choosing the former. The Muslim organizations in America came out in a pitiful chorus condemning Nidal's operation.
The fact that fighting against the US army is an Islamic duty today cannot be disputed. No scholar with a grain of Islamic knowledge can defy the clear cut proofs that Muslims today have the right -rather the duty- to fight against American tyranny. Nidal has killed soldiers who were about to be deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan in order to kill Muslims. The American Muslims who condemned his actions have committed treason against the Muslim Ummah and have fallen into hypocrisy.
Allah(swt) says: Give tidings to the hypocrites that there is for them a painful punishment - Those who take disbelievers as allies instead of the believers. Do they seek with them honor [through power]? But indeed, honor belongs to Allah entirely. (al-Nisa 136-137) [Koran 4:136-137]
The inconsistency of being a Muslim today and living in America and the West in general reveals the wisdom behind the opinions that call for migration from the West. It is becoming more and more difficult to hold on to Islam in an environment that is becoming more hostile towards Muslims.
May Allah grant our brother Nidal patience, perseverance and steadfastness and we ask Allah to accept from him his great heroic act. Ameen
Some certainly think so...
This is a looooong read but well written - even if you do not agree with it.
No, in my opinion he didn’t. It’s not right to kill someone and it’s certainly not heroic. You might say in his defence that he wanted to protect his belief and people, but that still doesn’t it all right to kill others. The United States aren’t that much better, but who started this war actually? We are not even sure if it is a war against terrorism or religion. If one of the enemies is the Muslim/Islamic world and the other one is the west world. Who was the first one who provoked the other? Was it the 11th of September? Or was it just time for an other religious war? I think that it started with the 11th September attack and that it was a war against terrorism but then it turned to a war against religion.
ReplyDeleteMost Muslims who move to the west world experience a lot of culture clashes. That’s a very big problem and sometimes I wonder if it would be better without the globalisation that creates these problems.
The United States are very religious. When president Obama was inaugurated he had to swear on the bible and everyone had to pray. My first impression of this was: WHAT THE **** ARE THEY DOING??? Why do they have to mix everything with religion? Politics and religion is NOT a good combination! So I understand that it must be hard for Islamic people to live in the USA, but again that doesn’t make it OK to till kill.
Maybe it’s not even the religion or the terrorists that are the villains here. Maybe it’s the extremists fault. Nothing good comes out of being an extremist, it is best when things are just enough and not killing others.
This comment is starting to be to long... I better finish now.
Doing the "right thing", can be translated as acting respeting your values and beliefs so, as values and beliefs change for everyone because of religious and cultural reasons, "the right thing" changes.
ReplyDeleteIm going to give my own opinion to answer the second question, maybe it does not suit everyone else criteria, but as I said before "the right thing to do" depends of your own values and the way you apply them.
I think he didn't do the right thing, because the muslim society is facing a really complicated problem and opening fire against the soldiers didn't solve it, maybe it even gave more problems to the american muslim society, because americans would be afraid of the same thing to happen again.
Other point is that he was as american as muslim, so even when he was trying to respect an important part of his identity (by "protecting" muslims) he was turning his back to another part of it.