When political correctness is wrong

Why have the government and mainstream media refused to call Major Hasan's behavior at Fort Hood by its rightful name: terrorism? Based on reporting from the media in the US and abroad, it is evident that Major Hasan is a Jihadist who is as much of a terrorist as the hijackers on September 11th. Indeed, the media did not wait until all the evidence was in before calling the 9/11 attacks terrorism. This is no longer true, as the shades of gray that often accompany moral relativism have pervaded public discourse on the event. Though tolerance and multiculturalism have contributed to make this country great, we must not allow Islamic radicals, like Major Hasan, to use our own tolerance as a weapon against us.

Major media news outlets as well as government officials have urged the general population not to jump to conclusions. They have explained that Hasan's motives were unclear, and that he might have been influenced by psychological factors. Some pundits have suggested that the stresses of his job as a psychiatrist for war veterans gave him post-traumatic stress disorder. Interestingly, this disorder did not manifest itself until he was informed of his pending deployment to Afghanistan. Mark Steyn termed it best, when he wrote that Hasan was the first person ever afflicted by pre-traumatic stress because he was concerned that in his pending deployment to Afghanistan he would be exposed to a traumatic event similar to those his patients were experienced. Rather then recognizing the absurdity of this explanation, Hasan apologists have attempted to shove moral relativist propaganda down the throats of the American public and to make it impossible to discuss Jihad and radical Islam in an intellectually honest way.

As is often the case, the truth is plain. Hasan is an American - he was born and raised in Virginia. Though his parents are of Palestinian descent, he had no national or political ties abroad that should have influenced him; rather it was his religion that came to direct his thinking and actions. The London Guardian reported that Hasan allegedly shouted "Allahu Akbar" (in English, "God is Great"), as he opened fire on the unarmed soldiers at Fort Hood. One might be able to argue that pre or post-traumatic stress could have encouraged him to open fire, but only his religious beliefs would have led him to open fire in the name of Allah. Despite the plain evidence to the contrary, the main-stream media and the government spokespeople declared Major Hasan was declared "not a terrorist" before authorities had the opportunity to investigate his background or the site of the attack. A failure to call a terrorist attack by its accurate name is offensive to the victims and their families and defies common sense and illustrated a complete disconnect from reality.

All the political correctness meted out by the media will not change the objective fact, that our culture, which is based on Judeo-Christian values that prize individual rights and freedom of religion and speech, is in an existential struggle against radical Islam. This struggle is the central element of American foreign policy. So, for people to pretend that this is just an isolated incident, or an individual's psychological breakdown, not only insulting but purposefully obstructionist. It is not unreasonable for Americans to question whether Islam somehow sows the seeds that lead some Muslims to fanaticism. Belief in such a "politically incorrect" concept could rightly be attributed to the 14,374 terrorist attacks perpetrated by Muslims worldwide since September 11th (www.thereligionofpeace.com). Contrary to politically correct dogma, an honest discourse of these challenges and attacks is not necessarily an indictment of all Muslims or Islam as a whole. Rather, such honesty might encourage the same type of introspection in Islamic society that has benefited Western democracies.

A failure to recognize or acknowledge problems does not mean that they do not exist. We must not bend over backwards to avoid offending people at the expense of the truth; it is our duty as citizens of the free world to become more intellectually honest as individuals and as responsible members of society and recognize the threats to the rights and freedoms that we enjoy on a daily basis. The rights we value are not an entitlement. Our parents and grandparents fought and died for those freedoms; we are merely the guardians and gatekeepers of those rights. If we fail to protect them, our country's heroes will have died in vain.

If we fail recognize that it is in fact possible to have terrorists within our military the problem will spread and become debilitating. When someone, whether an American soldier or a Saudi Wahhabi extremist, screams 'God is great' as he guns down unarmed people, and has SoA (Soldier of Allah) printed on his personal business card, he qualifies as a terrorist and should be identified as such. Acknowledging the problem by its rightful name is the first step to solving it.