Why do they shoot us?

This looks like domestic terrorism to me:

SEATTLE – One person is dead and five others have been injured in a shooting at the Jewish Federation at 2031 Third Ave. in downtown Seattle. One suspect has been taken into custody.

Seattle police spokesman Rich Pruitt said police are confident that only one shooter was involved.

Sources told KING 5 the suspect is a 31-year-old Pakistani man with a criminal background. He is from the Pasco but his citizenship status or how long he has lived in the United States is unknown. Also unknown is what sort of criminal record he has. Officials are on the way to the Pasco to interview his family.

According to the Seattle Times, a man got through security at the Jewish Federation and told staff members, "I'm a Muslim American; I'm angry at Israel," then began shooting, according to Amy Wasser-Simpson, the vice president for planning and community services for the Jewish Federation.

FBI spokesman David Gomez said officials believe the suspect acted alone and is not affiliated with a foreign organization.

I just sat down at the computer and saw this, but it's been news around the blogosphere for at least a couple of hours. Via Glenn Reynolds, Pajamas Media has a big roundup with lots of pictures.

There will probably be a strained effort to say this was not terrorism because it was a lone individual. Well, Timothy McVeigh was a lone individual.

I live in a neighborhood that's about 50% Jewish, in which there is a Saudi madrassa. It worries a lot of people that someone from the madrassa might just lose it and flip out like this one of these days.

This reminds me of my post on Wednesday about eliminationist rhetoric. Here's a guy who put his into practice.

If only there were some way to require that immigrants to this country learn American civics and assimilate. I have no idea whether the gunman was a citizen, but if he was, I wonder whether he really believed in this country, or considered it an enemy to be defeated along with "the Jews." If he thought these people were Jews and not Americans, if he thought he was a Muslim and not an American, he had no business calling himself an American.

I'm sorry, but "Why do they hate us?" is not a question which we should have to ask of Americans -- or for that matter, people on the American street.

UPDATE (07/29/06): Via Glenn Reynolds, I see that there's quite a hurry to declare that the shooter suffered from "mental illness." Not that this would make him any less a terrorist than any other nutcase who believes in shooting Jews in the name of God, but aren't such issues normally raised by defense lawyers?

posted by Eric on 07.28.06 at 11:07 PM





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Comments

A pox on ALL religion. By definition, religion is belief without reason, faith in the absence of empirical evidence.
There were those few who founded this country calling themselves "Deists" or were out and out non-belivers like Sam Adams. They were indeed Enlightened.
The curse of this century, and this world, are those who justify any action in the name of their make believe god, and call it righteous.
Line them up...and you can fill in the rest.
Frank

Anonymous   ·  July 29, 2006 12:43 AM

-You are correct about religion. However, to limit it to religion is ridiculously limited in vision. The truth is, most people believe things ("Global warming does/doesn't exist," "Monopolies are bad," "Matter must be either a particle or a wave") based on intuition and as little evidence or real thought as the religious.

All policy should be based on science. No one should be deprived of life, liberty, or property unless they commit a real crime, depriving another person of those same rights.

Jon Thompson   ·  July 29, 2006 02:03 AM

"Line them up...and you can fill in the rest."

Aparently one doesn't need a make believe god to condone violence in the name of righteousness.

Mick   ·  July 29, 2006 12:01 PM

Clarification:
"Line them up...and you can fill in the rest."
Just who would be lined up in an hypothetical scenario would depend on the level of unreasoning violence they had exhibited. Like the obscence excuse for a human being who opened fire on Jews in Seattle, or the excrement who beheads infidels in the name of his religion of death.
Sorry, but violence is what some nutcase religious wacko is going to get before he can snuff me, preferably at the receiving end of my short barrel 12 gage.
Frank

Frank   ·  July 30, 2006 01:28 AM

I guess I'll buy that. Although, I think putting a pox on all religion is painting with a too broad brush.

You dont see many killings in the name of Y_w_h.

Mick   ·  July 30, 2006 02:08 AM

If you re-read your post, you will se that you were at the ready - before all the facts were in - to somehow blame the media for this. Or at least blame the media for not inciting anti-Arab violence.

BTW: There's a Black church in a largely white neighborhood in Minneapolis. Residents (the white ones) are "nervous" about being attacked by Black people. Is the solution to the anxiety Black-hate?

RayButler   ·  July 30, 2006 10:58 AM

Ray-What utter crap. You really think that a Saudi-funded madrassa in a Jewish neighborhood is the same as a black Christian church in a white neighborhood?

Jon Thompson   ·  July 30, 2006 01:21 PM

Ray-Also, while we may be racists, you have sex with dolphins.

Yeah. Try and reply to that almost meaningless, worthless statement that does nothing but attack the messenger's morality.

Jon Thompson   ·  July 30, 2006 01:23 PM

While I don't know anything about the "Black church in a largely white neighborhood in Minneapolis," I seriously doubt it's comparable to the Saudi madrassa. Was a Megan's Law sex offender living there? Were there code violations and an unlicensed school and unlicensed summer "retreats" run by people about whom the director admitted he knows nothing? Did they feature amplified outdoor events without permission? Did they advocate the destruction of Israel? Was the director of its parent organization deported for connections to terrorism?

I don't see what "Arabs," or "anti-Arab violence" have to do with this. The arrested man was a Pakistani, and Pakistanis are not Arabs. As to the Saudi madrassa, while it is run by Arabs, many of the congregants are American converts to Islam who are not of Arab descent.

The neighbors are worried not because anyone is an "Arab" -- or even a Muslim. They're worried (rightly, in my view) about anti-Semitic fanaticism.

Eric Scheie   ·  July 30, 2006 03:31 PM


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