TIMES ONLINE: The army psychiatrist suspected of shooting dead 13 soldiers on a US army base in Texas has regained consciousness and is able to speak, a hospital official said today.
Major Nidal Hasan was shot four times at the end of the gun rampage at Fort Hood in Texas in which 13 people, including a pregnant women soldier, were shot dead and 29 more were wounded, seven of them very seriously.
He survived and is being treated in a military hospital in San Antonio, where he was earlier today said to be in a critical but stable condition. He is able to breathe unaided after being removed from a ventilator on Saturday.
“He is talking. He is conversing with the medical staff,” said Maria Gellegos, spokeswoman for the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio.
When he is well enough to speak to investigators, Major Hasan will discover that he is suspected of links with Islamic extremism. FBI agents are investigating his connection with a radical preacher at a mosque where at least two of the September 11 hijackers worshipped just five months before the 9/11 attacks.
It has emerged that Major Hasan and his family attended the Dar al Hijrah Islamic Centre in Falls Church, Virginia, and that the funeral of his mother, Hanan, was held there on May 31 2001.
At that time the imam of the mosque was Anwar al-Awlaki, a Muslim radical who sees Islam and America as enemies.
Today Mr Awlaki made a posting on his blog titled: "Nidal Hasan Did The Right Thing". >>> Jenny Booth | Monday, November 09, 2009
Here is the posting:
Nidal Hassan Did the Right Thing
ANWAR AL AWLAKI ON-LINE: 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.
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)
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 [Source: Imam Anwar’s Blog] | Monday, November 09, 2009
