Views On Fort Hood Shooting
While Shakir has been cited as an example of Islamic moderation, his critics have questioned his moderate credentials. In his book America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It, Mark Steyn challenges the characterization of Shakir as a moderate Muslim, citing Shakir's expressed hope for the conversion of America to Islam and adoption of Islamic law in America.
On November 13, 2009 Zaid Shakir issued a lengthy statement regarding the Fort Hood shooting with this introduction:
I begin by expressing my deepest condolences to the families of all of the dead and wounded. There is no legitimate reason for their deaths, just as I firmly believe there is no legitimate reason for the deaths of the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi and Afghani civilians who have perished as a result of those two conflicts. Even though I disagree with the continued prosecution of those wars, and even though I believe that the US war machine is the single greatest threat to world peace, I must commend the top military brass at Fort Hood, and President Obama for encouraging restraint and for refusing to attribute the crime allegedly perpetrated by Major Nidal Malik Hasan to Islam. We pray that God bless us to see peace and sanity prevail during these tense times.
This statement was praised by the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) but criticized by Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, President of the American-Islamic Forum for Democracy and a former lieutenant commander in the United States Navy. Jasser said that "as an American Muslim," he was offended by these comments which he believes reflect Shakir's "disdain for our military." However, Ingrid Mattson, the President of the Islamic Society of North America supported Zaid Shakir's response to the Fort Hood tragedy as "solidly grounded in the Islamic legal, ethical and intellectual tradition."
Read more about this topic: Zaid Shakir
Famous quotes containing the words views, fort, hood and/or shooting:
“The absolute things, the last things, the overlapping things, are the truly philosophic concerns; all superior minds feel seriously about them, and the mind with the shortest views is simply the mind of the more shallow man.”
—William James (1842–1910)
“Why, even when I was innocent her hatred of me hurt a good deal. Now that I’m guilty, her belief in me would hurt even more.”
—Garrett Fort (1900–1945)
“Ben Battle was a soldier bold,
And used to war’s alarms;
But a cannon-ball took off his legs,
So he laid down his arms.”
—Thomas Hood (1799–1845)
“... though it is by no means requisite that the American women should emulate the men in the pursuit of the whale, the felling of the forest, or the shooting of wild turkeys, they might, with advantage, be taught in early youth to excel in the race, to hit a mark, to swim, and in short to use every exercise which could impart vigor to their frames and independence to their minds.”
—Frances Wright (1795–1852)