Via ABCNews 11:
The suspect in this month’s attack on the UNC-CH campus has written a letter to ABC11 Eyewitness News.
Eyewitness News received the letter Monday, in response to our request for an interview. It was sent from Central Prison in Raleigh and dated Friday, March 10.
Addressed to ABC11 Eyewitness News anchor Amber Rupinta, the two-page letter includes Taheri-azar’s explanation of what he was trying to accomplish in the attack:
“Allah gives permission in the Koran for the followers of Allah to attack those who have raged war against them, with the expectation of eternal paradise in case of martyrdom and/or living one’s life in obedience of all of Allah’s commandments found throughout the Koran’s 114 chapters...”
“The U.S. government is responsible for the deaths of and the torture of countless followers of Allah, my brothers and sisters. My attack on Americans at UNC-CH on March 3rd was in retaliation for similar attacks orchestrated by the U.S. government on my fellow followers of Allah in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, and other Islamic territories. I did not act out of hatred for Americans, but out of love for Allah instead.”Taheri-azar is charged with nine counts of attempted murder in the March 3 attack. Police say the Iran native drove a rented SUV through the Pit, a common area on the Chapel Hill campus. Six people were hospitalized.
Taheri-azar surrendered to police shortly after the attack. Investigators swarmed his apartment, where they discovered a letter, CDs and a handgun permit.
[My emphases]
Not to beat a dead horse, but this story shows that, at least in one particular (and perhaps isolated) instance, the concerns some in the west have about Koranic law, as it currently being taught, taking precedence over the sovereign laws of nations—even those in which the adherents to both have been acculturated and, to a great extent, assimilated—is a real danger, one that is different in kind (as I have argued) from, say, that presented by Das Kapital or Mein Kampf, insofar as neither of those books are presented as the embodiment of the divine.
The proper response may not be to ban the Koran—in fact, such is highly unlikely here in the US, barring a Constitutional Amendment to redefine “religion” itself—but we are reaching a tipping point where something must be done by moderate Muslims to take back Koranic teachings from the fundamentalists, particularly those teachings that suggest that, politically, the Koran trumps the laws of the host state, and that inspire the kind of self-justifying attacks we saw in North Carolina a few weeks back.
****
More here and here. Thanks to Craig C.
I hear his transfer papers for Yale are all in order and in triplicate.
Al, Dammit, I wanted to finish my coffee in peace. Now I am mopping it up off my monitor, key board and desk! By the Beard of the Prophet, that was good…
Hey, I guess this means we can actually question Taheri-azar’s patriotism. Maybe?
Anyone want to bet on a motion to supress being filed, if this is attempted to be entered into evidence against him? I’d love to hear the rationale for it.
No, Major John, you cannot question his patriotism. He very clearly spells out that he acted not, “out of hatred for Americans.”
It is the hight of patriotism to hurt the ones you love.
Nope, dissent is the highest form of patriotism, and there’s no dissent more striking than an SUV through a walkway.
Actually, Mein Kampf and Capital were considered “divine,” inasmuch as both enlisted jihadis on behalf of a vision–held to be infallible–whose goal justified all means. Fascism and Communism were secular religions.
And while we’re on the subject, notice that once the Fascists and Communists were defeated, the air went out of the ideological balloon. Very important, that, dontcha think?
Sure, Michael, but that’s a metaphorical sameness. After all, there weren’t special rules about non-Marxists handling Das Kapital—nor did the putting a materialist page of text into a material toilet lead to rioting and calls for death.
I still think they are different animals, particularly to the fundamentalists, who think of the Koran almost as the divinity.
I still think they are different animals, particularly to the fundamentalists, who think of the Koran almost as the divinity.
Which is really weird. I mean, some people are upset when someone tears up a Bible, but no one gets hurt. But every Penguin paperback of the Koran is supposed to be holy and immune from injury, highlighting or (gasp) the dreaded dog-ear, on pain of death?
JohnAnnArbor – uh oh. I’d better not let anyone see my copy of the Koran then…got a bit dusty over in Afghanistan (dog-earred too).
Jeff is quite correct to keep pointing out the function of the Koran as a pivot to leverage a justification for all violent acts against “enemies” of Islam. Through this process of religious referencing, Islamofascists can easily rationalize their actions.
To them, not only does the Koran provide foundational support for violence, it demands it. Osama bin Laden, after the 9/11 attacks, came under heavy criticism for not following religious rules for 1) giving the enemy (the U.S.) sufficient warning, 2) giving the enemy a chance to convert to Islam and spare itself from violence, and 3) receiving adequate religious authorization for killing thousands of people.
OBL and his proteges, being religiously devout yet disdainful of secular laws (which to them are Western by design), can be counted on for the kind of rhetoric Taheri-Azar is spouting. It may sounds ridiculous to many of us, and sort of cliche after so many years of it, but they are very serious about these beliefs.
All the more reason why I am paying close attention to the rhythm and content of the messages coming from OBL and Zawaheri the past 18 months. What is seen by most as the rants of cave-dwelling maniacs, I see as preparing the groundwork for more high-profile killings.
perhaps a bit off topic- but in keeping with the thoughts of my previous comments on Koran as Talisman (and a hope to calm Jeff, who seems a bit more edgy than usual in his concerns about another Civil War…but maybe i’m reading his post more quickly than I should), Neo-neocon has a valueable post that could bear fruit in my eariler thoughts about how to “humiliate” the Koran (or at least it’s fetishizers).
When light pierced the darkness: Moslem rescuers during the Holocaust
I know Christopher Hitchens has made similar notes in his essays about the historic relationship between actual Nazism and the Pan-Arab Baathist movement- and I think in these stories you have the nacent counter-criticism to Islamicism.
Assuming we can presuasively introduce these facts into the “Arab Street”, we have a Hegelian criticism of the Islamicist movement. If the anti-Western Islamisist movement can be demonstrated as founded in part by westerners, well then- now it’s the followers of militant Islamicism that have to deal with the up-is-down, black-is-white, Bart-is-Lisa topsy-turvy world.
TW: provide, as in “the answers?”
What still puzzles me is how this idiot got the SUV into UNC’s “The Pit” in the first place. I went to school there and it can’t be easy (um…not that I’ve tried it) manuevering even a small car on the sidewalks and into The Pit area.
Amazing what a hatred of Amer…I mean, what a love for Allah can inspire. Acts of love.
As for me, I’m still trying to connect Wendell Williamson’s shooting spree along Henderson Street in Chapel Hill in 1995 to Newt Gingrich.
Zealous impulses among Muslims will only be tamed in the same manner that zealous impulses among Christians were tamed centuries ago in Europe, with both secular arguments and religious arguments. The religious argument the enlightenment is predicated upon are Christ’s admonition to render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s.
Seeing as Jesus of Nazereth is also a prophet of Allah, there may even be a role for Christians as well as moderate Muslims in an effort for Islamic Reformation.
For instance, if both Mohamed and Jesus are prophets of Allah, is it possible that their messages could be contradictory? Saying that all Muslims for all time should organize their societies according to the current “God as government” interpretation of the Koran is to say that God contradicts Himself when his other prophet instructs us to render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s and render unto God that which is God’s. By doing so Muslims are essentially suggesting that Allah is confused or a liar. Not good.
And that’s just a single example. I’m sure there are Koranic scholars that have many such arguments for reformation, they’ve simply been too frightened by the threat of physical harm by primitive Muslims.
yours/
peter.
In the interest of fairness, the actions by Taheri-azar have been denounced by moderate Muslims (as they are repeatedly when these things happen, just as these statements by moderate Muslims are ignored by the Michelle Malkins and others). Here’s a link to one of the CAIR statements:
Rhetorical question:
Would the Constitution label as “cruel and unusual” deportations that consist of flinging overboard enemies of freedom like Mr. Taheri-azar overboard at say the territorial limit off the Outer Banks?
Yeah, I repeated “overboard.”
Long day…
Remarks like that are usually not best served by following up with something from CAIR…but a nice try anyway.
A couple of points here. One, CAIR does not recognize those who are not Muslim as “innocent civilians.” Members of muslim nations are part of the Dar al-Islam, or “house of submission,” while members of non-muslim nations are considered part of the Dar al-Harb, or “house of war.” All those who jumped on Dubya regarding “you are with us or you are with the terrorists” must realize that he is by no means the first person to have a ‘them or us’ worldview.
Next – regarding the “strange views about any number of faiths” passage, I call Bullshit on CAIR, for their purpose is to ensure that only one faith, islam, is recognized anywhere in the world. Thus, anyone anywhere who is not a muslim is engaged in “strange views about any number of faiths,” thus see point number one above.
A small cabal of leaders plotting to rule the world from a mountainous retreat. Communities of co-religionists living in enclaves within Europe and other nations, considering themselves independant of the local laws, answering only to G-d and his interpreters. Setting up an alternative economic system, applying pressure subtle and gross to control the levers of govenment and media.
I’m beginning to think that The Protocols of the Elders of Zion isn’t just for feeding the Islamist’s anti-Semitism. It’s also the outline of their plan.
CAIR? The same group of “moderates” who are defending the NYC prison imam who spouted Jew-hatred in front of a tape recorder?
You might consider them moderates. I don’t.
JD,
CAIR does recognize the existence of innocent, non-Muslim citizens. First, why would they be condemning Taheri-azar if this they didn’t believe this? Second, only very conservative/fundamental Muslims characterize non-Muslim controlled nations as “Dar al-Harb” (see here and here).
I think you’re using too narrow a definition of “Divine”.
“Divine” authority is no different in nature from any other Uber-authority. Anytime an idealogoy places one single ideal above all others and places advancement of this ideal at the center of their morality, then we get the same behavior. It really does not matter if this ideal is “obedience to the will of God” or “the will of The People” or “the will of the Volk/Race”. Hell, it could be “collect donughts” – if good is defined solely as “that which helps increase donughts” and evil as “that which causes donughts to be lost”, then we will see violence, terrorism, and all kinds of other inhuman shit carried on in the name of massing donughts.
The problem is that people are not actually taught why moderation is a good thing – they are just told “moderate = good” and they absorb it only until they hear the seductive lie that
“extremism in the cause of good is not a vice”. Since they dont actually understand why this is such a dangerous fallacy they think “yeah, good is good, so extremism for good must be extremely good” (simple logic is compelling to simple minds), don their hard hats, then join the crew paving our road to hell.
“particular those teachings that suggest that, politically, the Koran trumps the laws of the host state”
As opposed to the Nazis and Communists, who were/are scrupulous in their obedience to our laws……
Very.
Fight the war the way it <objectivestandard.com/issues/2006-spring/just-war-theory.asp” target=”_blank”>ought to be fought</a>, and the Koran will be irrelevant.
Grrr… let’s try that <objectivestandard.com/issues/2006-spring/just-war-theory.asp” target=”_blank”>link again</a>.
TW: What we need is a forward strategy of destruction.
Sigh.
https://www.theobjectivestandard.com/issues/2006-spring/just-war-theory.asp
I have to wonder how radicalized this guy might have been had he attended some school other than UNC Chapel Hill, where he was almost certainly fed four years of anti-American agitprop?
Not to go all biblical or anything, but the phrase that comes to mind is “as ye sew, so shall ye reap.” (I don’t mean the injured students specifically, who for all I know were the Young Republicans, but rather the Berkeley East community as a whole.)
I’d bet a dollar that at least one faculty member, upon hearing the news, muttered to himself “he should have gone somewhere else to do that.”
TW: National security begins at home.
Depends on your definition of “message”. Moslems claim that, whilst Jesus, Moses, Noah, Adam etc all preached the word of God, it got somewhat lost in translation. For instance, the Koran says that the Romans did not crucify Jesus, but some sucker who happened to be in the general vicinity at the time. Conflicts between the reported words of Jesus and the reported words of Mohammed won’t bother people who believe the first is flawed and the second is infallible.
You might have more luck pointing out that the current version of the Koran was compiled by another guy twenty years after Mohammed died, but I suspect most Moslems would just laugh it off by invoking Divine Providence, the way some Christian fundamentalists do with the King James translation of the Bible.
JohnAnnArbor – uh oh. I’d better not let anyone see my copy of the Koran then…got a bit dusty over in Afghanistan (dog-earred too).
Major John,
You’d had better crisp up the corners of that Koran, and PDQ soldier!
You know if you hurl it headlong at your quarry, you can render him defensless. Have you seen how many paper cuts 114 chapters can inflict. Ghastly!
But if you let this mighty projectile become dog-eared and worn, it might as well be “The Boxcar Children and the Mystery of the 3-legged Stool”.
FYI.
As I pointed out on another thread here, the UNC administration has declined to label this an act of terrorism altho by any reasonable definition the guy has already admitted it.
This was met by a small demonstration against the Admin which was met by a larger demonstration of lib multicultists supporting the admin.
Jeff is right we are stuck in what appears to be a losing meme war. Sucks!
You mean another Thirty Year War?
^Nails it.
The Wahhabists are the reformists, appealing to the direct and pure scripture. Whatwe need is an enlightenment.
Now how we’re going to scrounge up an enligthenment for 1 billion people (really, the Middle East) from the outside, I have no idea.
Hey what can I tell ya? Arabia was a freakin’ tough room in the 7th century.
SB: made
in the shade
Nice idea, Jeff, but such a reinterpretation would go against what Islam has taught for a number of centuries now.
Of course CAIR would condemn this act. They’re double-faced, duplicitous, deceptive plotters. But all else they have not condemned, and how they are acting to ensure hate is not preached, I would like to see. Words should be backed by actions.