Weinstein Emphasizes “Proselytization Factor” in Massacre

Michael Weinstein has written an article that on one hand calls the actions of Maj Nidal Malik Hasan “inexcusable,” but on the other says his alleged harassment may have precipitated his massacre at Fort Hood:

The alleged mistreatment Hasan received in the American military almost certainly played a key role in his disaffection.

He fails to note, however, that the same sources that cite the harassment note that Hasan dismissed it:

They’re ignorant. I’m more American than they are. I help my country more than they do. And I don’t care what they say.

“He felt sorry for them…He didn’t feel grudges. He felt sympathy.”

Weinstein also explicitly states that Christians are the source of all religious harassment in the US military: 

Muslims, Jews and other religious minorities in the armed forces are regularly made sport of and subjected to taunts and derisions, and face repeated proselytizing from their fundamentalist Christian peers and superiors. (emphasis added)

Weinstein fails to explain why he feels no one except Christians are capable of the despicable acts he describes.  By contrast, US military Muslims have indicated that much of any alleged “harassment” they may have received is as much a function of American culture as it is the military; they even note that a certain amount of “grief” is normal regardless of one’s unique personal characteristics.

Weinstein continues with his standard colorful language:

It is a blood libel assessment that paints all Muslims as terrorists, and suggests that no followers of Islam can be loyal Americans…

Again, he ignorantly, or intentionally, omits the obvious fact that such ridiculous assertions are not the sole purview of people with a Christian faith.  For example, David Silverman, Vice President of American Atheists, recently expressed doubts about Muslims in the military being able to “kill the bad guys, not the good guys.”  Weinstein doesn’t presumptively label all atheists as responsible parties to this “blood libel,” but he apparently feels no compunction about doing so with Christians.

Weinstein closes with a presumptive accusation against Christians in the military:

When a military member is told by his or her superiors that they lack courage, intelligence, honor, trust, character and integrity because of their chosen religious faith (or no faith), that is no different then [sic] telling someone that they are “stupid” because of the color of their skin. America is better than that.

He misses the supreme irony: Hasan, the person Weinstein says committed this inexcusable act, save the “proselytization factor,” has also been accused of proselytizing, demeaning his patients for religious reasons, and being an instigator of controversial religious discussions among other military members.

Hasan’s emerging public profile indicates that he embodied everything that Weinstein says he opposes…except, of course, for the fact that he isn’t a Christian.

Weinstein’s attempt at making political hay from an attack that killed and injured dozens of American soldiers is both weak and despicable.  When he calls it “blood libel” to paint Muslims with a broad judgmental brush, he indicts himself for doing the same thing against Christians.