Israel Matzav

Nidal Malik Hassan and al-Qaeda

Writing in the Ottawa Citizen, Tarek Fatah claims that the 'Palestinian' (the odds are 70% that's his background if, as reported, his parents were Jordanians) Nidal Malik Hassan has actually gone over to al-Qaeda.

Maj. Hasan was wearing the "shalwar-kameez," the traditional attire worn by Pashtuns on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghan border. Had Maj. Hasan been of Pakistani or Afghan ancestry, it would have meant very little, but for an Arab-American to wear this attire was significant.

In the Middle East, over five million Pakistanis and Afghans work and live among the local Arab population. The shalwar-kameez is common on the streets of Dubai and Jeddah, but no Arab male would ever want to be seen wearing this garb. I have lived a decade in the Arab world and not once did I see an Arab wearing the shalwar-kameez.

Having said that there is one particular group of Arabs who did embrace the garb of the Pashtuns. They were the "Afghan Arabs" who went to Afghanistan to wage jihad alongside al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

The question that needs to be asked is this: Where did Maj. Nidal Hasan, an American-born Arab, get hold of a shalwar-kameez? Did Hasan visit the Pakistan-Afghan region, or was he in touch with the Arab Afghans in the U.S. and Canada who wear the Pashtun attire as a sign of solidarity with Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri?

And this matters because it absolves the 'Palestinians' of any role in his violent Islamic background because he went from one violent Sunni Muslim sect to another? Sorry, but no.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:46 PM