A mentally ill American Muslim shot six women yesterday afternoon at the Seattle Jewish Federation, killing one.
A Muslim-American man angry with Israel barged into the offices of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle Friday afternoon and opened fire with a handgun, killing one woman and wounding five others before surrendering to police. Three of the women were in critical condition late Friday.
A law-enforcement source identified the arrested suspect as Naveed Afzal Haq, 30, who until recently had lived in Everett, and said Haq apparently has a history of mental illness. Court records show Haq has a charge of lewd conduct pending against him in Benton County.
The shooting came a day after the FBI had warned Jewish organizations nationwide to be on alert after Hezbollah leaders in Lebanon and al-Qaida’s second in command urged that the war raging in the Middle East be carried to the U.S. However, the law-enforcement source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said there is no evidence Haq was involved with any group. “He said he hates Israel,” said the source, who is part of the Seattle Joint Terrorism Task Force, which was called in to help investigate the shootings. David Gomez, the assistant special agent-in-charge of the Seattle FBI office, said there is “nothing to indicate he is part of a larger organization.”
Tragic but apparently just a nut who got hold of a gun rather than evidence of a vast wave of Muslims coming to America to kill. More so than any Muslim problem (which I don’t deny; see any of Steve Emerson’s writings), this case highlights the problems with our current policy of letting those with “a history of mental illness” free range.
Michelle Malkin isn’t buying it, though. She writes,
Gomez, get a clue. The Muslim shooting suspect is part of “a larger organization” of Jew-haters worldwide who hate Israel and want to see Jews dead.
I don’t doubt that he’s a Jew hater or that a huge number of Muslims worldwide are likewise. That doesn’t make them an “organization,” though. The FBI is concerned about groups acting in a coordinated fashion, not simply sharing characteristics. Short of rounding all the Muslims up, I’m not sure what the FBI would do about the “organization” as defined by Malkin.
UPDATE: Planck’s Constant informs us that “Muslims cannot be good Americans” and refutes the “lone wacko” explanation by citing a figure that claims “Islamic terrorists have carried out more than 5469 deadly terror attacks since 9/11.” Not knowing the scope or methodology of the linked site’s calculation, it’s rather difficult to refute. Let’s say it’s accurate, though, for the sake of discussion. How many murders have been carried out by Christians in the last 5 years? American Blacks?
For that matter, there can simultaneously be an organized conspiracy while individual acts are not part of it. For example, there are numerous street gangs consisting mostly of black or Hispanic Americans; yet, most murders committed by black and Hispanic Americans are merely isolated crimes. There are Italian, Russian, and Cuban mafias; most crimes committed by Americans of Italian, Russian, and Cuban descent, however, are not under the umbrella of “organized crime”. There are white supremacist groups comprised of white Americans; yet, most anti-black race crimes are committed by lone malcontents. Why, then, is it so difficult to believe that a given Muslim man who hates Jews enough to kill them is nonetheless singularly responsible for his actions?
That’s not to say that further investigation won’t show that Haq isn’t a shrewd al Qaeda sleeper agent. I had never heard of the man until this morning; all I know is what I read in the papers. The available evidence, however, does not point in that direction.
