Right-wing media respond to Fort Hood shooting by attacking American Muslims

Written by Brooke Obie

Published

Right-wing media figures have used the shooting at Fort Hood as an excuse to attack Islam and American Muslims in particular, with Debbie Schlussel, for example, urging readers to think of the alleged shooter “whenever you hear about how Muslims serve their country in the U.S. military.” Additionally, commentators have blamed the shooting on “political correctness,” with Fox News host Brian Kilmeade suggesting the implementation of “special debriefings” for Muslim American soldiers to prevent future attacks.

Right-wing media respond to attack by demonizing Muslims

Schulssel: Think of Hasan “whenever you hear about how Muslims serve their country in the U.S. military.” In a November 5 post -- headlined “Shocker: Man Who Shot Up Ft. Hood Soldiers Was Muslim” -- right-wing commentator Debbie Schulssel wrote:

UPDATE: Nidal Malik Hasan isPalestinian. Figures...Yeah, I wonder if that “Palestinian” town is actually Palestinian or part of the Islamic encroachment on Israel. Either way, he had every opportunity given to him by American taxpayers. And he murdered them anyway. This isn't just the Palestinian way. It's the Islamic way. And we expect Israel to make peace with guys like this? Even in the midst of the land of plenty, look at how they behave.

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And, oh, yeah, think of Major Malik Nadal Hasan (and all of the other Muslim American traitorous soldiers in the U.S. military who've shot their fellow soldiers up and killed them or otherwise helped the enemy), whenever you hear about how Muslims serve their country in the U.S. military.

Well, actually, they do serve “their country” in the U.S. military. And their country is Dar Al-Islam and greater Koranistan.

“It's Islamic terrorism, stupid. Wait, that's repetitive. It's Islam, stupid.”

Geller: Shooter is in the “pious Muslim category,” has “such Islamic bravery.” In a November 5 blog post, Pamela Geller wrote: " 'Six months ago Major Hasan came to law enforcement attention for posting blogs supporting suicide bombing.' This puts him in the pious Muslim category." In a November 6 post, she wrote: “The pig jumped on a table and was shooting down on the crowd, which is why he could get so many off. Jihad Hasan was shooting soldiers in the back. Such Islamic bravery.”

Malkin links shooter to other “Muslim Soldiers with Attitude.” In her November 6 post headlined “The massacre at Fort Hood and Muslim soldiers with attitude,” Fox News contributor Michelle Malkin linked the alleged Fort Hood shooter to “all those who came before Hasan,” highlighting her March 2003 column on “Muslim soldiers with attitude” who are “suspected of infiltrating our military, endangering our troops and undermining national security” and referencing “Muslim sniper” John Muhammad and “Muslim US soldier Hasan Abujihaad.”

Right-wing media blame shooting on “political correctness,” call for “special debriefings” of American Muslims

Carlson: “Could it be that our military is so politically correct... to be careful about treatment of Muslims” that this happened? On the November 6 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends, co-host Gretchen Carlson asked: “Could it be that our own military is so politically correct right now ... to be careful about treatment of Muslims that they would have allowed this to go by?”

Michelle Malkin: “Political correctness is the handmaiden of terror.” Commenting on “The whitewashing of jihad by the MSM,” Michelle Malkin wrote: “I've said it many times over the years and it bears repeating again as cable TV talking heads ask in bewilderment how all the red flags Hasan raised could have been ignored: Political correctness is the handmaiden of terror.”

Steyn: People afraid to report suspicious Muslim activity, lest they end up “in sensitivity-training hell for the next six months.” On the November 6 edition of Rush Limbaugh's radio show, guest host Mark Steyn said: “You think about the next time you see some behavior that's suspicious -- guys praying, they're doing goofy things, they're talking about Saddam Hussein, all the things that the flying imams did. And you think to yourself, 'Do I call Homeland Security? No, I'm going to be tied up in sensitivity-training hell for the next six months. Maybe it's better to just forget about it, to ignore it.' And that is becoming the problem now, that we're conditioned to ignore it.”

Kilmeade suggested that “it's time for the military to have special debriefings” of U.S. soldiers who are Muslim. On the November 6 edition of Fox & Friends, Brian Kilmeade asked Geraldo Rivera, “Do you think it's time for the military to have special debriefings of Muslim Army civili-- officers, anybody enlisted?” He added: “Because if I'm going to be deployed in a foxhole, if I'm going to be sitting in an outpost, I've got to know that the guy next to me is not going to want to kill me.”