THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XIII, Issue # 189, August 1, 2011
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
ANOTHER ISLAMIST SOLDIER TURNS TERRORIST IN TEXAS
By Dr. Daniel Pipes
THE CASE OF PRIVATE FIRST CLASS NASSER JASON ABDO, AN ISLAMIST IN THE U.S. ARMY: THE VAST
IMPLICATIONS FOR ISLAM IN AMERICA -- IS ISLAM INCOMPATIBLE WITH SERVING IN THE U.S. GOVERNMENT, WHETHER
IN THE ARMED FORCES OR IN CIVILIAN OFFICES & AGENCIES? DO MUSLIMS IN THE U.S.A. CONSTITUTE A FIFTH
COLUMN & THEREFORE CANNOT BE LOYAL U.S. CITIZENS? SHOULD U.S. IMMIGRATION LAW BE AMENDED TO
PROHIBIT MUSLIM IMMIGRATION FROM FOREIGN COUNTRIES INTO THE U.S.A.? DOES THE CURRENT SITUATION
CALL FOR THOROUGHGOING SURVEILLANCE OF MUSLIMS RESIDING, WORKING, & TRAVELING IN THE U.S.A.?
WHAT ABOUT EMPLOYMENT OF MUSLIMS IN DEFENSE-RELATED PRIVATE INDUSTRY, EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS,
& ORGANIZATIONS WHOSE ACTIVITIES AFFECT PUBLIC HEALTH & SAFETY?
FULL STORY:
U.S. Army Private First Class Nasser Jason Abdo, 21, first made the news last August when, arguing that his Islamic faith
contradicts serving in the American military, he filed for conscientious objector (C.O.) status. Referring to current
American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Abdo asserted that a Muslim --
"is not allowed to participate in an Islamicly unjust
war. Any Muslim who knows his religion ... should
not participate in the U.S. military."
Further, he wrote: "I cannot be a soldier in the U.S. Army and continue to remain true to Islam."
Abdo also made anti-American statements during Pashto language class and listed the Council on American-Islamic
Relations (CAIR) on his Facebook page as one of his "activities and interests." He announced his intent, on leaving the
U.S. Army, to combat "Islamophobia" and --
"to show Muslims how we can lead our lives. And to
try and put a good positive spin out there that Islam
is a good, peaceful religion. We're not all terrorists,
you know?"
In May, 2011, Abdo won C.O. status. But he was also notified that, due to an investigation prompted by his
anti-American statements, he would face an Article 32 hearing (the military equivalent of a grand jury) for downloading
34 child pornography pictures on his government-issued computer. Abdo vowed to fight this charge and impugned the
Army's motives:
"It has been nearly ten months since the investigation
started, and I am only now being charged with child
pornography, when my C.O. claim is approved. I think
that all sounds pretty fishy."
On June 15, the Article 32 hearing recommended Abdo be court-martialed for the illegal pornography. On July 4, he went
AWOL (absent without leave) from the 101st. Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. On July 27, he turned up at
Guns Galore, a munitions shop in Killeen, Texas, near Ft. Hood, where he bought weapons, ammunition, and
bomb-making materials. He also purchased a uniform with Fort Hood patches from a military surplus store.
When the police arrested him later that day, an FBI press release recounted:
"Abdo was in possession of a .40 caliber handgun,
ammunition, an article [from Inspire, al-Qa'ida's
English-language magazine] entitled 'Make a Bomb in
the Kitchen of Your Mom,' as well as bomb-making
components, including six bottles of smokeless
gunpowder, shotgun shells, shotgun pellets, two
clocks, two spools of auto wire, an electric drill and
two pressure cookers."
Those materials in Abdo's possession corresponded precisely to the "ingredients" listed in the Inspire magazine
article on bomb-making.
Abdo admitted to the FBI that he "planned to assemble two bombs in the hotel room using gun powder and shrapnel
packed into pressure cookers to detonate inside an unspecified restaurant frequented by soldiers from Fort Hood."
What were his motives?
Two stand out: He confessed to planning to kill soldiers to "get even" with the military, presumably because of the court
martial. But his larger goal was Islamist, to strike at kafirs (non-Muslims). He made anti-American statements, read
al-Qa'ida's magazine, commended CAIR, spouted off about "Islamophobia," and declared that he could not fight fellow
Muslims. Guns Galore is the same store where Major Nidal Hasan bought the weapons he used to kill 14 at Fort Hood in
November, 2009. In court, Abdo yelled out "Nidal Hasan — Fort Hood 2009" and "Anwar al-Awlaki" (Hasan's al-Qa'ida
spiritual guide). He also screamed "Abeer Qasim al-Janabi — Iraq, 2006" the name of a girl gang-raped and murdered that
year by soldiers from the 101st. Airborn Division.
This case highlights a profound issue: Is Islam incompatible with serving in the U.S. government? Abdo's C.O. claim and
his would-be terrorism, in opposite but complementary ways, support an argument for their incompatibility. The U.S.
Army tacitly accepted his point by granting him C.O. status, a decision perhaps influenced by repeated Muslim attacks
on the U.S. military, including Sargent Hasan Akbar's fragging attack in Kuwait, Hasan's Fort Hood rampage, and
Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad's assault on a military-recruiting center in Arkansas.
This Abdo-Army consensus has vast implications for Islam in America, suggesting that Muslims constitute a fifth column
and cannot be loyal citizens. I disagree: Muslims can be patriotic Americans and exemplary soldiers. That said, the Abdo
case once again points to the need for additional scrutiny of Muslims, whether serving in government or boarding aircraft.
It's unfortunate, it's distasteful, but the common security demands no less.
AUTHOR'S NOTE (August 2, 2011):
The foregoing version of my article includes minor changes in the Washington Times version.
I provide what appears to be the fullest account available of the Nasser Abdo case in Nasser Abdo: The Full Story,
a 2,500-word weblog entry started a year ago.
© Daniel Pipes 2011
Originally Published in Washington Times, Aug 2, 2011
Republished with the Permission of Daniel Pipes
Reprinted from the Daniel Pipes Mailing List, Aug 1, 2011
URL: http://www.danielpipes.org/10024/nasser-jason-abdo-islamist-terrorist
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
The Islamist Fifth Column -- America's Internal Enemies:
Disloyalty, Subversion, Sedition, & Treason
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
International Politics & World Disorder:
War, Peace, & Geopolitics in the Real World:
Foreign Affairs & U.S. National Security
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
Counterterrorism & U.S. National Security
U.S. National Security Strategy
Dr. Daniel Pipes, a Ph.D. in Islamic History (Harvard University, 1978), is Founder and President of the Middle East Forum,
Publisher of Middle East Quarterly,
Founder of Campus Watch, Taube Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University, a
signatory of the Project for the New American Century, a former board member of the U.S. Institute of Peace, a former
adjunct scholar at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a Golden Circle supporter of the U.S. Committee for a Free
Lebanon, a former member of the U.S. Department of Defense Special Task Force on Terrorism and Technology, and a
former lecturer at the U.S. Naval War College, Harvard University, the University of Chicago, and the University of
Pennsylvania. Dr. Pipes was the Director of the Foreign Policy Research Institute from 1986 to 1993.
Author or co-author of eighteen books, Dr. Pipes is a regular columnist for National Review Online, Front Page
Magazine, the New York Sun, and the Jerusalem Post. His analyses of world trends and of forces and
developments in the Middle East have appeared in numerous North American newspapers, including the Washington
Post, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal. He frequently appears on American network
television, as well as at universities and think tanks, to discuss the Middle East, Islam, and the Islamist threat to the
U.S.A. and the West. He also has appeared on BBC and Al Jazeera, and has lectured in approximately
twenty-five countries.
Dr. Pipes is a Polish-American Jew whose parents fled Poland in 1939, immigrated to the U.S.A., and assimilated well into
American society and culture. His father is Richard Pipes, an American historian specializing in Russian and Soviet history
and serving as Professor of History at Harvard University from 1950 until his retirement in 1996. During the Cold War, the
worldview of Richard Pipes was strongly anti-Soviet and anti-Communist.
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