Editorial from 8-1:
A truly senseless act of violence in Seattle
THE NEWS TRIBUNE
Published: August 1st, 2006 01:00 AM
Last Friday, as fighting continued to rage in Lebanon, it looked very much like violence spawned in the Middle East had visited our corner of the world.
A gunman forced his way into the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle’s office, uttering “I’m a Muslim American; I’m angry at Israel;” he randomly shot six women, killing one. He told 911 operators he was tired of “our people getting pushed around by the situation in the Middle East.”
Coming on the heels of Islamic extremists’ calls to take their fight to U.S. ground, the attack looked to the world like the work of a homegrown terrorist.
That image began to disappear as soon as details emerged about the suspect, Naveed Haq. Now, four days later, the shooting looks much less like the work of a true believer and more like a tragedy centering on a man in the grip of mental illness.
Haq, 30, reportedly has struggled with bipolar disorder since high school and had been taking several powerful medications to manage his condition. Acquaintances say he has had trouble holding down a job and making friends. There also had been previous run-ins with the law; Haq was due to appear in a Benton County court last Thursday on a lewd conduct charge. The case stemmed from allegations that he had stood on a fountain in a Kennewick mall, taunting nearby women and exposing himself.
The Thursday hearing was postponed because Haq’s attorney was tied up on another case, so Haq left his parents’ Pasco home Thursday night bound for Seattle. His mother reportedly noticed he was agitated about the court case and pleaded with him not to go, worried about his ability to cope.
How Haq’s agitation might have become focused on the Jewish community is unclear. Acquaintances say he had made a few derogatory comments about Jews in the recent past, but his animosity didn’t seem deep-seated. Haq had distanced himself from Islam, having only sporadically attended a mosque in the last decade. He even was baptized in an evangelical Christian church last December.
It doesn’t make sense that the same man would announce himself a Muslim American and then apparently kill in his faith’s name, unless something else like mental illness was at work.
Nothing diminishes the death and injury that occurred last week. Those losses are real and tragic. Maybe it’s a sad commentary on our times that it seems a relief to learn violence could have stemmed from a man’s personal demons rather than globalized hate.
Suspect led ordinary life until March
No history of bigotry found
ANDREW SIROCCHI AND ANNA KING; The Tri-City Herald
Published: July 30th, 2006 01:00 AM
KEVIN P. CASEY/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Naveed Afzal Haq, 30, leaves court Saturday in Seattle. Friends in the Tri-Cities say he was obsessed about Jews lately.
RICHLAND, BENTON COUNTY – It would be easier to understand Friday’s deadly shootings at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle if the suspect, Naveed Afzal Haq, had left a legacy of hatred and fanaticism.
It could have been simple to cast him as an angry Muslim who hates Israel, if the 30-year-old had a record of zealotry and bigotry.
But Haq, who grew up the son of a prosperous and socially oriented Muslim family in the Tri-Cities, left behind only a few clues to his mounting anger.
“I would never have imagined a kid like Naveed doing something like this,” said Mohammed Ahmed, former president of the Islamic Center of the Tri-Cities.
Ahmed watched Haq grow up in mosque, saw him learn about Islam with passion but without fervor and said he related well with others his own age. Haq’s parents, Mian and Nahida, were some of the founders of the center in 1981, and Haq grew up surrounded by their work.
Two weeks ago, Haq made his last appearance at the mosque. Ahmed said he’d gained weight, but was otherwise the same kid he’d known in the early 1990s.
“I just said hello,” Ahmed said. “I didn’t see anything abnormal.”
Lewd conduct charge
But in March, Haq – who had an apartment in Kennewick and, until recently, kept an apartment in Everett – allegedly exposed himself at the Columbia Center Mall and was charged with lewd conduct. He was scheduled to stand trial in Benton County District Court on Thursday – the day before the shootings – but the case was postponed.
Caleb Hales, who lives next door to the Haq family’s luxurious home overlooking the Columbia River and north Richland, didn’t think there was anything strange when he saw Haq a week ago, either. Looking back on his two conversations with Haq, though, Hales said there might have been red flags.
Coming back from evening runs, Hales stopped to talk with Haq, who was working in a rose garden with his parents.
Haq discussed at length his feelings that the Jewish community monopolized the media and economic system. They were statements without anger, made in a matter-of-fact tone, like a discussion over coffee.
“It seemed like he was relating everything to the economy,” Hales said. “He was talking about how Jewish people in this country – from an economic standpoint – they have a lot of investments.”
Hales also found it odd that Haq said he was staying up at all hours of the night, studying cultures and religion and trying to decipher the diversity and interconnectedness of people in the United States. Haq told him he was unemployed.
In his 1994 senior yearbook photo at Richland High School, Haq had a huge smile on his face “RHS, Peace Be Unto You,” were his parting words to classmates.
He was bound for a prestigious bio-dentistry program in Philadelphia but washed out after a few years. Haq went on to complete an engineering degree at Washington State University, then landed back in Richland.
A former high school classmate, Josh Blankenship of Kennewick, said he recently saw Haq at a restaurant. Blankenship said Haq bragged about a recent fight at a Tri-Cities nightclub. Haq told the group he was thrown out of the club after he fought over a girl.
Haq’s parents could not be reached for comment Saturday. His father is a Pakistan-born civil structural engineer at the Hanford nuclear complex.
Long interest in religions
The son’s interest in culture and world religions dates back at least to his time at Richland High, but those years also seem to confirm that Haq was no religious zealot.
In 1994, in a letter to the editor of the Tri-Cities Herald, he said he was sorry to see so many people arguing over the reintroduction of creationism into schools. As a high school senior, Haq saw a place for the story of creation in English and literature classes, but not in a science class.
“I wish the creationists would have the consideration not to impose this mythology on others,” he wrote.
Thanks very much for posting....the TNT rarely fails to disappoint :-)
The Left's insistence on political correctness will be the death of us all, which is most likely their overarching intent anyway.....