Posted on 12/13/2009 9:15:23 AM PST by SJackson
June 28, 2006 was quite a day for anti-Semitism, wasnt it? Surely, you remember how an intoxicated Mel Gibson was pulled over by a Malibu cop, only for Gibson to tell the officer, Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world. That, of course, was just after Gibsons movie, The Passion of the Christ, led to nationwide headlines, such as the one in The Jewish Week, Jews Horrified By Gibsons Jesus Film. Countless Jewish organizations, rabbis and executive directors told us to be afraid, very afraid, of what that movie might unleash in unsophisticated American Christians.
Even this week, in light of the Tiger Woods apology for transgressions, Time magazine online re-explored Gibsons old apology for his drunken anti-Semitic rant.
Surely, you remember all that about Gibson. But on the very same day as Gibsons Malibu transgression, another man (not an extremist Christian like Gibson) also blamed Jews for all these problems, including wars just like Gibson.
That man, Naveed Haq, stuck a gun into the back of a teenage girl to gain entrance into the offices of the Seattle Jewish Federation, shooting one woman, Pamela Waechter, to death, and injuring five others. According to the Seattle Jewish Transcript, one of the injured, Layla Bush, 24, the federations receptionist at the time, was hit by three bullets, one in her spine, flooding her with pain. To this day she says she can longer dance, engage in athletics or even put on a pair of slacks while standing up. She has trouble even sitting, and can no longer work full time. Are we horrified yet? Or are we waiting for the movie?
Naveed Haqs first trial for the Jewish federation shootings, that he admitted doing albeit pleading insanity, ended in a mistrial. A second trial will likely go to the jury next week. Is it fair to say that no one in the media cares?
A search (Dec. 8) of Google News for Seattle Haq got exactly two returns, one from the Seattle Times, the local paper covering the trial, and one from the Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle, where it appeared in a column that was prompted by the shootings in Fort Hood. A similar search in Yahoo News yielded seven returns, three about football, three primarily about Fort Hood (from the Oklahoma City Oklahoman, a column in Jewish World Review, and Yahoo News), and the Seattle Times. It has also been covered online by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which no longer has a print edition. For those who mock blogs, let it be known that the case has been mentioned in more blogs than newspapers.
The retrial is obviously being treated by journalists outside Seattle as a local crime, no different than a gas station holdup gone wrong, but it was not local. We now know that Haq, who lived more than 220 miles away from Seattle, went searching on the Internet for a Jewish organization, anywhere, in which to kill. He just as easily could have picked your favorite organization, dear reader, or your synagogue. He was willing to travel.
Holding his gun to the head of a pregnant woman in the federation office, Haq himself dialed 911 and explained that he was a Muslim-American who felt his people were getting pushed around by Israel. This was not just about Israel, he told detectives, This is about Jews, and what they are doing. The Jews are running the country.
From jail, Haq called his mother, according to a recording played at the trial, telling her, You should be proud of me. Im a martyr now ... Im a soldier. Im a soldier of Islam.
The Los Angeles Times wasnt convinced. It teased the story on the front page (July 30, 2006), Jewish Center Shooters Motives Remain A Mystery.
(Similarly, The New York Times also often tries to avoid identifying someone, or linking criminal motives to a religion, or Arab background. That led to this March 5, 1993 headline after the first World Trade Center bombing: Jersey City Man Is Charged In Bombing Of Trade Center Blast, though a New Jersey address was hardly the bombers most pertinent identification.)
A columnist in Londons Guardian (June 10, 2008), at the start of Haqs first trial, scolded those who linked the killings to Islam and the larger context: Naveed Haq, he mocked, has become a poster child of Islamophobes the world over.
Hardly. If that were the case, Haqs current trial would now be of interest to somebody, somewhere. Its not.
The New York Times (April 18, 2008) did a story on Haqs first trial but is ignoring the retrial. It is not alone.
The New York Times, though, was nevertheless surprised, and possibly moved to disinterest, even back then, by the fact that even though Haqs own words reflected a stunning local eruption of that overseas tension ... Yet, there was no gathering of [Jewish] protesters outside the courthouse.
Oh, but there were protests. Just blocks away from the courthouse there was a protest against Israel.
What is interesting is that media coverage of Haqs new trial has gone AWOL even as Jewish fears of sudden, random Muslim-American terror are escalating.
For example, the very first response by the Anti-Defamation League (July 28, 2006) did not mention the word Muslim. Two weeks later, two ADL West Coast staffers wrote an op-ed in The Jewish News of Northern California (Aug. 18, 2006), reminding Jews, who presumably needed reminding, that Jewish hate is not kosher. It would be terrible if there were to be more stereotypes, more discrimination or more hate. After all, this tragedy was the work of an individual ... What a shame it would be to add insult to injury and allow more hate to proliferate from the blood that was shed.
By 2009, however, with Daniel Pipes documenting numerous cases of sudden Jihad shootings and terror by individual American Muslims, the ADL now has sent out a new warning. Not about Jewish hate but about American Muslim extremists, fueled by hatred of Jews and Israel, who have planned a number of terrorist attacks within the United States. Haq is now being thematically linked by the ADL to other American Muslims whose have engaged in terror-related activity in Illinois, North Carolina, Arkansas, New York City, New Jersey, California, Virginia, Florida, and Oregon.
And yet a columnist in The Nation, the progressive journal, wrote earlier this year, since 9/11 not a single American has even been punched in the nose by an angry Muslim, as far as I can tell. Someone ought to send him and other journalists to that courthouse in Seattle and Pamela Waechters grave.
[Editor's Note: We at Tikkun and the Network of Spiritual Progressives care alot about this. The kllling of Jews because they work at Jewish institutions is a great outrage. No murderous actions on the part of the State of Israel can ever justify the random killing of Jews anyplace in the world.]
HORSEYdodo! This is a dadburned psychological demon possesed learned TRAIT melded into the innocent childhood minds of cute little that see all other children as kids to play with. Muslim cultic doctrine even begun prior to Muhammed( the murdering thug that killed his own and Jews when he had a chance) was sociopathic sadist and used religion as a tool to further his own personal narcissistic goals.
The "new' religion of peace(barf) is the same crap new title. read the Qur'an and put AL of Islam ON trial. The leaders of this cult are just as guilty aiding and abettting their "followers of cultic demonic hatred.
KIRO TV.com: Seattle - "JURORS HEAR PHONE CALLS IN JEWISH FEDERATION SHOOTER TRIAL" (SNIPPET: "During the calls, Haq bragged of being a celebrity and said he was motivated by a desire to be a Muslim martyr, something that seemed to surprise his parents. Mother: I'm just afraid to tell you. you are not feeling well -- your mind. Haq: No, I'm not, I'm a Jihad, OK. Mother: No you are not. Haq: Yes I am. That's the path I've chosen. Mother: Huh? No, you did not. That's your mind talking. Haq: That's what I'm telling you. I did this for a reason. I wanted to be a martyr. I wanted to die on the battlefield.") (Note: Audio included.) (Updated November 5, 2009, 9:48 am PST)
KOMO NEWS.com: Seattle - "VICTIMS RELIVE TERROR AT HAQ'S RETRIAL" (SNIPPET: "Jurors heard the tape of the 911 call during which Haq himself addresses the operator. "This is a hostage situation. I have a hostage," said the caller. "this is Naveed Haq." The dispatcher is then heard trying to rationalize with Haq, and asking him what he wants. "This is a hostage situation. I want these Jews out," Haq is heard responding.") (Updated October 22, 2009, 5:46 pm PST)
SEATTLEPI.com - SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER: "DID JEWISH FEDERATION SUSPECT BELIEVE HE WAS A 'JIHADI'? Jail phone calls, claims of jihad at issue as trial approaches" by Levi Pulkkinen (SNIPPET: "The jail calls, Haq's attorneys contend, show Haq making "nonsense claims that he wanted to be a martyr, that he was a jihadi, and that his parents should be proud of him."" SNIPPET: "In a search of Haq's homes in the Tri-Cities, Seattle police recovered a prayer written by Haq four days before the shooting. In it, Haq apparently complained that supporters of Israel had hijacked American foreign policy and expressed concerns that American-made weapons were being used in the Israel-Lebanon war.") (Last updated September 27, 2009 8:48 p.m.PT)
SEATTLEPI.com - SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER: "HAQ JURY COULD NOT AGREE ON 'INTENT TO MURDER,' JUROR SAYS Premeditation, not insanity issue, dominated debate" by Tracy Johnson (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "A few jurors thought Naveed Haq was guilty, but many apparently weren't convinced that he went to the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle intending to kill anyone.") (Last updated June 5, 2008, 10:51 p.m. PT)
JEWISH BREAKING NEWS - blog (JTA): Seattle - "PROSECUTION RESTS IN SEATTLE SHOOTING" (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Seattle Police Det. Thomas Luckie, a computer forensics expert, said that among the hundreds of sites he visited were scores of pornography sites, Muslim and Middle East news sites, sites of Jewish members of the U.S. Congress and the site of the American Israel Political Action Committee/ Luckie said the searches on the day before the shootings were broad at first but over time became more targeted.") (May 1, 2008)
SEATTLE TIMES.com: "VICTIM PREGNANT AT TIME OF JEWISH FEDERATION SHOOTINGS TESTIFIES IN HAQ TRIAL" by Natalie Singer (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "With Haq's gun trained on her head, Klein offered him the receiver and then crouched quietly in a corner, she testified. "He began to state that ... he would like to talk to [television talk-show host] Larry King and the Jews ... need to get out of Lebanon and Iraq. This is his Hezbollah, this is his personal statement."") (Updated April 21, 2008, 02:52 pm)
SEATTLEPI.com - SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER: "JEWISH FEDERATION SHOOTING VICTIM BREAKS DOWN DURING TESTIMONY 'He had the gun at my head the entire time'" by Tracy Johnson (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Panicked but undeterred, Klein gave information to the emergency operator and eventually offered Haq the phone. He took it and began ranting about Jews and how his people had "been getting pushed around by the situation in the Middle East."") (Last updated April 21, 2008, 9:33 p.m. PT)
SEATTLE TIMES.com: "11 NEW CHARGES FILED IN JEWISH FEDERATION SHOOTINGS; DEFENDANT PLEADS INSANITY" by Christine Clarridge (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Haq is accused of forcing his way into the secure Belltown offices of the federation on July 28 by holding a gun to the back of a 14-year-old girl. He carried two guns, court documents allege, and spewed anti-Semitic statements as he made his way through the office, randomly shooting people he encountered as some screamed and tried to escape or hide. 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. Haq reportedly told operators in a 911 call during the shooting, "These are Jews. I want these Jews to get out."") (May 30, 2007, 11:20 am)
WorldNetDaily.com: "1 Dead, 5 Hurt in Seattle Terror" (ARTICLE SNIPPET: "Haq's father was a founding member of the Islamic Centre of Tri-Cities in Richland. He and his wife moved to Pasco three years ago. According to Chris Richey of Everett, Haq had been his neighbor until two weeks ago, when he abruptly moved. The landlady at their apartment told Richey Haq was going to Pakistan. Haq spoke often about guns and politics, said Richey, and didn't like President Bush. A law-enforcement source said Haq had a licence to carry a concealed weapon.") (July 29, 2006)
Haq should be sent to Perdition..
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