Skip to comments.
Terrorism or hate crime?
National Post ^
| July 09 2002
Posted on 07/09/2002 3:55:46 PM PDT by knighthawk
When Arabs kill Jews, the usual explanation is that the murderers are fighting back against Israeli occupation. But that doesn't explain Hesham Mohamed Hadayet, the 41-year-old gunman who killed two people at an El Al ticket counter in Los Angeles on July 4. Hadayet had been living in the United States for a decade. And he came from Egypt, a country that signed a peace treaty with Israel two decades ago. Israel gave back every square inch of the Sinai back in 1978, and it doesn't occupy any part of Los Angeles County.
So what pushed Hadayet over the edge? One of his former employees provides a clue. In an interview with the New York Times reported Saturday, Abdul Zahab said that Hadayet had an obsessional hatred of Israel. According to Mr. Zahab, Hadayet often ranted about imagined Israeli plots to destroy Egypt, including a plan to spread AIDS throughout the country with Jewish HIV-infected prostitutes.
The bigotry of low expectations is at play here: If Hadayet weren't Arab, we might suspect he was a suicidal paranoiac. Yet in Egypt and other Muslim nations, anti-Semitic conspiracy theories have been in common currency for decades, and such views as Hadayet's pass for normal. His theory about the AIDS-infected prostitutes is especially popular, as is the theory that Jewish agents are distributing bubble gum that causes sterility. Such libels are reported to this day in Egyptian "academic" journals, and in the mainstream press, which is probably where Hadayet learned about them.
Since July 4, commentators have argued about whether Hadayet's rampage was an act of terrorism or merely a hate crime. Certainly, there is some evidence for the former category. Although the Egyptian government claims Hadayet wasn't linked to any terrorist group, the Al-Hayat newspaper has reported that Hadayet may have met with Ayman Al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's Egyptian lieutenant, in 1995 and 1998. On the other hand, Hadayet's murderous act -- like that of many hate crime perpetrators -- may have been triggered by personal problems. (It is known, for instance, that Hadayet's wife and child had gone back to Egypt recently, and that he had been stripped of his limousine license.)
But the distinction between hate crime and terrorism is moot in this case. However one categorizes Hadayet's murderous act, there is little doubt that he was influenced by Arabs actively promoting hatred of Jews. While improving airport security may help prevent a repetition of the Los Angeles airport atrocity, the only way such acts will be eradicated is for the Middle East's 280-million Arabs to accept that their culture's intellectual, economic and democratic backwardness is their own responsibility, not that of 5-million Jews attacking them with diseased prostitutes and poisoned bubble gum.
TOPICS: Editorial; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: arab; hatecrime; jews; lashooting; nonterroristattack; terrorism
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-20, 21-23 next last
I wished there was a paper like the National Post in every country!
To: dennisw; TopQuark; Alouette; OKCSubmariner; veronica; weikel; EU=4th Reich; BrooklynGOP; ...
Middle East list
If people want on or off this list, please let me know.
To: knighthawk
A TERRORIST ATTACK
july 4th lax
3
posted on
07/09/2002 4:00:31 PM PDT
by
TLBSHOW
To: knighthawk; All
Has the "look & feel" of a terrorist to me:
"While the FBI is still debating whether Hesham Mohamed Hadayet, the Egyptian who shot up an El Al ticket counter at Los Angeles International Airport, was a terrorist, an Arabic newspaper in London reports he met twice with Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant "
"The gunman who killed two Israelis during his Independence Day rampage at Los Angeles International Airport may have ties to Osama Bin Laden's right-hand man, an Arabic-language newspaper reported yesterday"
"Personally, I'm getting a little tired of such coincidences. When and how do a series of "isolated incidents" begin to show a pattern to the FBI? Why is it that the FBI is afraid to add two plus two? "
Ha'aretz | Friday, July 5, 2002 | By Amir Oren
USA Today | 07/05/2002 - Updated 02:29 AM ET | Scott Bowles
Ha'aretz | July 5th 2002 | News Agencies
4
posted on
07/09/2002 4:20:47 PM PDT
by
backhoe
To: All
To: knighthawk
... he had been stripped of his limousine license. He must have done something pretty bad already if L.A. wouldn't even let him drive a taxi. What was it?
6
posted on
07/09/2002 4:33:54 PM PDT
by
AZLiberty
To: knighthawk
Perhaps he transported one too many rich, successful diamond merchants in his limousine and he couldn't stand to see the group he hated most be more successful than himself.
Nothing to base this on....just a thought.
7
posted on
07/09/2002 4:38:13 PM PDT
by
JSloth
To: knighthawk
It doesn't matter if it was a hate crime or terrorism, this guy should be sentenced to death for his actions................nevermind.
To: knighthawk
Please put me on your ping list.
9
posted on
07/09/2002 6:04:49 PM PDT
by
MonroeDNA
To: knighthawk
How many Hadayets are living among us "peacefully" in every Western nation, like ticking time bombs?
To: JSloth
Hadayet owned a Mercedes and a Jaguar.
How did he afford them? Was he skimming off of his Al Qaida "operational account"?
Was his family forced back to Egypt, and Hadayet given the order to "restore his honor", and protect his family from retribution?
To: knighthawk
I think it's reasonable that the FBI wasn't quick to call this a terrorist act on 7/4. Many people were nervous about the idea of a wide-spread terrorist attack on that day. This incident occurred early in the day, and there was no evidence that it was just one of many.
We can label it anything we want in hind-sight, but it's better that the FBI didn't alarm millions of Americans on that day.
To: speekinout
We can label it anything we want in hind-sight, but it's better that the FBI didn't alarm millions of Americans on that day. I think Americans are big enough to handle the truth. It is the lies that are killing us, not the truth.
To: American in Israel
Comment #15 Removed by Moderator
To: knighthawk
Terrorism is a "hate-crime".
16
posted on
07/10/2002 9:13:12 AM PDT
by
watchin
To: watchin
It's indeed both. This man did what he did because he hated the Jews, and not for political gains, like other terrorists.
To: American in Israel
I think Americans are big enough to handle the truth. It is the lies that are killing us, not the truth.So they are. But it doesn't do any of us any good to alarm people without reason.
It's almost a week since the shootings, and we still don't know if this guy was connected to Al Qada or any other terrorist organization. I hope we get better at knowing these things - and I expect that we will. But it isn't lies - it's lack of knowledge that is hurting us now.
To: speekinout
-Terrorism is to kill innocents for a political objective to cause terror in the masses.
-The religion of Islam is political.
-The people mohammad killed he did not know.
-Mohammad placed a read the koran sticker on his door as he set out to kill.
-He removed his family a week before attacking.
-There is news of his meeting with a known terrorist leader, twice.
-Mohammad spouted Anti-Israel comments right out of the Radical Islamic papers, showing he was connected to those sources and aligned himself with them.
-Mohammad drove two very expensive cars, cars he could not afford as a limo driver.
-Mohammad chose to kill on the very day that a terrorist warning was issued, a very political day.
How many points above are necessary to remove the head from the bucket of sand? That is the question. Being afraid of terrorism is not the solution, that is why we "can't" recognise it. It is not from lack of information. It is from lack of balls. Heck, two seconds after hearing about it, 90% of people thought of terrorism. No matter if Mohammad was incompetent, or if he was a connected or an independant Islamic Agent. He killed in the name of Allah,
It worked, and it was terrorism.
Question, what was Mohammads Motive? Was it that he got fired?
No-He did not attack his boss.
Did He just pop a cork?
No-He did not attack an Airlines counter that went home, but one that went to Israel.
Was it his "poverty"?
No-He owned 100 times what the average Islamic does in his homeland.
Is it a big deal? Not from the ammount of people killed, heck about a hundred times that died in car wrecks the same day. It is a big deal because it indicates that when Islam declares War, it means it. They are not going to just go away. We are currently trying to figure out if it is better to just ignore Islam and call it the cost of living or go clean their clocks. If Islamics were not so dang incompetent at whatever they do, we would be at war. But they are like a gnat buzzing in the face, do we realy want to wake up for them to swat them?
Islamics have nukes, I advise waking up now, instead of after a million die. Kinda like thinning a forest to save the trees from fire, or just letting it all just burn, "naturaly".
Handwringing inaction, and circular arguments has never built a thing, but destroyed many. Every single attack, in every instance should have a clear and overwhelming response simply because the Islamics understand that. They teach that if a man causes a vastly superior army to attack Islam that man is a fool. But if a man can trick a vastly superior army into its destruction, that man is a hero.
Remember that the "death of a thousand cuts" is a Arab invention.
Look to Israel for a good example. Years of talks, deals, treatys, consessions and billions in aid has vastly increased the attacks on Israel. But when Israel began reacting militarily, the attacks trickled down to virtualy nothing. It is twenty days between attacks that kill someone during military action, and daily killings during peace.
To: American in Israel
The US has had killing sprees off and on for many years. We have a saying "going postal" after a series of killings in post offices. Then there has been Tim McVeigh, Columbine, and other schools.
Individual killers acting alone is something we have learned to deal with. Terrorism means to many an organized and wide-spread effort, like 9/11. That's a different situation.
There's nothing we know yet that says the guy who shot up the El Al ticket counter was part of a conspiracy. Until we know that, it makes no sense to have the population think that there is a conspiracy.
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-20, 21-23 next last
Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson
