By Hera Ashraf
<[email protected]>

On Nov. 5, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a U.S. Army psychiatrist, opened fire at a military base at Fort Hood, killing 13 people, according to CNN reports. Immediately, he was nicknamed a “terrorist.” Why? Because of his name and his faith. Soon, reports of Hasan’s online blogs about his Islamic views were emphasized in the media. Coworkers and former classmates began raising their voice about how they were often worried and uncomfortable with Hasan because of his blunt religious views. But why did they not raise their concerns before this tragedy?

According to CNN, the U.S. State Department investigated all of Hasan’s blogs and e-mails that were exchanged between him and a radical Islamic cleric, but they came to the conclusion that Hasan was not involved in any outside group of terrorism. Yet the question still hangs in the minds of many people. A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll shows that 47 percent of people questioned think that the shooting at Fort Hood were an act of terrorism.

It is unfortunate that in lieu of all this debate on whether or not Hasan was a terrorist, even after investigations point to the fact that he wasn’t, people forget to look at other possible reasons for these shootings. The real reasons might have been prevented or could prevent any future incidents and tragedies from occurring.

There were warning signs. According to CNN sources, Hasan often gave presentations and held discussions about Muslims being persecuted in the United States and in the U.S. Military. A former classmate of Hasan even said how people would roll their eyes or mutter under their breath while Hasan gave these presentations. Often, he was even ridiculed about his religion and his views on Islam. Many of his classmates even thought he didn’t deserve to be in the program and that he “didn’t have the intellect.” Of course, these actions would have impact on any person mentally and emotionally, especially when there is no one there to stop it.

But rather than looking at those reasons, people still choose to chalk this event up to terrorism and leave it at that. And that’s a problem because it doesn’t allow for any solutions.

I’m not trying to defend Hasan or his actions nor am I blaming the army, but this is a matter of 13 lives that were taken. Thirteen lives that didn’t deserve to be taken, but were, because there was no one there to stop what was happening over time. And still today, no one pays attention to the actual reasons that led Hasan to taking those 13 lives. There could be another Hasan, who is being emotionally and mentally impacted, but ignored. Disputing whether Hasan is a terrorist or not is the least of our worries. The army should focus instead on making sure that a tragedy like this doesn’t ever happen again.

And I’m sure that “terrorism” would not even be debated, and people would be more focused on finding ways to prevent a tragedy like the Fort Hood shootings if Nidal Malik Hasan’s name happened to be Bob Smith.