Hamza El-Nakhal's recent “American Muslims Condemn Attack” letter is the same public relations statement trotted out by the Council on American-Islamic Relations every time an event similar to the Fort Hood murders takes place.

The CAIR strategy is to condemn the murderer and then conclude by warning Muslims to “take appropriate precautions to protect themselves, their families and their religious institutions from possible backlash.” CAIR always shifts the focus away from the terror that has happened to offenses that have (thankfully) not taken place.

However, as politically incorrect as it seems to be these days, we should not forget what actually happened:

-- In 2001, Nidal Malik Hasan attended the same Virginia mosque and listened to the same radical imam, Anwar al-Awlaki, as a group of the 9/11 Islamic hijackers. What does Awlaki advocate? Suicide bombings against “infidels.”

-- For some years afterward, Hasan worshipped at a Muslim Community Center specifically connected to ultra-conservative Saudi Arabian Wahhabism.

-- The FBI was aware of Hasan for the past six months as he made Internet postings extolling the virtues of suicide bombers, seeking to contact al-Qaida and renewing contact with Awlaki.

-- Hasan spent the days before the massacre dressed as a shaheed (Islamic “martyr”) and giving away his possessions prior to his hoped-for suicide act.

-- Nidal Malik Hasan walked into a building at Fort Hood, shouted “Allahu Akbar” and cold-bloodedly murdered 13 soldiers and wounded more than 30.

Simply put, Nidal Malik Hasan is a domestic Islamic terrorist. Regarding suicide attacks, it is particularly ironic that Mr. El-Nakhal would use a statement by CAIR. In January 2009, the FBI cut off contacts with CAIR because of the group's roots in the “Holy Land Foundation” network supporting Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization noted for its reliance on suicide bombers.

Why doesn't the local Islamic community specifically renounce CAIR, renounce Saudi Arabian funding of American Islamic institutions, and renounce Wahhabism? It is easy to denounce such events as the Fort Hood murders after they occur; it requires courage to work actively against the incitement that causes such atrocities.

George Rooks

Davis