11/06/09: Suhail Khan discusses Ft. Hood Massacre on Rachel Maddow Show

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Transcript:

BARACK OBAMA:

We don’t know all the answers yet. And I would caution against jumping to conclusions until we have all the facts.

RACHEL MADDOW:

That was either a very prescient or a very observant caution from president Obama today about the shootings at Ft. Hood. Because, today, just as the president was urging diligence and deliberation, World Net Daily, the conservative conspiracy theory factory best known for advancing the cause of the “birthers”, was charming its way into the hearts of millions with this—this headline, claiming that the alleged shooter, Army Major Nidal Hasan was an adviser to president Obama’s White House transition office, implying that Mr. Hasan was on, essentially, the president’s payroll, It may surprise you to learn that that’s not true. Even though it’s a headline on World Net Daily. I know.  Hasan was not an adviser to the Obama transition. He was not an appointee to some kind of Homeland Security task force. He attended a meeting, actually, at a college. He sat in the audience and that college wrote to the new administration to give them unsolicited advice. As Spencer Ackerman [PH] put it today in the Washington Independent, quote, really, this is as stupid as saying that a guy who writes a letter to The New York Times advised editor Bill Keller. It’s actually even stupider than that, considering that Hasan himself isn’t known to have written anything to anyone. He sat in the audience. So, really, it’s like saying that anyone who ever saw anyone else write a letter to the editor was an adviser to The New York Times. But that’s not all. This is America’s conspiratorial right wing today. This is World Net Daily. So of course, there’s more. You might remember, last month, four Republican members of Congress held a press conference during which they demanded an investigation into the Council on American/Islamic Relations because the group was allegedly deep into a secret plot to place Muslim interns on Capitol Hill. The book on which that publicity stunt was based was, naturally, published by World Net Daily. One of the book’s co-authors today came out with this insight into the motives and allegiances that he has divined about the alleged Ft. Hood shooter. Quote, Hasan is a terrorist, supporting the ideology of al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, and yes, the Council on American/Islamic Relations. Joining us now is Suhail Khan, senior fellow for Muslim/Christian Understanding at the Institute for Global Engagement. He’s also a former senior political appointee in the administration of President George W. Bush. Mr. Khan, thanks very much for coming back on the show.

SUHAIL KHAN:

Thank you for having me, Rachel.

RACHEL MADDOW:

What’s your reaction when you hear a conservative writer equating al-Qaeda and the Council on American/Islamic Relations, which of course condemns violence and has long since specifically condemned the Ft. Hood shootings?

SUHAIL KHAN:

It’s just another instance—a sad instance—you know, we are in a national period of mourning after the tragedy of Ft. Hood where we lost so many lives senselessly, this unfortunate incident where there was violence and people were killed and wounded and it’s even more sad to see that there might be some who would use and exploit this tragedy for their political partisan and, worse, for their racist ends.

RACHEL MADDOW:

Even as the FBI and the commanding officer at Ft. Hood have said, that the evidence does not necessarily suggest that this is an act of terrorism or it should be viewed that way—the arguably premature discussion about terrorism and whether or not our military has been infiltrated—it’s happening not just in World Net Daily wingnut-ville, it’s happening all over the place. Even in the mainstream media. Can you say anything to us about how that is playing out among Muslim-Americans serving in our military?

SUHAIL KHAN:

You know, it’s just another tragedy that’s heaped upon a sad incident here. You have fifteen thousand to twenty thousand Muslim-Americans who are proudly serving in our armed services in all branches. Muslim-Americans have served in our country’s armed services since the Revolutionary War with distinction. And so I think in talking to my friends who are serving in uniform, they are concerned. They know  that their fellow—their fellow countrymen in uniform know them and trust them and will continue to serve with them as they would—as brothers and men and women in military service. But they are concerned that there would be a backlash in the public because, unfortunately, there are people as you pointed out, unfortunately, on the internet and on television programs that are, you know, questioning their loyalty just strictly because of their faith.

RACHEL MADDOW:

You know, Suhail, there was another horrible mass shooting today. This one was in an Orlando office building. Police say in that case, the alleged gunman opened fire at a company that he’d been fired from a couple of years ago. And, of course, in that case, no one is talking about that as an incident of terrorism. It’s being seen as a workplace shooting.

SUHAIL KHAN:

Right, right.

RACHEL MADDOW:

Do you think the contrast between the speculation about the motives in these shootings is important? Obviously, the timing appears to be purely coincidental. But is it instructive in terms of the different ways these have been responded to?

SUHAIL KHAN:

Well, these—absolutely, I mean, we are learning that these are not isolated incidents. That there are, as you pointed out in the break, there are, unfortunately, incidents where men in uniform have reacted violently—often violently towards their fellow countrymen in uniform, sometimes towards their family. We’ve seen a high incidence of suicide, unfortunately, in the military. In the last four years, we haven’t seen these numbers since the Vietnam War. And so we do need to do more to study issues like post-traumatic stress syndrome. And we know that in the workplace in general, there are people like this incident, unfortunately, today in Florida where people lash out against their co-workers and shoot and harm others. And that’s something, again, we need to be on guard for. But to put a religious face or to try to discriminate against whole groups of people is just sad. And again, just exploiting the tragedy for a very ugly and bigoted means.

RACHEL MADDOW:

Suhail Khan, a senior fellow at the Institute for Global Engagement and a former senior political appointee of President George W. Bush, a proud conservative who I really appreciate coming on this show. I have—there are rumors that I’m a very liberal person and I’m hard to talk to. I really appreciate you crossing the Rubicon and talking with us, Suhail.

SUHAIL KHAN:

Hey, thank you, Rachel.

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