Joplin Muslims praying for Fort Hood victims w/ Muslim Web responses to Fort Hood shootings

By Roger McKinney

rmckinney@joplinglobe.com

Among those praying for victims of the Fort Hood tragedy are Joplin Muslims.

“We are saddened by the events,” said Dr. Navid Zaidi, treasurer of the Islamic Society of Joplin. “Our hearts and prayers are with the families. We have had special prayers at the mosque for the families of the victims.”

Lahmuddin, the imam, or prayer leader, at the Joplin mosque, said his sermon the day after the shooting addressed the tragedy that he said saddened everyone.

“How can you justify this?” he asked. “It has nothing to do with Islam. What we can do? We just ask God to give us guidance.”

Zaidi said Islam rejects violence.

“Acts like this are against humanity and against the teaching of Islam and the Quran,” Zaidi said. “The Quran says if you kill one person, it’s like killing all mankind. If you save one person’s life, it’s like saving all mankind.”

Zaidi has said the mosque’s congregation has 40 families.

Zaidi and Lahmuddin also said they have felt no repercussions from the Fort Hood shootings and that Joplin accepts Muslims as part of the community.

“We do become apprehensive every time someone crazy does something violent,” Zaidi said. “Muslims are in the spotlight again because of the actions of a lunatic.”

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, is accused of shooting and killing 12 soldiers and a civilian on Thursday, Nov. 5, at Fort Hood Army Base in Texas. Thirty-four others were wounded.

Hasan, an American Muslim of Lebanese descent, had e-mail contact 10 to 20 times last year with radical Yemeni-American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki. After the shooting, al-Awlaki praised Hasan as a hero on his Web site. Army intelligence and the FBI had monitored the e-mails, but finding no evidence of a crime being planned, dropped the investigation. Doctors overseeing Hasan’s training at Walter Reed Army Medical Center last year also found him to be behaving strangely and having extreme religious views.

A native of Joplin, Logan Burnette, who was wounded in the shooting, said that Hasan shouted “Allahu akbhar” or “God is great,” when he opened fire.

Zaidi said it does not help that people and the media tend to stereotype Muslims.