from eddobloggo.com

Evidence is growing that the massacre at Fort Hood was as much an act of radical Islamist terrorism as were the 9/11 attacks and the uncountable number of suicide-homicide bombings that have occurred in the Middle East. Even if it turns out that this mass murderer had merely "snapped" it certainly does not prove that the rest of the jihadists are wrapped any more tightly.

As a result of the Fort Hood shooter's religion and ethnicity in combination with reports that Nidal Malik Hasan had uttered the very same phrase that has come to be known as the "famous last words" of Islamists, the American Muslim community is growing fearful of anti-Muslim backlash.

Many are calling it increased backlash, although you may find it difficult to conjure up the memory of some major media-covered incident(s) based on pre-Fort Hood terrorism. Other than any number of busted plots involving Muslim-Americans plus an ever-growing list of stories about religious honor killings, what have we been told by the media about ongoing difficulties in the American Muslim community?

Wasn't there anything more newsworthy than the occasional workplace or campus head scarf controversy, modified burqua pictorial, or story about foot bath installations at airports and other public buildings?

On the other hand, what about those village squares and courthouses across the nation that have been forced by PC organizations and the ACLU to remove their Christmas and Chanuka symbols for fear of offending Muslims and other minority religions?  Are Arab-Americans and other avowed Muslims really picked-on by their cohorts in the US armed forces? If so, what about black, white and Hispanic converts to Islam?

When was the last time you heard a speech or read a commentary from the spokesman of a prominent Muslim-American organization or religious group decrying any specific act of violence committed in the name of Allah? Well, apparently the administration has.

"This was a terrible tragedy for all involved," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told reporters in the United Arab Emirates' capital Abu Dhabi. "Obviously, we object to, and do not believe, that anti-Muslim sentiment should emanate from this." Napolitano added that her agency is working with state and local groups to try to deflect any anti-Muslim anger after Thursday's Fort Hood attack.

It is extremely ironic that the DHS, various elements of military intelligence, the Secret Service and any number of other US Government agencies regularly monitor public blogs and commentary websites such as this one.  Webmasters who have randomly checked their server logs have been shocked and disturbed to find the IP addresses of the aforementioned listed among their visitor statistics.

"The document on right-wing extremism sent last week by this department's Office of Intelligence and Analysis is one in an ongoing series of assessments to provide situational awareness to state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies on the phenomenon and trends of violent radicalization in the United States," DHS Secretary Napolitano said in a statement last April.  Veterans returning from the War on Terror in Iraq and Afghanistan were among the potential right-wing threats identified in her earlier statement.

It is understandable that those who spy on home-grown terrorist may be too overworked monitoring the countless number of writers of anti-administration material to identify and maintain surveillance over those who write truly anti-American diatribe.  But missing or ignoring the rantings of its own personnel -- sane or otherwise -- points to yet another aspect of this administration's return to a pre-9/11 mentality.

Hopefully, Muslim-Americans will be quick, next time, to report any threats that exist within their own community; to provide the "situational awareness" so sought-after by the Department of Homeland Security.  There would be no better way to prove to the rest of us that we have nothing to fear in that community.  There would be no quicker way to eliminate the backlash about which they have complained.

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