Hello, my name is Dan H. Van Atta.
I'm a senior at UNC.
Mo' was a freshman suitmate, meaning his room was next door to mine.
I had lunch with the guy not very long ago, about a year.
First I would like to address the fact that the DTH, the campus newspaper misquoted me.
"I think it's kind of one of those things that someone snapped," he said. "Someone is thinking about doing something crazy - they eventually end up doing it when they're pushed into doing it."
Is a misquote, what I actually said was:
"I think it's kind of one of those things that someone snapped,"
"It's one of things were someone is thinking about doing something crazy and then one day they snap and do it.
There's a subtle difference in the two.
I think wholeheartedly that you wrong in blaming the Koran. Islam like Christianity is a religion of peace. Mo' himself that people are allowed to have their own beliefs. That they should not be messed with for simply thinking something different, or having different beliefs.
I think the deal is that he felt extremely passionately about what is going on in the world, especially with respect to what the US is doing. I also feel passionately about it, but I believe in peaceful protest, I am essentially a pacifist. Mo' on the other hand probably felt that peaceful protest wouldn't do anything, and he would be correct in thinking that. A peaceful protest, especially the impotent anti-war ones, are not accomplishing all that much. The only thing that would get any attention would be an act of violence.
His religion, which he found in the years since we were room-mates and when I had lunch with him, was probably a motivation for his actions. It made him feel more sympathy for those who are considered collateral damage by our corrupt government, than he does with us decadent americans, who feel that we are damn near a chosen people.
Also there was far more context when I said he had begun studying the Koran. He had begun several years since. He was clearly reading it intensively, in the morning and probably every evening. Oddly, he said that the book needs to be understood as a whole, he said,"if it doesn't make sense (the Koran), keep reading, and by the end it should make sense."
I hope that we as americans, might be able to see that what he did was not random. Saying it is, really discredits why he did what he did. It is as if we are saying, that it was a random act, that he had no reason to do it. Unfortunately he did have reasons, many, and I agree with a lot of them. What we are doing in the world is wrong. Torturing prisoners, engagining in a war in a very naive manner, with no plan for peace, just a plan to funnel moeny to american corporations. Why else would we lock non-supportive countries out, if we were serious about doing good, for example we would have used the French to train iraqi soldiers across the borders of Iraq, in Kuwait. Something they would be very willing to do, and something that is the basis of our strategy in Iraq. "as they step up, we will step down." Instead now, we scorned them, made no use of them, and instead depended on american's to do jobs, that rightfully should have been done by iraqi's.
By Dan H. Van Atta, at 3:03 PM, April 13, 2006
Ps: i forget to mention that Mo' was an American.
He left Iran at a very young age. he was an american citizen, went to school down in Charlotte...
By Dan H. Van Atta, at 3:04 PM, April 13, 2006
Dan,
Thanks for your thoughtful post. But I must disagree. Your own comments validate my opinion, not dispel it.
First, I marvel at how you are able to hold such irrational, and mutually exclusive contradictions, simultaneously.
You said:
"Mo' himself that people are allowed to have their own beliefs.... That they should not be messed with for simply thinking something different, or having different beliefs."
Really? How then do you explain that his actions contradict that? Have you considered that his actions reveal his real beliefs and either he LIED to you, or he was LYING to himself... or he CHANGED HIS MIND after being radicalized by another source?
You said:
"The only thing that would get any attention would be an act of violence".
There's the proof! He carried it out didn't he? You can't have it both ways, Dan. It is a FACT that your friend deliberately attempted to MURDER innocent people on the basis of disagreeing with their beliefs. A few anti-Iraq war rallies orchestrated with George Soros' corporate money don't eradicate the fact that a majority of the American people DO support the war on Islamic terrorists. How then was Mo engaged in "allowing" people to have their own beliefs if he was willing to KILL in order to advance HIS OWN? Be rational, Dan!
Second, you VALIDATED my entire contention in "Its the Koran, Stupid!" by saying:
"His religion, which he found in the years since we were room-mates and when I had lunch with him, was probably a motivation for his actions".... he had become more passionate after reading the Koran "intensively, morning and probably evening".
Help me out here... if he started out believing that people are entitled to their beliefs, then become intensely influenced by the Koran, then why is it wrong to conclude that the Koran is what radicalized him and turned him into a murderer? And if the Koran is the source of the Islamic religion, how is it then a "religion of peace"?
You quoted Mo saying ... "Oddly, he said that the book needs to be understood as a whole, he said,"if it doesn't make sense (the Koran), keep reading, and by the end it should make sense."
There is in fact, nothing "ODD" about that at all. You just don't know what it means, Dan. So let me explain it. Historically, when Mohammed wanted to end the pantheistic (many gods> beliefs of his people, he started out very moderate, expecting everyone to embrace the "new revelation" he claimed to have received from an "angel". Well, not everybody did so. He thought the "the people of the book" (Christians and Jews) would join him against the pagans. But they didn't. Gradually he hardened towards then, and in the end, they rejected his leadership and his heretical beliefs. He got angrier and angrier, until finally he advocated destroying and overthrowing everything and everyone in his path.. in the name of "blasphemy" against Allah, of course.
Thats' pretty much the same mindset of the average "devout" Koran inspired Muslim today. Convert or die. The rest of them just bow down 5 times a day towards Mecca and then go about their business.
Like Christians who go to church twice a year on Christmas and Easter but couldn't care less about God or religion the rest of the year. And by the way, when some DO start reading the bible, they don't go around killing people, they just "preach". Those are words, not bombs, Dan. But I digress...
That process that finally "makes sense" to the student of the Koran, happens today just like it did with Mohammed. When a "moderate" Muslim, generally ignorant of the Koran, begins to actually study it. He becomes radicalized the more he studies it. That's because Mohammed's LATER Suras are the radical, violent ones; the "moderate" ones are the earlier ones.. and that's why when the Koran is read "as a whole", the understanding comes... and it is a vision of war, conquest and blood.
This is the stated intent of jihad, of binLaden and Zarqawi et.al., and everyone that embraces their cause: to convert the entire world to Islam or be at war with it until it is defeated for Islam.
Educate yourself, Dan.
So, on what basis then should we consider the Koran, or Islam, as anything but a RELIGION OF MURDER and VIOLENCE? It was precisely this religion that motivated your friend to attempt the murders, and that is my entire point.
You said: "I hope that we as Americans, might be able to see that what he did was not random".
Well I never said it was random! My whole point is that it was a DELIBERATE ACT TO COMMIT MURDER, INSPIRED BY A RELIGION OF MURDERERS. The American people need to recognize exactly what you said!! Jihadists are acting delibarately and they are our ENEMY. We need to recognize them for what they are and recognize the SOURCE of the murdering.
So tell me, Dan. Are you justifying the vicious acts of those who wage JIHAD against us by saying "Unfortunately he did have reasons, many, and I agree with a lot of them"? Sure sounds like it.
The last time I checked this is a Constitutional Republic where there are many avenues for dissent. When one doesn't agree with the policies of the elected government, write your Congressman, write letters to the editor, demonstrate, or wait until the next election and VOTE THEM OUT. What we DON'T do is commit acts of violence to get attention. That is what ANARCHISTS and CRIMINALS do, and if that is what you agree with, then you are no friend of the American people.
As for the rest of your politics, I'm not interested in your Marxist-inspired rants against American corporations, or defending the virtues of the chicken-wing socialist appeasing French. NO nation is perfect, and there is much about this country I don't like either, especially that part infested by a bunch of liberal, socialist-brainwashed, politically correct fascists like North Carolina universities are turning out in droves. But I don't go around in my SUV mowing down Cindy Sheehan and all her useful idiots when they protest.
Look Dan, here's the bottom line. What matters now is that we are in a WAR for our very survival and we either pull together or lose. One either sides with the ENEMY or with their COUNTRY.You say Mo was American? Then he turned on his own country. Your friend sided with the enemy and that is treason. I HOPE THIS GOVERNMENT HANGS HIM FOR IT. Take your pick where you stand, or his fate could be yours too.
By Sillie LIzzie, at 12:01 AM, April 14, 2006
Commenting by HaloScan
