Shooting at Wilders speech in Texas

[Farm Boy]

is it true the wounded security guard was unarmed? In Texas?

That's what I heard on NPR when they were doing the news segment on it. Didn't know whether that was weird or not!

 

[FriendlyFire]

Didnt expect the shooter to be a wealthy Pakistani.

Texas shooter Nadir Soofi was 'heartthrob' in Pakistan: schoolmates

Nadir Soofi, one of the gunmen who attacked a Texas venue hosting a contest to draw the Prophet Mohammed, was a charismatic "ladies' man" as a teenager, contemporaries from an elite Pakistani school said on Wednesday.

Soofi, 34, and Elton Simpson were shot dead by police on Sunday as they tried to storm the controversial cartoon drawing event.

Soofi studied at the $US20,000-a-year ($25,078-a-year) International School of Islamabad from 1992 to 1998, where contemporaries said he was funny, popular and charming and showed no inclination towards extremism.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, one person said Soofi was "quite suave and charismatic" and something of a "ladies' man" as a student.

"Whatever fundo [fundamentalist] indoctrination occurred, [it] happened after he graduated and moved to USA - here he was simply a cool kid with a bright future," the contemporary said.

Soofi's mother taught art at the heavily-guarded school, which is popular with diplomats and rich Pakistanis, several of his contemporaries said.

The former pupil said Soofi's family were "well off" and lived in a good house but paid no fees at the Islamabad school as his mother taught there.

http://www.smh.com.au/world/texas-s...-in-pakistan-schoolmates-20150506-ggvu34.html

 

[BvBPL]

It's always the sexy ones you have to watch for.

 

[JollyRoger]

That's it - we need to start profiling ladies' men from well off families.

 

[Funky]

It is indeed quite worrrying, because it shows once again that Islamic extremism isn't a result of poor education. In fact, many polls indicate that Muslims tend to become more extreme the higher their level of education is.

 

[FriendlyFire]

It is indeed quite worrrying, because it shows once again that Islamic extremism isn't a result of poor education. In fact, many polls indicate that Muslims tend to become more extreme the higher their level of education is.

I blame "Affluenza"
Thanks Texas

The two versions of Nadir Soofi are hard to reconcile.

There's the small-business man who loved cars; the Texas-born son of a Catholic nurse and a Pakistani American engineer; the all-American kid with a privileged upbringing, who caused little trouble other than the traffic tickets he got in Utah, where he attended college, and in Phoenix after moving there in the mid-2000s.

Then there's the Islamist gunman, clutching an assault rifle as he and a partner shot and wounded a Garland, Texas, security guard on Sunday, the one who lay dead and anonymous for hours in a parking lot a thousand miles from home as police searched his and his partner's belongings for possible explosives.

Nadir Soofi was born in Dallas and spent the first couple of years of his life where he ultimately died, in the diverse suburb of Garland, population 234,566, according to his mother. The family then moved to Plano in northern Texas, and then to Alabama.

"He was outgoing, he was intelligent, he did well in school; he just had a normal American upbringing," Sharon Soofi said. "He lived in nice neighborhoods. ... He really wasn’t denied anything. ... He even told me himself that he had a very good life that was provided for him by his parents."

“He lived a real privileged life all his life,” Soofi's father, Azam Soofi, an engineer, who has since remarried, told the Kansas City Star in a Tuesday interview at his home in Overland Park, Kansas. “He was a very humble, soft-spoken person. Never said no to me.”

Despite the support from his parents, accomplishment eluded Soofi.

Soofi was a pre-med student at the University of Utah from fall of 1998 to summer of 2003, according to a school spokeswoman, but he did not earn a degree.

That's around the time when Soofi moved to Phoenix, according to his mother, where he launched a series of small businesses with financial backing from his father, including a dry-cleaning shop, a pizza joint and a cleaning company. They never seemed to last long.

Soofi's former girlfriend ultimately took primary custody of the pair's son, with Soofi paying child support and getting some visitation and holiday rights, according to court records. Soofi sometimes brought his son with him to Texas to visit with Sharon Soofi.

Sharon Soofi thinks the now-closed pizza parlor, Cleopatra Bistro Pizza, is where Soofi met his future accomplice, Simpson, who authorities say had a history of fantasizing about violent jihad in the Middle East.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-texas-gunman-20150505-story.html#page=1

 

[JollyRoger]

Lived in Texas, Alabama, Arizona, and Utah. Places known for clinging to their guns and religion.

 

[Funky]

Lived in Texas, Alabama, Arizona, and Utah. Places known for clinging to their guns and religion.

True, and it seems plausible that this could have influenced him, though we will never know for sure. Here in Germany, where neither guns nor religion play a dominant role in society, there are plenty of young men (and to a lesser extent women) from "normal German families" who have become radicalized and have even gone to Syria to join the IS and figt Jihad.

This shows just how out of place any charge of racism is when criticizing Islam. It's all about the ideology and its heinous core doctrines, which for whatever reasons are appealing to especially young men, regardless of their background. As Sam Harris has pointed out, in a sense Western adherents to Islamic extremism deserve even more blame, since they have the benefit of not having been indoctrinated with this ideology since early childhood.

 

[warpus]

It's kind of curious how Muslims (and others) who move to a land of privilege, such as the U.S. (high standard of living, etc.) seem to at times radicalize in such a setting much more easily than people who live in a comparatively "more backwards" place, such as Yemen or Afghanistan.

It's almost as if a lot of young people go through a phase where they oppose some element of the status quo. In the U.S. and other western nations this is a lot easier - because freedom of speech and other such ideals make it easier to speak out against whatever you want. It seems that a lot of people end up taking causes in their 20s/early adult life - some of them just, others not.. It also seems that it's easy to get radicalized in such a setting, whether you turn into an extremist ********, tumblr drama queen, Muslim extremist, anti-female rights activist/MRA, anti-meat eating vegetarian extremist, pro-environment activist who commits crimes, etc.

I think the trigger might very well be that there just isn't enough support for young people in some of these well off societies. In Europe the unemployment rate for youth is often quite high, and in the U.S. there aren't very many employee rights, especially for younger employees. It seems that it's easy for a young person to get disillusioned in life and to try to take up some sort of a cause. And if you're Muslim, you might very well be tempted by an anti-establishment ideology such as something radicalized and extremist.

So what's the solution? I'm not quite sure, but something seems wrong with the way our society is set up. Being a young adult is a time of transition and I think a lot of people just get lost..

 

[Farm Boy]

This shows just how out of place any charge of racism is when criticizing Islam.

It's not racism in the ridiculously narrow genetic sense Europeans seem to like to define it as. It's cultural bias. Which obviously has links to parentage and decent but is not entirely dependent on it. This isn't the sort of thing where CH producing a picture of a pastyass kid turned jihadist is a "Gotcha we aint biased! See? A white one!"

 

[Narz]

It's kind of curious how Muslims (and others) who move to a land of privilege, such as the U.S. (high standard of living, etc.) seem to at times radicalize in such a setting much more easily than people who live in a comparatively "more backwards" place, such as Yemen or Afghanistan.

Everyone needs something to believe in.

It's cultural bias.

Whats wrong with cultural bias? I'm a huge critic of Western Civilization but its still superior to societies that revolve around Islam.

I know its taboo nowadays to ever say any culture is f-ed up (unless its your home country, kind of like Jews are allowed to mock Jewish culture) & you can say most Muslims don't believe in Jihad but Jihad is part of their religion whether they believe in it or not (just like Christianity is homophobic).

Its all fine when intelligent, modern-day folks who nevertheless want the comfort & community of religion distance themselves from their holy books but really they're phonies, if you don't believe the user's manual you shouldn't claim the religion, become a hipster spiritualist unitarian or something. The extremists don't give normal Muslims a bad name, the everyday ones give the extremists a good name.

Would it be so bad if we get another Prophet who could edit out all the toxic crap from the holy books?

 

[Farm Boy]

Narz, many Christians are homophobic. I self identify as a Christian. My Christianity is not homophobic. If you read the news, much of Christianity is not homophobic. It's becoming less so as time grinds on. Just like secular society is becoming less homophobic. Telling a non-violent Muslim that his or her religion includes mandates for violent Jihad is not a decision you get to make. You can observe that there are subgroups of Muslims who certainly believe so, just as you can rightly point out the Westboro Baptist Church, but that's a different statement.

 

[classical_hero]

It's kind of curious how Muslims (and others) who move to a land of privilege, such as the U.S. (high standard of living, etc.) seem to at times radicalize in such a setting much more easily than people who live in a comparatively "more backwards" place, such as Yemen or Afghanistan.

There are plenty of radical in both of those places. But there is one thing that is common with all of them.

 

[Borachio]

What is that one thing, though?

Is it that they've all got complete box sets of Friends DVDs?

 

[BvBPL]

A love of humus?

 

[classical_hero]

Do you really need hints?

 

[Kaitzilla]

Pam Geller and a Muslim cleric were on Hannity discussing whether should she be put to death for blasphemy.


Link to video.

 

[Narz]

Wow that chick's scarier than any terrorist, she looks like Medussa!

 

[Funky]

It's kind of curious how Muslims (and others) who move to a land of privilege, such as the U.S. (high standard of living, etc.) seem to at times radicalize in such a setting much more easily than people who live in a comparatively "more backwards" place, such as Yemen or Afghanistan.

They are in many cases not more radicalized, it's just that they stand out more due to the stark contrast of their attitudes to our Western values. In any case, both in Islamic countries and in the West the numbers are truly shocking. In many Islamic countries for example, the support for Sharia lies above 60, 70 or even 80 percent. "Only" 40% of British Muslims want the UK to be governed under Sharia. However, 78% support punishing the publishers of Muhammad cartoons, and 37% consider Jews "legitimate targets". And 80% of young Dutch Muslims believe Holy War against non-believers to be justified. (Sources: link, link)
So while the numbers vary depending on how the questions are asked, it doesn't matter so much where they are asked. The numbers are horrific throughout the Muslim population. In no other group do we see results even remotely like these. Islam really is a variable that can be singled out.

I'm a huge critic of Western Civilization but its still superior to societies that revolve around Islam.

This is a key point. While Western societies have a lot to account for, they are nevertheless vastly superior to any nation in which Islam is the dominant religion. If anyone disagrees with this statement, I challenge him or her to spend a month in Iran or Saudi Arabia. It is not a coincedence that Islamic countries rank at the very bottom in regard to virtually every social parameter (literacy, child mortality, age, distribution of wealth, rights of minorities, self-perceived happiness etc.). What's more, we do criticize our own countries, often very relentlessly. That shouldn't prevent us from noticing how extraordinarily priviledged we are to live in the West.

Pam Geller and a Muslim cleric were on Hannity discussing whether should she be put to death for blasphemy.

It is simply inconceivable that Pam Geller has been banned from the UK while Anjem Choudry may continue to spread his disgusting views.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

This is a key point. While Western societies have a lot to account for, they are nevertheless vastly superior to any nation in which Islam is the dominant religion.

I'm just going to guess that a billion or so Muslims would not readily agree with this blatantly biased observation.

If anyone disagrees with this statement, I challenge him or her to spend a month in Iran or Saudi Arabia. It is not a coincedence that Islamic countries rank at the very bottom in regard to virtually every social parameter (literacy, child mortality, age, distribution of wealth, rights of minorities, self-perceived happiness etc.).

Coincidence, no. Function of the fact that the decision about what parameters are most important as well as the methodology for measuring them originates in the western cultures that 'coincidentally' show to best effect, yes.

What's more, we do criticize our own countries, often very relentlessly. That shouldn't prevent us from noticing how extraordinarily priviledged we are to live in the West.

As someone who was born and raised in a western culture I certainly do fit in better here. I don't consider that as evidence of the superiority of the culture, or myself. It is just an obviously good match.

It is simply inconceivable that Pam Geller has been banned from the UK while Anjem Choudry may continue to spread his disgusting views.

Pam Geller should be banned from the planet, but since she is a US citizen we are stuck with her. Much like the UK is stuck with Anjem Choudry, who probably should be banned from the planet as well.