Through the eyes of others
Today most people either do not know how or do not want to see things through the perspective of others. By their refusal to do so they only create problems for those around them. Unfortunately, many of those who are able to see from other perspectives are the victims of problems created for them by those around them. Such a person is Major Nidal Malik Hassan.
Too often I hear people whining about those he made trouble for, yet those who whine are those who do nt or will not see things from the other perspective, and thus make trouble for others. Had they learned to see things as Nidal Malik Hassan did they would have seen he and others like him are the real victims.
Here was a man from an ethnic group of people which the government and american population at large have chosen to demonize, as they have to people of various ethnic groups and walks of life throughout the entire history of America. It has only been in recent years that victimized minorities have chosen to fight back against the society and institutions that have victimized them rather than putting up with the abuse or going along to get along. In the case of Major Hassan here was a man who served in the american army like many others, yet who was targeted for harassment and victimization because he is Muslim and an Arab. Like many others he complained about the treatment he received and was ignored and further victimized. Even worse the army decided to materialize the worst fears of Major Hassan by preparing him to fight against his own people in Asia. This was the final insult and led Nidal Malik Hassan to shoot up fort hood.
If people who think this is an isolated incident they must think again. Asan Akbar detonated a live grenade in his commanding officer’s tent after being harassed and victimized for being Muslim and African by those he served with. Throughout the Cold war and especially throughout his Naval career Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, the man who developed nuclear propulsion for Naval vessels, was repeatedly harassed and victimized because he was a Russian, and once he became an Admiral for his breakthrough in Nuclear technology made contact with the Communist leadership in the Kremlin, who offered to make him an Admiral with the same authority he had in the american navy, and all Rickover had to was mention this and give serious consideration to this offer for those who were targeting him to back off. Decisions like this are not easy but the right ones, as I found out by my refusal to accept john chafee’s scholarship to Annapolis in 1996, for as someone who has family from Central Asia, the Middle east, and Eastern Europe I did not want to serve against my own kind for a country which had mistreated my family.
What is really disgusting is to see how members of Nidal Malik Hassan’s community, ie Arabs and Muslims, and those who understand him are dismissed as terrorists, sleeper agents, subversives, enemies of the state, and all other types of demonizations. Those who do the demonizing are those of the lowest kind, those who will stand for any type of abuse and perpetrate it on others just to survive. By their doing so they perpetuate a system that is based on destruction and abuse, and which can only survive by abusing others, and who can not live amongst people without causing harm to all around them. The more people like them are empowered the more people like Nidal Malik Hassan will go off and do what they did, and those that provoke them will be the ones responsible for the ensuing consequences.
Peter Khan Zendran
Too often I hear people whining about those he made trouble for, yet those who whine are those who do nt or will not see things from the other perspective, and thus make trouble for others. Had they learned to see things as Nidal Malik Hassan did they would have seen he and others like him are the real victims.
Here was a man from an ethnic group of people which the government and american population at large have chosen to demonize, as they have to people of various ethnic groups and walks of life throughout the entire history of America. It has only been in recent years that victimized minorities have chosen to fight back against the society and institutions that have victimized them rather than putting up with the abuse or going along to get along. In the case of Major Hassan here was a man who served in the american army like many others, yet who was targeted for harassment and victimization because he is Muslim and an Arab. Like many others he complained about the treatment he received and was ignored and further victimized. Even worse the army decided to materialize the worst fears of Major Hassan by preparing him to fight against his own people in Asia. This was the final insult and led Nidal Malik Hassan to shoot up fort hood.
If people who think this is an isolated incident they must think again. Asan Akbar detonated a live grenade in his commanding officer’s tent after being harassed and victimized for being Muslim and African by those he served with. Throughout the Cold war and especially throughout his Naval career Admiral Hyman G. Rickover, the man who developed nuclear propulsion for Naval vessels, was repeatedly harassed and victimized because he was a Russian, and once he became an Admiral for his breakthrough in Nuclear technology made contact with the Communist leadership in the Kremlin, who offered to make him an Admiral with the same authority he had in the american navy, and all Rickover had to was mention this and give serious consideration to this offer for those who were targeting him to back off. Decisions like this are not easy but the right ones, as I found out by my refusal to accept john chafee’s scholarship to Annapolis in 1996, for as someone who has family from Central Asia, the Middle east, and Eastern Europe I did not want to serve against my own kind for a country which had mistreated my family.
What is really disgusting is to see how members of Nidal Malik Hassan’s community, ie Arabs and Muslims, and those who understand him are dismissed as terrorists, sleeper agents, subversives, enemies of the state, and all other types of demonizations. Those who do the demonizing are those of the lowest kind, those who will stand for any type of abuse and perpetrate it on others just to survive. By their doing so they perpetuate a system that is based on destruction and abuse, and which can only survive by abusing others, and who can not live amongst people without causing harm to all around them. The more people like them are empowered the more people like Nidal Malik Hassan will go off and do what they did, and those that provoke them will be the ones responsible for the ensuing consequences.
Peter Khan Zendran
posted by Peter Khan Zendran at 11:56 AM
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