"Sudden Jihad syndrome" not so sudden...

The Jihadist is Always the Victim, Phyllis Chesler

From Part 1:

Pamela K. Taylor:
“Until we know more about Maj. Nidal’s motives we should not jump to conclusions, and certainly we should not declare that he had religious/political motivations simply because he was Muslim.The shootings at Fort Hood raise many questions. Major Nidal complained of being treated poorly by fellow soldiers because he was Muslim. It got bad enough, according to a New York Times article, that he hired a lawyer to seek to end his military career early. This request was denied, and he remained in the military. How severely did Islamophobic treatment by the very people he was trying to serve impact Maj. Hasan? How did the army’s refusal to let him end his service early, even though he agreed to pay off the cost of his education, affect his feelings about the army? What kind of stresses are Muslim soldiers placed under when they are deployed to areas where they are killing fellow Muslims, and perhaps people of similar ethnic background? Is the army taking extra precautions to deal with the additional stresses these soldiers are under?”

Phyllis Chesler to Ms. Taylor: You know and I know that more Muslims are killed by other Muslims than by infidels. Who is kidding whom here? But forget about the media. What if, as has been alleged, Major Hasan was a “problem” physician-employee? What if he could not tolerate being criticized and rather than try to correct himself, he grew a great grudge and decided that his professional work was good, great—that he was being picked on because he is a Muslim. (Arabs and Muslims rarely take responsibility for the failures of their cultures and communities. They always blame it (illiteracy, poverty, corruption, despotism, barbaric cruelty towards women, etc.) on the infidel, the Zionist, the Crusader. What if that is the scenario we are looking at?

Part 1 here, read it all.

From Part 2:

I am a psychologist, a retired Professor of Psychology and a psycho-analytically oriented psychotherapist. But I have also been following current events, even studying them. Based on the evidence to date, Major Hasan’s bloody rampage seems to have been planned. The day before the murders, he gave away his furniture and copies of his Qu’ran. On that day, Major Hasan also had a mysterious, brief meeting with another man dressed in Islamic clothing. And he used his neighbor’s computer.

Thus, Hasan’s action was a planned execution. It was not the act of a man who suddenly “snapped.” Yes, as I wrote in my earlier piece, we may characerize Hasan’s action as a case of Sudden Jihad Syndrome but that does not mean I am making an actual psychiatric diagnosis. The phrase is descriptive, perhaps even sarcastic. Yes, we may call this the act of a lone shooter–if it turns out that he acted alone–but still, this lone shooter was someone who was inspired by a radical Islamist ideology which views such murderous acts as religiously heroic not as “psychiatrically deranged.”

Part 2 here, read it, too.