Muslims

Reporting from Killeen, Texas, and Silver Spring, Md. -- Over the last few weeks, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan drove off the vast Army base at Ft. Hood, Texas, at least a dozen times to enjoy seafood dinners with Duane Reasoner Jr., an 18-year-old he was mentoring in the ways of Islam. They would pray at the simple Masjidu-Ttaqwa prayer hall out along the highway, hit the all-you-can-eat buffet at the Golden Corral and then rush back for evening worship. Twice they drove to Hasan's one-bedroom apartment to pick up books or to talk.

The news made Nihad Awad sick to his stomach. Like the rest of the nation, Awad, who heads the Council on American-Islamic Relations, learned this week that it allegedly was a Muslim who opened fire at a U.S. Army base in Texas, killing 13 people and injuring many more. According to witnesses, Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan issued the great, exalting cry of his faith before opening fire: " Allahu akbar !" God is great. Hearing the story, Awad too would invoke his maker -- but with a weary lament that is echoing coast to coast among American Muslims.

The FBI and the Army on Sunday were investigating whether the military psychiatrist suspected in the Ft. Hood shooting rampage had an association with militants at a mosque in Virginia or in cyberspace. A senior federal law enforcement official said there was no immediate evidence of such a link, nor of any direct connection between the suspected gunman, Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, and terrorist groups or individuals, either in person or online. Hasan is accused of opening fire at a readiness center in Ft. Hood, Texas, on Thursday, killing 13 and wounding 29. He reportedly had been depressed about his upcoming deployment to Afghanistan.

On this Sunday more than any other, Shemaka Hairston needed to pray. She survived last week's harrowing rampage at this base, in which 13 people died and dozens were wounded. A few feet from where she crouched under a desk, a soldier was shot and killed. Hairston, 29, applied pressure to a co-worker's wounds as he repeatedly recited the Lord's Prayer. After he was airlifted to a hospital, she broke down and cried. So she and another co-worker, Joi Swan, 48, went to an early service Sunday in nearby Killeen, Texas, as the nation struggled to make sense of the carnage.

Did Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the accused gunman in Thursday's rampage at Ft. Hood, Texas, commit mass murder because of a mental breakdown or because of hatred for his own country fueled by Islamic radicalism -- or some combination of the two? We don't know yet, but whatever the explanation turns out to be, we do know this: The carnage is not a reflection on all the other Muslims serving in the U.S. military. President Obama made that point on Saturday, albeit obliquely, when he noted that those who have fought for this country include "Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus and nonbelievers."

The FBI and the military investigated contacts over the last year between an Army psychiatrist accused in the deadly Ft. Hood rampage and a Yemen-based militant cleric linked to some of the Sept. 11 hijackers, but concluded the shooting suspect did not pose a threat, senior law enforcement and military officials said Monday. After U.S. intelligence officials intercepted their e-mails, members of two Joint Terrorism Task Forces contacted Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan's superiors and reviewed his academic and military records for evidence of suspicious activity late last year and early this year, according to three senior U.S. officials.

Lt. Col. Shareda Hosein, who lives dual lives in Army fatigues and an Islamic head covering, sometimes encounters what she calls "Islam anxiety" among her fellow soldiers, saying they pepper her with direct questions about jihad and Islamic law. Army Sgt. Ayman Kafel, who served as a military police officer in Iraq before retiring two years ago, had to overcome family objections to his service. Marine Sgt. Souhaib Elkoun, who also served in Iraq, was heckled as a traitor by fellow Arab Americans when he showed up in uniform at a community event.

Re "Muslims say FBI spying is causing anxiety," March 1 If the teaching in mosques is about love, compassion and doing good deeds, why are Muslims fearful? Discussions about jihad, killings and destruction of lives and property should be reported to authorities. Muslims who are pure of heart -- honest, law-abiding citizens -- have nothing to fear. Herbert J. Young Beverly Hills -- Unfortunately, it's much more difficult to catch real terrorists than it is to catch mosque-goers.

An Indian state minister accused of leading Hindu mobs that attacked Muslims during some of the country's worst religious violence in recent years resigned and surrendered to authorities for arrest. Maya Kodnani, who was minister of education and child welfare in western Gujarat state's government, has denied the allegations against her. More than 1,000 people, most of them Muslims, were killed when Hindu mobs rampaged through Muslim neighborhoods, towns and villages in the state from February to April 2002.

Police in northern India arrested a great-grandson of the country's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, over allegations that he made inflammatory comments against Muslims. Police fired in the air and baton-charged a crowd of at least 10,000 of Varun Gandhi's supporters shouting pro-Hindu slogans as he was arrested in his constituency in Uttar Pradesh, a crucial state in the April-May general election. Gandhi is a member of India's powerful Nehru-Gandhi dynasty and an election candidate for the Hindu-nationalist opposition Bharatiya Janata Party.