Under liberalism, thou shalt not ask reasonable questions, especially about Muslims

Stogie, the author of Saber Point, writes:

Yesterday a British sailor went berserk aboard HMS Astute, a nuclear submarine birthed at Southhampton, and shot two officers, killing one of them. I wrote a post asking the reasonable question, “Was the shooter a Muslim?”

I immediately received a comment from an angry Brit. He wrote:

Your post is ridiculous, speculating on the religion of the perpetrator is not at the forefront of the UK public’s mind. There are many Muslims in the British Armed forces and they are just as loyal as their Anglican, Catholic, Hindu, Sikh or atheist counterparts. The British armed forces has a long and proud tradition of diversity in its ranks. Commonwealth troops from all over the world continue to serve alongside troops from the UK. In many ways these are some of the most loyal and disciplined troops we have. Please do not mire an already tragic incident with your small minded opinion.

In fact, it turns out that the shooter was apparently not a Muslim. However, I found the Brit’s comment to be idiotic, especially in light of the frequent incidence of Muslim soldiers in or associated with the U.S. military killing their fellow, non-Muslim soldiers—such as the murderous fragging attack by a Muslim G.I. on officers at the beginning of the Iraq war, such as Nidal Hassan’s mass murder at Fort Hood, such as the numerous incidents in Afghanistan in which Afghan soldiers, our supposed allies against the Taliban, have suddenly turned their guns on American, German, and Italian soldiers and murdered them.

In any case, the angry Brit was wrong about what British people think. I had a lot of hits from British citizens who had the same thought—that the shooter might well have been a Muslim experiencing “sudden jihad syndrome.”

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Christopher B. writes from England:

Almost all Americans, and many Brits (including Daily Mail), get this wrong:

Yesterday a British sailor went berserk aboard the HMS Astute, a nuclear submarine birthed at Southhampton,

HMS means Her Majesty’s Ship. Therefore “the HMS Astute” is nonsense. A really annoying mistake!

LA replies:

Right. I’ll take out the “the.”

Posted by Lawrence Auster at April 09, 2011 04:44 PM | Send