I was just quoted in the Associated Press regarding the Nigerian, who attempted to set off a powder & liquid mixture on a Northwest flight over Detroit yesterday.
As I mentioned in the story, the suspect is unknown in Detroit’s Nigerian Muslim community. I’ve been in contact with its most prominent leader in Detroit, who said, “I don’t know this man; he’s not a part of our community.”
It remains to be seen if this guy is really affiliated with Al-Qaeda, a deranged person like the lady who jumped on the Pope at mass, or a lone-wolf who was motivated by some sort of grievance. Based upon Al-Qaeda types that our nation has interrogated in recent years, I seriously doubt that an Al-Qaeda operative is going to instantly spill the beans to law enforcement that he’s with Al-Qaeda without going through long term, intense interrogation and no torturing and drowning (sorry, I meant waterboarding).
It is also odd that Americans are being subjected to more screening in airports after this incident. Did this guy even fly out of an American airport on his way to Detroit? Of course not. This is a security issue stemming from overseas. Unfortunately during the holiday season, people will be subjected to unnecessary additional screening. And I hope that American Muslims aren’t subjected to profiling by TSA because of this incident, which had nothing to do with them.
Weblog of Dawud Walid 
Whether it is religion or otherwise, these people are mentally deranged.
Disgusting.
Labeling this individual or any other terrorist as mentally deranged implies that they are simply crazy and unaware of their actions. It is a simple and comforting explanation for a much more convoluted problem.
Most terrorists aren’t crazy, however. Many terrorists are well-educated, middle class, and know full well what they are doing. But an intense sense of injustice, alienation, and/or a threat to themselves and their community serves as a major catalyst in the radicalization process.
The Pakistan/Afghanistan Blog:
http://pakaf.wordpress.com/
Some of them are insane despite their educational levels. I don’t mean desperate either.
Hence in Iraq, there are people who actually suffered from mental retardation that were involved or used in suicide bombings.
In Newburg, NY, one of the dudes entrapped by the FBI informant this year was a diagnosed schizo. Sometimes, deranged persons can be dupes for other people’s interests.
In this case of this Nigerian guy, I have learned that he came from an educated family and was a millionaire via his dad’s money. Let’s see how is mental status is. There is that potential that he isn’t mental stable.
To be honest with you, anyone who would commit suicide and kill people in the process is not in their right mind despite the conditions they live under.
I acknowledge that terrorist groups have been known to exploit mentally unstable individuals for suicide missions. They are easy prey for leaders looking for dispensable bodies.
I also agree that anyone who commits suicide in order to kill others has – at the very least – an extremely skewed perspective of reality.
Yet I still don’t know what details lead you to believe, without a full investigation, that this Nigerian man is even “potentially” deranged. He very well could be, but why assume so without evidence?
Thomas Mecton in his Raids on the Unspeakable states:
“One of the most disturbing facts that came out in the [Adolph] Eichman trial was that
Psychiatrist examined him and pronounced him perfectly sane. We equate sanity with
a sense of justice, with humaneness, with prudence, with the capacity to love and
understand other people. We rely on the sane people of the world to preserve it from
barbarism, madness, destruction. And now it begins to dawn on us that is it precisely
that sane ones who are the most dangerous. It is the sane one, the well adapted one,
who can without qualms and without nausea aim the missiles and press the buttons
that will initiate the great festival of destruction that they, the sane ones, have
prepared.”
Dawud and Torkham,
In response to Dawud’s characterization of terrorists as being “deranged,” I don’t hink he implies they are insane or unaware of their actions. Quite contrary, I think they fully are. Bin Laden and his inner circle of confidantes and lieutenants were far from being poor, uneducated people.
I believe what we can all agree on is that the radicalist views are appealing even to the most wealthy, well-educated recruits who can identify with the intense feelings of injustice, unfairness and alienation — all of the evils Torkham identified. At the risk of sounding cynical, I ask this: What do we know about those intense feelings of injustice and oppression here in America what Muslims feel in the Middle East, particularly with the apartheid system inflicting the Palestinians? Are the feelings of oppression and inustice the same — here, as there? Perhaps not.
And, at the end of the day, rich or poor, the profiling and injustices against all Muslims is condemnable.
I guess I would argue that most people probably assume deranged and insane are synonomous.
But I agree with you for the most part Roberto. There is probably a substantive difference between what people in the US consider injustice and what people abroad — not just in the Middle East — but also in Africa,India, Bangladesh, etc, percieve as injustice.
I agree, Torkham. In making my comment, I do not mean to exclude any of the oppressed in the Middle East and Southern Asia. But your point is well taken. Here in America the most cries against injustice deal with police brutality and racial and/or religious profiling. In the Middle East, however, particularly in the occupied territories, our sense of injustice pales in comparison to the immense suffering of the Palestinians. I suppose if our homes were bulldozed, our people were denied the basics in life like water, foods and medicine simply because I am Puerto Rican, or if we were subject to relentless bombings by an occupied army, our schools were bombed, bulldozed, etc. — all without probable cause (and the list of inhumanity can go on and one), one would start to feel vengeful. While I do not condone the killing of innocents, I also do not lose sight of the fact of what drives this sort of radicalism. To deny otherwise would be to stick our heads in the sand and play dumbie.