Thursday, March 27, 2003

The usually smart Slate dumbs down with this scare story about "Radical Muslim soldiers."

The article i.d.s five such soldiers, Sgt. Asan Akbar; Jeffrey Battle, a former Army Reservist alleged to have some sort of ties to al-Quida; Semi Osman, a Navy Reserve mechanic and Muslim cleric who pleaded guilty to an unspecified weapons charge in January; alleged Beltway sniper John Muhammed, a Gulf War I vet who left the military years before he became notorious; and Ali Mohamed, a major in the Egyptian army who also served in the U.S. Army for three years and was secretly a member of Islamic Jihad.

The article points out there are at least 4,000 to 15,000 Muslim men and women serving in the United States armed services

What the article leaves out is the following:

-- The religious affiliations of the four Fort Bragg soldiers accused of killing their wives last year

-- The religous affiliations of the Air Force Academy cadets accused of raping dozens of female cadets

-- The religious affiliation of convicted spies Air Force Master Sergeant Brian Regan, and

-- The religious affiliations of McVeigh, Nichols and Fortier.
To name a few.

I guess affiliation doesn't matter unless your name has "Mohammed' in it.

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