Nidal Malik Hasan SoA: “I know some people are saying (it means) Soldier of Allah…Is that any more troubling than saying I’m a servant of Christ?”
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I rarely post the work of other folks on my website. However, a dear friend of mine wrote a very inspired and wise piece that I want to share with my readers. The author’s name is John Cathcart. He is the President of WME–World Missionary Evangelism. I have served on their Board of Directors for many years and we work together very closely on various projects. He wrote the foreword to one of my books and I have been asked to return the favor very soon (John is finishing a book about Israel). So I trust he will not object to my copying the message below from his most recent newsletter. The words in italics are John’s, not mine. I cannot take credit. However, I wish I could.
Please carefully consider his reflections below:
Nidal Malik Hasan is a name that is now familiar to all Americans as the military officer responsible for the Fort Hood massacre in Texas. Hasan himself survived the assault but was physically incapacitated by the self-sacrificing action of a courageous young police woman who brought him down in the gun battle. Hasan is under military guard in a Texas hospital and is reputedly paralyzed from the waist down.
Hasan has acquired legal representation in the person of a former chief judge in Fort Hood’s military courts, retired Colonel John P. Galligan, who questioned the significance of the letters “SoA” on Hasan’s business card. According to experts, the acronym stands for “Servant of Allah” or “Soldier of Allah” with the secondary interpretation often being associated with Muslim extremist groups. According to an article in the Dallas Morning News of November 14, 2009, Galligan said, “I know some people are saying (it means) Soldier of Allah…Is that any more troubling than saying I’m a servant of Christ?”
Galligan’s question struck me personally and powerfully because, while it may sound reasonable to many Americans, it reflects real ignorance of religious and political realities in the world outside the U.S. As a matter of fact, there is a big difference between the two identities and associations; and indeed, a difference perhaps unconsciously reflected by the “capital-S” for soldier and the “little-s” for servant. It is a difference that is reflected in the actions of Nidal Hasan and Sgt. Kimberly Munley who has undergone surgeries for wounds suffered in the act of risking her life for her friends.
Militant Muslims and Hindus know true disciples of Christ will not attack, wound, destroy or kill other humans; sometimes they exploit that knowledge. Nonetheless, Christ came to seek, serve, and save. This too is our calling. Hasan was injured for killing in the name of Allah, but not the Spirit of God, he has earned dishonor and a trial for murder; Munley was injured risking her life in the spirit of service and has earned honor and respect. That’s what should trouble you, Colonel Galligan.
OK, that is what John thinks. What do you think?
In the meantime, have a bloggin-good day in the Messiah and pray for the families impacted by the tragic massacre at Fort Hood.
Shalom,
Randy Weiss
www.crosstalk.org
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