former US navy sailor has been convicted of spying and supplying a pro-al-Qaeda website with information on American warship movements.
Hassan Abujihaad, 32, was found guilty of providing material support to terrorists and disclosing secret national defence information.
He was arrested last year in Phoenix, Arizona.
Abujihaad, a Muslim convert previously known as Paul Hall, faces 25 years in jail when he is sentenced on 23 May.
He showed no emotion as he was convicted of passing classified details of US navy ships to Azzam.com by a jury at the US District Court in New Haven, Connecticut.
Azzam was an Islamist website that prosecutors said had actively supported terrorists but has now closed.
Only 25 years in prison? He endangered American lives. This is about as clear-cut a case of "aid and comfort" to our literal enemies as it gets. I'm not in favor of executing traitors any more than I am of chopping the hands off of thieves, those are archaic and barbaric extremes. But this tool should at least spend the rest of his life in prison. He dishonors his uniform, his family, his nation, and his fellow citizens.
I don't think he dishonored Islam however - as far as Islam goes, he is as irrelevant as the jihadis he colluded with.
3 comments:
While it may be true that he didn't dishonor Islam, he certainly hurt Islam, in that most people are going to see this in that light, the same way that the puppy-throwing prank by the marines wasn't bad in an of itself, but it certainly hurts the war effort.
And I'm left wondering why this guy isn't in front of a firing squad.
Phelps, I take your meaning, but what I'm trying to convey is that "Islam" is not an entity that can be insulted or dishnored. Particularly for the benefit of my muslim audience, I am asserting that Islam transcends us. After all, is Islam a universal truth for the believer, or something that can and should be modified by the believers themselves?
This traitors actions must not be allowed to represent Islam. My fellow muslims will of course agree. Then I can say to them, since you do agree, then also the Dutch film does not insult Islam for precisely the same reason. Now the reader, who earlier may have simply accepted the "insulting Islam" argument without critical thinking, is forced to think a bit more about what "insult" means.
After all, that marine didn't dishonor the Corps. One ass cant dihonor an institution like the Marine Corps by throwing a dog off a cliff. His actions are just immaterial to the Corps itself (though the Corps are not irrelevant to him, as he will find out). Scale that analogy up by a factor of 1000 and you will see how I regard this in light of Islam.
as for firing squads, we dont execute traitors like that. I thin the last time we executed a traitor might have been the Rosenbergs, but that was a gigantic SNAFUBAR. The Constitution defines treason as a capital crime but it does not mandate the death penalty. As a society I think we have evolved considerably since the 1950s, which ewere far from a golden age when it comes to civilized morality and equality.
Islam is an idea, and ideas are embodied by the people who support them. I would disagree that the Marine didn't dishonor the Corp -- he did. But he didn't make the Corp dishonorable. The honor of the Corp itself will depend on how they deal with his dishonor, and I have no doubt they will deal with it harshly.
Islam has not, in my lifetime, tended to deal with those who commit what I would consider to be dishonorable acts harshly at all.
I understand leniency and that no death sentence is automatic. I am still left wondering why leniency is being given here.
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