US army chief 'concerned' about Fort Hood backlash against Muslim soldiers

The US Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey has expressed concern that the Fort Hood shootings allegedly by a US-born citizen of Palestinian descent could result in a potential backlash against Muslim soldiers.

Declining to get into any details of the investigation into Thursday's shootings in which Maj. Nadal Malik Hasan is the sole accused, Casey Sunday told CNN: "There's an ongoing investigation and I can't speak to the particulars of the investigation or to any motivation of Maj. Hasan."

Echoing recent comments by President Barack Obama, Casey cautioned against speculating about the causes behind the shootings. "We have to be careful," Casey said, "because we can't jump to conclusions now based on little snippets of information that have come out."

But Casey said he was "concerned that this increased speculation could cause a backlash against some of our Muslim soldiers" and added that he had asked leaders in his service to be on the lookout for signs of a backlash. "As great a tragedy as this was, it would be a shame if our diversity became a casualty as well," he said.

Casey was quick to add that he does not think there is currently discrimination against the roughly 3,000 Muslims who serve in the Army as active duty soldiers or in the reserves.

Meanwhile, independent Senator Joseph Lieberman said Sunday he intends to launch a Senate committee hearing on whether the Fort Hood shootings were a terrorist act and if the Army should have taken pre-emptive steps due to reported signs of Islamic extremism by the suspected gunman.

"I'm intending to begin a congressional investigation of my Homeland Security Committee into what were the motives of (Maj. Nidal Malik) Hasan in carrying out this mass murder," the senator, who belongs to the Democratic caucus, said on "FOX News Sunday."

If Hasan was showing signs of being an Islamic extremist, the Army should have acted on that earlier and "he should have been gone," said Lieberman, the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

Saying it was too early to know Hasan's exact motive, Lieberman declared that if reports of the alleged gunman's possible Islamic extremism are true, then "the murder of these 13 people was a terrorist act".

"We don't know enough to say now," Lieberman said, noting what he called "strong warning signs" that Hasan had become an Islamic extremist.

ak/dg

( 416 Words)

2009-11-09-19:17:37 (IANS)

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