The soldiers at Fort Hood had it coming, says a radical Muslim in Queens who travels to mosques around the city spreading anti-American hate and has sent a “Get Well Soon” message to the major behind the Texas massacre.
“An officer and a gentleman was injured while partaking in a pre-emptive attack,” Yousef al-Khattab wrote on his Web site, called “Revolution Muslim.” “Get well soon Major Nidal. We love you.”
In the twisted logic of al-Khattab, who was born Jewish in New Jersey and converted to Islam in 2004, the 13 slain and 38 wounded Army victims gunned down by the radical one-man sleeper cell were “terrorists” who deserved to die.
“These people are soldiers in a volunteer army,” he told The Post during a sitdown at a Woodside, Queens, cafe. “They expect to see combat. They know the danger.”
“Rest assured the slain terrorists at Ft. Hood are in the eternal hellfire,” al-Khattab writes on his Web site.
Army shrink Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, reportedly shouted “Allahu akbar” — Arabic for “God is great” — before unloading more than 100 rounds at soldiers preparing to ship off to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Amanda Foote, whose husband is in Iraq, went to visit a soldier who survived the onslaught yesterday and said she was stunned that the base had been hit by such horror.
“I told my husband the other day, ‘I thought I would never say I was happy you were in Iraq.’ I never thought it would be safer for him to be there than to be on post at home,” she said.
Like Hasan — whose pro-homicide bomber rhetoric on the Web had caught the authorities’ attention — the FBI is well aware of al-Khattab’s dangerous online lunacy, but they are unable to do much about it as he just skirts the line between protected speech and inciting violence.
“It’s terrible. It’s reprehensible. For the mosques it’s a p.r. nightmare. He’s probably putting members of the mosque in danger from attacks from non-Muslims, but he’s not breaking the law,” said Barry Covert, a First Amendment lawyer in Buffalo.
He said that unless al-Khattab incites people to immediate acts of violence, the Constitution protects him.
The Woodside extremist spends his free time annoying mainstream Muslims in front of mosques around the city, handing out literature and denouncing the US.
Imams in Manhattan are appalled by his message and have tried to get the police to stop him from spreading his radical message.
“We spoke to law enforcement about them, because we are disgusted with their behavior,” said Shamsi Ali, an imam at the Islamic Cultural Center of New York, a mosque at 96th Street and Third Avenue.
He said that at a recent Muslim parade, al-Khattab and his followers were preaching violence, but despite complaints from the congregation, the NYPD could only watch.
“They say that as long as there is not a physical threat, there’s nothing that they can do.” said Ali. “They say it’s a free-speech issue.”