WILLIAMS: We pulled something like this back in World War II when we decided to round up all Japanese Americans and put them in internment camps. This is something that I think before we can blink, the [anti-Muslim] rhetoric, Doc, could get out of hand. What do you think?
FRANK FARLEY, psychologist, Temple University: I agree totally. I mean, the possibilities of prejudice and racism and so on are incredible here. You know, we should be treating this as a unique incident and look at the factors involved in this very unique and specific incident, and not overgeneralize. Unfortunately, we tend to overgeneralize all the time. The idea that all Muslims are the same is ridiculous....
Everybody’s got their own personal qualities and individual differences and let’s just treat this asa very specific incident and try to figure out why this particular person did this particular thing.
WILLIAMS: Absolutely. No matter what it comes out to, at the end of the day, even if it comes out in the last five months and all his anxiety around his impending deployment, he decided his frame of reference was his religion and that was what was giving him, you know, the power within himself to make his stand, that doesn't mean that the religion is to blame.
FARLEY: Absolutely, it’s his interpretation of everything, and his interpretation [of Islam] may vary dramatically from his fellow Muslims.
Farley, a psychologist, is an all-purpose media quote machine on fear and panic and strange driving habits. It's funny how he's somehow academically qualified to agree with Montel's wildest whiplash-inducing paranoia.
What kind of rhetoric is Montel using? Shooting up a military base killing 13 people (14, counting an unborn child) is about Major Hasan finding in Islam "the power within himself to make his stand"? This is certainly not an occasion for goo-goo psychologist cliches. Montel is so afraid of a dramatic overreaction that he’s guilty of a dramatic counter-overreaction.
