Journal for the Study of Antisemitism

2009] DEFEAT, RAGE, AND JEW HATRED 137
nothing wrong and saw the trial as an opportunity to instruct non-believers
in the true faith. He did, however, express some regret. He told the police
that he regretted that there were not more people in the commons area when
he struck and that he had not killed anyone, claiming that his attempt at
mass murder was a divinely sanctioned act to “avenge the deaths of Muslims
around the world.” 128 Such thinking is, of course, consistent with the
doctrine of jihad and with an Islamist tendency to see themselves as
victims.
As Taheri-Azar effectively hid his destructive intentions over a period
of several years, his outburst can be seen as an example of cold rage. At
Chapel Hill, he was an above-average student and had been admitted to a
doctoral program in Nova University in Miami while surreptitiously planning
the one event that, in his mind, would give his life meaning. Daniel
Pipes has characterized such behavior, often perpetrated by isolated individuals,
as terrorism and has identified it as “Sudden Jihad Syndrome.” Pipes
argues that Taheri-Azar “fits into a widespread pattern of Muslims who lead
quiet lives before turning to terrorism” and that his behavior “represents the
ultimate Islamist nightmare: a seemingly well-adjusted Muslim whose
religion inspires him, out of the blue, to murder non-Muslims.” 129 I would
add that such behavior is sudden only from the point of view of its intended
victims, not from that of the perpetrators. Like 9/11 and the 2008 assault on
Mumbai, Taheri-Azar’s assault took time and planning. I would also add
that such acts are impelled by rage so consuming that the perpetrator is
more than willing to kill himself or herself in the process of killing others.
In yet another instance of what Pipes has identified as Sudden Jihad
Syndrome, on February 12, 2007, Sulejman Taloviæ, a 22-year-old Bosnian
Muslim with a United State Permanent Residence Card (green card), suddenly
began firing into a crowd at the Trolley Square Mall in Salt Lake
City, Utah. Before being stopped by two off-duty policemen, Taloviæ had
killed five people and wounded at least four others. Characteristically,
neither the police nor the FBI agent involved in the case could find reason
to label the attack as either a terror attack or religiously motivated. Indeed,
unless the perpetrator openly proclaims his deed an act of vengeance, all too
often, public officials in the West have preferred to characterize such
128. Brenda Goodman, “Defendant Offers Details of Jeep Attack at University,”
New York Times, March 8, 2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/08/national/08
carolina.html?scp=1&sq=defendant%20Offers%20Details%20of%20Jeep%20
Attack%20at%20University&st=cse.
129. Daniel Pipes, “The Quiet-Spoken Muslims Who Turn to Terror,” The New
York Sun, March 14, 2006, http://www.nysun.com/foreign/quiet-spoken-muslimswho-turn-to-terror/29080/
(accessed November 16, 2008).