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Cho's ‘religious’ martyrdom video

Posted: Thursday, April 19, 2007 8:50 AM
Filed Under:

The disturbing and cryptic video clips, photographs and manifesto the killer Cho Seung Hui sent to NBC News instantly reminded me of the taped testimonials suicide bombers leave behind to justify their crimes.

It looked so familiar -- an angry young man dressed in battle clothing preaching a message full of hate in front of a drab background.  I have seen many of these videos over the years in the Middle East. 

The attackers always stress a desire to battle injustice and moral turpitude; they all believe they are avengers of the righteous.  The videos are also replete with religious references. Cho's message seems little different.

Cryptic religious references
Cho repeatedly mentions Christ, suffering and isolation. There appear to have also been references to the Koran.

On the package sent to NBC, Cho uses the name "A. Ishmael."  He is also reported to have had the words "Ismail Ax" tattooed or written on one arm.

Ismail is the Koranic name of Abraham's first-born son. In one of the central stories of the Koran, God orders Abraham (called Ibrahim) to sacrifice Ismail as a test of faith, but then intervenes and replaces him with a sheep.  Muslims reenact this story by sacrificing a sheep on Eid al-Adha (feast of the sacrifice) during the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca.

While it is still unclear what Cho may have intended, his repeated references to Ismail (he signed his manifesto 'Ismail Ax') has been generating a lot of attention on Arab/Islamic blog sites on the Internet.

Internet speculation
The Islamic Threat website said: Cho "knew exactly the significance of the name in Islam as far as blood sacrifices are concerned which leads me to think that there might have been Islamic motivation behind the madness he displayed."

The Angry Arab News Service website said: "The Chicago Tribune reports that Virginia Tech University massacre perpetrator, Cho Seung-Hui, died with the words "Ismail Ax" in red ink on one of his arms. Hmmm . . . Ismail -- the Arabic name for Ishmael -- considered the father of all Arabs and a very important figure in Islam. I'm sure it's just a coincidence, right? Doesn't mean anything. Right. Maybe "Ismail Ax" is the name of a friend of his. Or maybe he wanted to remind himself to buy an Ax for his friend Ismail for next Ramadan. Or I'm sure we'll hear some other similarly absurd ‘explanation.’ We'll see."

Cho clearly was confused and angry. His manifesto seems the same: a confusing mix of martyrdom, religion, pop culture and multimedia technology.

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What's more disturbing is that Richard Engel's crap finds a place among the MSNBC headlines. Tells you a lot about the media.
A civilized society is one which protects those incapable of protecting themselves. We have long been an unciviled society neither offering protection to the youngest of our society (the unborn) and the oldest...Children and the elderly are abused more and more and their emotional, physical nd spiritual needs are ignored. What we are seeing now is the area between the unborn and the elderly are being filled in as well. We are adding more and more age groups to those our society can no longer protect. We could not protect either the students at Va Tech nor could we protect this mentally ill assassin from himself. We must return to the belief that all life is precious and do all to teach our society to treasure life not only in all ages but in all that we see and in ourselves as well. We must strive toward civilization once again. If we turn a deaf ear to one segment of society than we will only continue to add more areas where a deaf ear is justified. These students were precious people that no one can replace. God only knows what they may have offered society. A cure for cancer? A means of peace in the world? A cure for MS or LEukemia? They were the best of the best...its time to honor them with the best we can give.
Keep God out of my kids classroom. Maybe his parents should of put God or Jesus or whatever you call him into their own PERSONAL lives. If I want some invisible man in my kids life I will do so on my own time at home. The strong minded and sensible don't need religion to justify themselves or their existence. Religion has been the major force behind most wars in history. Religion kills, opiate of the masses.
What his problem was besides being mentally ill, is that these lower class kids get tired of being the scum. When he describes certain graphic actions he is simply statign that he was put down by the 'cool' group and probably made fun of. I have myself seen where this behavior pushes kids beginning from a very early age into going into left field. When you do that with someone unstable you are going to see this kind of behavior. People aren't necessarily getting crazier, but society is definitely getting more mean.
Keith I couldn't agree with you more. Even though Cho is primarily responsible. I feel there is a percentage of blame on others for not acting on obvious signs of a cry for help starting with the parents. The blame belongs to everyone from Healthcare to the church to the family and "friends." Society is so cruel that honestly we all are on edge. Don't fool yourself, we all have issues and need someone to talk to or just to vent. First give it to God. My prayers to all families who lost a loved, the school as a whole and to the nation. And yes, we still need to pray for the family of Cho, it is our duty as Christians. We must be accountable and responsible. God Bless
Currently, on othe msn.com homepage, under MSNBCNEWS there is an article entitled, "World Blog: Cho's martyrdom video" I urge you to change the title for this article. Cho was not a martyr. He was mentally ill, he wasn't killed by anyone else, and he certainly wasn't killed for a "cause".
Cho said, "Thanks to you, I die like Jesus Christ, to inspire generations of the weak and the defenseless people." Muslims don't believe that Jesus died, but rather was raised to heaven before his death. You are terrible journalist that is blinded by an agenda and dislike of certain individuals because of their beliefs. This article is racist and disgusting, and disturbing. It spreads the nasty racism that many in this country have fought and given up their lives in the past decades and centuries in order to end it. Articles like this push us back hundreds of years. You should feel absolutely embarrassed by this unprofessional article.
Oh, I think Jesus has done enough.
§ One would assume that this is a web handle, on people who act as loners in real life often retreat to places of fantasy and safety, where it is possible to suspend reality, become popular, smarter, develop ones self not in the eyes of others but through their own imaginations. Recent online gaming trends suggest this the recent addictions to World of Warcraft and other online communities where ones social and physical inadequacies can be hidden and one can live the life of a hero or indeed a villain. Alternatively A likely root to the handle may be in the novel Ishmael; In the Depths by EDEN Southworth. This novel describes Ishmael’s descent into madness, as the girl he loves is of such a class that despite his frustration they can never be together. Ishmael uses an ax to vent his frustration and his feverish chopping of wood is a sign of his descent into madness, and in the end his recovery from his obsession. Being an English Major it is not unlikely that the protagonist was aware of this work despite its obscurity. It is also possible that with speculated reports that the protagonist stalked a certain person or persons unknown he felt for Ishmaels plight and one can suggest that the those he stalked may have been unobtainable to him, circulating in a ‘rich’ crowd which he felt was exclusive and unable to express his angst or acknowledge his short-comings he blamed the rich the snobbish and the privileged for excluding him and giving him no chance to fulfil his desires.
i do see how people would see a similararity - they seem to echo some of the same tones, but clearly this person was not of a right sound mind- in our social society- he may have been more suitable in a zealot group of extremist - who have such extreme beliefs- they do other harm to preach it loud. mental illness is a puzzeling one to solve- many times the symptoms are masked for other things- some people are just introverts. But the assignements he turned in did flag someone- that is where the first cry of help should have been taken seriously.
this is a wake up call for parents as leaders, nurturers in that smallest unit of society called family. go back to the basic responsibility of raising sensible responsible kids who would grow up, go out into the world and do some good. adorable babies just do not automatically become monsters.
With all his references to the affluent and cruxifiction and religious tones, it may be worthy to explore his motives as anti-Jewish.
I've read this article 4 times and I still can't understand the author's reasons to relate the massacre committed by a South Korean with Arabs!!!! as an Arab American I think to draw a relation between Arabs and/or Muslims and this mad crime is totally absurd, responsible journalism should not feed on the Arab-terror phobia as well as should report facts based on the circumstances and the individual’s own personal motives. The acts committed by Hitler, koresh , bin Laden, and Choo are not driven or represented by a certain race but by the individual’s own motives and behavior.
Ya know, the media is giving him A LOT of air time....what Cho wanted. The media should pay for acquiring the photos/video and NBC donate the money to the families of the victims....not what Cho wanted!!
i wish the media would please stop giving this reject so much air time, its a slap in the face of the beautiful people he distroyed, i would love to never see his face or hear the name agian, thanks
I think Jenny Rankin is right on with her interpretation of the young troubled man.
I think it's interesting that he made references to two major world religions. It just goes to show that he was 1) intelligent as far as this was concerned, and 2) knew that it would spark questions and perhaps even brew up more stereotypes. I don't think he really was into either religion. As most have already commented on, he was just a very disturbed kid who grew to hate.
I find it quit disturbing that MSN journalists would be so ignorant. It is disturbing to me as a muslim to read that MSN journalists are now attempting to link Cho to Islam. After listening to a few clips from his manifesto one could easily see that Cho reffered to Jesus Christ explicitly, and does not refer to Islam or Judism in such an explicit manner. Even after that I would be ashamed to link Cho and Jesus and Christianity. This individual was mentally disturbed. Religion should not be brought into this, Please reconsider such postings, they not only defame religions of GOD but also discredit MSN and its journalists
I think Superman could have made a difference too. Or Spiderman. Or Hiro, or Peter Pitrellli. This proves that there is more need for comic books in our classrooms.
With over 300 million individiuals in the USA, each with his or her own psychodynamics, and in a free society--only one of them was disturbed enough to do something like this. We don't appreciate how amazing that is, where so many people are bumping into so many people.
I think the more publicity he gets the less time we will have to concentrate on the victims of this terrible crime. It is likely the only reason he left all of this behind is to get the attention he needed and wanted when he was alive. The media should not let him receive all of this attention, pull all of this from the TVs, radio and the internet and focus on the victims and their families.
It was Issac not ishmail who Abraham was asked to sacrafice. Ishmail was sent away with his mother into the desert.
All of us should be very careful in what we say when refering to race, gender, or religion at this point. I am sure that experts in the field of psycho analysis are on it. There are a lot of things we do not know about the man. It is clear that Cho is confused and crazy in the lay man's term. The thing is, he is also clever. It is very hard to defend against someone like this because we do not predict when they would snap. I am sure there are many more like Cho walking and living among us. Just be careful because there may be copy cats out there.
First off I have one child in college and another going immediatelt after graduation. This is very disturbing for anyone that has college age children. In a world where we can log on line and blog, e-mail people in China or India I am confused as to why we can't seem to master simple communication. After 9/11 - information should be shared much better between CIA, FBI, state police, local police, hospitals and schools. I can't for the life of me understand how everyone knew about his problem except the main people that needed to know. Any disturbing writing, harrassment or any other antic should have resulted in a call home so that the Cho family could have picked up their son and 32 people would be alive today. All of this could have been avoided if the Professor, room mates and students pleas were heard.
This is ridiculous. I guess the Koreans don't have to worry about backlash--we'll just blame Arabs now. I wonder if the Son of Sam killer was really talking to God, since GOD spelled backwards is DOG. Cho was obviously mentally ill. I think our time is better used in trying to understand how this happens.
What a tragic event at VaTech. I have a daughter and son-in-law who graduated from VPI. Consuming sadness for all involved. I am interested in knowing if the Hui family is under federal protection and if they are receiving the same counseling offered to the other families of this tragedy. Being a parent of any of these students is a horrific nightmare. I hope they take advantage of any counseling offered. MCW
ismail ax = mix alias? hmmm. I agree that too many are reading too much into the videos. They simply depict a a very troubled individual.
Is it possible this was in fact not just an isolated incident, but an act of terrorism? Look at the similarities and you start to wonder. In past attacks of this kind, the gunmen don't normally leave behind taped messages to a national reporting agency. Nor do they refer to the Koran, or know to use heavy weaponry like a glock. That is something a trained assasin does. Is it possible this kid was recruited by a terror network, brainwashed, and committed this act as a means to prove his loyalty? The pieces just don't fit for this to be a random act of violence. They do fit for the scenarios I gave above. I think he deserves a second look by the feds. I don't think he was just a messed up kid.
Its as simple as this. HE WAS CRAZY!!! Stop trying to read into him and analyze. HIs parents knew, his roomates, Doctors, police, classmates and teachers. They all new he was nuts. But it comes down to this...there's nothing anybody could've done until he commited a crime or hurt himself. Think about how many people just as crazy ashe was walking around us everyday. People are getting more insane and more evil. So who do we blame for that? I say everybody should shut up and try to fix the problem.Maybe doctors should let police and public know when there an insane person walking around us.
Judging by the repeated references to jesus and christianity in the manifesto, I don't believe Cho needed more god in his classrooms, christianity appears to be something he was well versed in and fed up with. Where was god during this massacre?
Cho was mentally ill, not knowing how to react in a social/ife setting where he was not mentally able to be the person he wanted to be. This led to his withdrawl form school and society and finally led to this terrible tragedy. Lets not forget the families who will never see their kids again. That would be a more appropriate discussion at this point.
This is a misunderstanding he should never been on campus if he was writing threatening letters about students and teachers. But none the less he was another form of the Columbine massacre. Which means he shouldn't have been picked on. He should have been left alone. He is very arrogent to be blaiming his crime on islam and arabs this was entirely his fault. In my opinion he is a crazed madman and a should have been tested years befor to find a disorder.
To those who took offense at NBC's showing Cho's images to the public calling them "shocking and disturbing," have we noticed that we see these images practically daily in our popular films and TV shows? CBS pulled an episode of "Bones" from this week's scheduled because it depicted a buried corpse inside a college campus. We are bombaded with these images daily yet profess complete and utter shock when we the same image in the news. Though there is the gulf between fiction and reality, I think we should come to grips that our popular culture we glorify and promulgate is not so flattering as well.
i think you are a sick half past six journalist. How did you passed as journalism or you bought the degree from some private college. you should use your head and reason before your write or give up writting and be a muslim so you know what Islam is all about.
Im so tired of these COWARDS shooting people and thinking it makes them some sort of martyr. The bottom line is this kid was a weak and insignificant person whose only way of getting peoples attention was by commiting this unspeakably cowardly act. You are no martyr Cho, you are a pathetic coward. Rather than deal with your problems you took the easy way out. News flash, everyone, everywhere, and in every country has problems but they deal with it. His dilusions of grandure are laughable at best, but leave it to the big news corporations to fulfill his dream by plastering every single picture and word of his on television and the internet.
It could have also come from the novel moby dick "call me Ishmael..." What is evident is he was controlled by evil - he was a senior he could have graduated and went on with his life - but was convinced that there was no hope - who was he running from? I believe In God and I believe in evil - If this isn't a classic case of "demon possession" I don't know what is. It's sad - because what keith said is so true a true trust in Jesus would have changed everything - this just tells me I need to live each day as it were my last - because it just might be -
When you cut this to the core...Cho was a mentally disturbed young man. Most likely he gathered a bunch a gibberish together to keep everyone's interest. Somehow he derived pleasure out of knowing that we would all be wondering and speculating about his motives. I believe he enjoyed this killing spree in a way we cannot comprehend. He was mentally unbalanced, mostly likely for years. Coming from the Korean culture it's unlikely that he would seek mental health counseling. The Korean population are very proud and take care of one another. Perhaps he got lost or way unreachable. His parents might have tried but could only do so much. However if they did know and didn't force him to get help....we'll probably never know the answer. His narcistic tendencies allowed him pleasure in knowing that he caused pain to a multitude of people.
To reiterate the sentiments of many who have posted already, tying Cho's actions to islam in anyway is just unfounded and ludicrous. He references Christ, Christianity and the Columbine killers much more explicitly than anything that would suggest he was influenced by Islam. His ramblings resemble a tone used by evangelicals and white supremist than anything else. May be he was in the KKK! Sound ridiculous? Not any more than Engel's dubious attempt at "journalistic analysis".
I hope this brings attention and action to the seriousness of mental illness and not just condemnation of Cho, the school, or a hundred other things to deflect from what's really happening here. Our ignorance about mental illness is so evident in some of the comments being made about this terrible event. My partner has a mental illness and has been totally screwed by the system and more sadly, the community and church he was part of for years. Ignorance abounds and there is very little adequate, affordable help available for those who seek it. I wonder too, if insurance was a deciding factor in Cho's being released and only being a "danger to himself"?
I think there hasn't been enough attention paid to the trauma of immigration. What did Cho leave behind when his family came? Who did he love back there? What issues might he have had struggling to negotiate his way in a totally different culture/language? Sure, some adjust with very little difficulty, but others don't. Add in some mental illness, or a mood disorder triggered by the disruption and stress of the move... Add in a low level of baseline resilience in the first place... Add in parents totally overwhelmed and preoccupied with making their way in a new country/language, probably working millions of hours to get by... Who knows? To me the disturbing thing is that the kid clearly was not unattached, clearly had feelings...everyone speaks as if he were a "loner," a difficult kid with whom it was hard to make eye contact, etc. But for me the operative word is KID. If you have a kid in elementary school, middle school, high school who's hard to reach, what is your responsibility as a teacher, counselor, parent, neighbor, etc? Do you just say, he's a difficult kid, he doesn't even make eye contact, and throw up your hands, or do you try to find a way in? If he was mentally ill, there were missed opportunities to treat him. If he was lonely and disaffected, that says he did *care* and there were opportunities to reach him. *That's* the failure. The failure isn't that he wasn't banned from campus sooner (so then he would just have come right back with a gun...). The failure is that this kid didn't get the help he needed at the right time in his life. I think we need to devote more resources to understanding the traumas and stresses of immigration and helping those who come from drastically different cultures to adjust.
Is no one stepping forward to say that they knew this kid? Parents, relatives, friends, where are you? How is it that this kid had no parents or family? Someone brought him here to the US when he was 8. This disturbed kid was conditioned over many years to become a mass murderer. How can you bring a child into this world, watch him disintegrate and not have some accountability. Someone needs to step up and take responsibility for how this kid turned out.
This kids mind was twisted and where are the parents who should come out and explain what he was like as a child and did they see the way he was going. This behavior should have been seen by them.
I first must send out my heartfelt sympathy to the friends and families of all the victims. That being said...the media must stop giving all this attention to this unspeakable human and what he has done. It is time to focus on the good that all these people who are now deceased have brought to this world. By giving all the attention in the wrong direction only reinforces his actions and the actions of "copy cats" to follow. Allow the people of Virginia Tech to grieve and heal without always having to see and hear about the person who has ripped their lives apart.
According to the facts, Cho was obviously psychologically disturbed because he was very angry and unhappy so he chose to inflict innocent bystanders with his anger and hatred. His lack of social skills and his parent's influence or lack thereof was certainly a reason for him being a loaner. People do not just simply isolate themselves for no reason. His purpose in life was to make a statement of anger to the world and the only way he felt comfortable expressing himself was through writing out his anger and frustrations with his life; he obviously was so unhappy due to his lack of support among family, peers, and lack of positive influences that he chose not to surround himself with. Everyone has good and evil in them and we have the choice to act or not act upon our free will, he chose the path of destruction, and his influences were not positive. There is no excuse for his horrible actions. The most heinous of all crimes of humanity is to mock yourself as a martyr with a victim mentality acting as if you're the only person with problems. The fact that this heinous act occured results in communities and people coming closer together, that's just one positive that comes out of this sadness.
No one will ever truly know his true intentions. We can all try to explain our own opinions and that is what they are, our opinions. Stop for a minute, think, then type. If finger pointing is the best that you can come up with, turn off the computer. Their is enough hate in the world today, don't add more fuel to the fire. Instead, figure out what you can do to make each day, a good day for someone else. May have helped this situation.
Stop giving this person the dignity of a name or a place in our society, or history. The quicker we erase his name, pictures, and thoughts from our minds the better. His motives will be studied, his actions will be discussed, and perhaps something will come of this to prevent this from ever happening again. Leave that to those who do this sort of work and say a prayer for them because their jobs are thankless. But here is a thought for everyone. Why is it that all we ever remember, and are forced fed by the media and our society, are who the killers were? I know who Whitman was, I know who Klebold and Harris were, I know who Bundy, De Salvo, and Dahlmer were. What I don't know, and I imagine many people do not know, is who their victims were? I for one feel remorse when I admit this to myself. It is time we forgot, and the media allows us to forget, who these insane people are, and instead lets us concentrate on remembering who the victims were. They are the ones who deserve a place in our thoughts, feelings, and prayers.
He was a coward, plain and simple. He just watched Natural Born Killers one to many times.
I'm pretty sure Cho wasn't confused at all about what he was doing. Angry, yes. Crazy, definitely. But he planned this out and new exactly what he was doing. This blog is pretty ridiculous, so I have to disagree with what's written here. Please don't attach this nutcase in anyway to Islam; it's unwarranted. At least you didn't blame gun control laws for Cho's actions, then I'd really be pissed off. Blaming guns for Cho killing people is like blaming cars when someone dies from a drunk driver. Idiotic reasoning.
Thats true! Why didn't Jesus save the day?
STOP SHOWING THESE PICTURES, LET THE FAMILIES HEAL!!!!!


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