Muslim student gives life to save others in V Tech killings

Sky News ^ | Friday 20th April 2007 | Sky News

[the scotsman]

A survivor of the Virginia Tech massacre has been describing how a colleague died to protect others. Although badly injured, graduate student Waleed Shalaan distracted gunman Cho Seung-Hui to save another person from his bullets.

Waleed saved another student's life.The surviving student, who wishes to remain anonymous, told of Waleed's heroics through an email to his supervisor.

He describes how he was left uninjured after Cho's initial round of shots.

Meanwhile, Waleed had been wounded but was still alive.

However, when Cho later returned to the classroom to inspect for signs of life among his victims, the surviving student struggled to remain calm.

He believes he would have been shot dead were it not for Waleed's "protective movement" that distracted the gunman.

Cho turned and shot Waleed for a second time, killing him, before leaving the classroom.

Randy Dymond, a civil engineering professor, has said the student asked to him to tell the tale "so that the family of Waleed understands the sacrifice."

Shaalan's mother broke down when she heard Mr Dymond's account.

"He was trying to save someone else," she said repeatedly.

Dymond said Shaalan's body was taken to a Blacksburg mosque so classmates, teachers and friends could say goodbye before he was sent to Egypt for burial.'

[Doogle]

...personally when I think back of all I witnessed when it comes to propaganda...
beheadings
moving dead children for photo opts
burying their own alive
throwing people off of roofs ..note: two story, if they die,oh well...if they suffer immensely from compound fractures...Allah be praised!! (handcuff and shackled)
showing elderly in different locations
using Mosques for ammo dumps
now using chemicals......

yeah I guess I could be a wee bit skeptical

[Clara Lou]

What an attitude. How would you feel if it were your child that he’d saved? (Considerably different, I’d say.)

[olderwiser]

"It seems there are some here who may be ideologically loathe to laud a "heroic Muslim"..." Right. This story comes along, thinly attributed and next to impossible to verify in regard to its claim...but for you, it doesn't smack of propaganda, to the inability of some to accept the genuine act of a heroic Jew. For you, it unmasks all the muslim haters. Hey, you see muslim haters on these threads? Join CAIR.

[F.J. Mitchell]

Yeah, right.

[Clara Lou]

Yep....I just remember....
So, all Muslims are guilty of the acts of one or a few? You have to think so much less if you hold every Muslim as guilty as the most extreme, don't you? Oversimplification is dangerous. You're becoming one of them, not in their faith, but in their heartless outlook.

[olderwiser]

IMO, this story will continue to lack any solid verification as an act of heroism. So what then? What then?

Well, I’ll tell you what then, while I’m at it: this muslim, like most of the others, was a victim. Not a hero.

[Clara Lou]

You’re right, it’s thinly attributed. That was my first thought—but we may not ever know the truth. But do you deny that it’s possible for a Muslim to commit an unselfish act for another person?

[olderwiser]

Of course not. I’m talking abou the specifics of this case, which are thin, and smell of propaganda to satisfy the political nations of libs.

[olderwiser]

nations — meant “notions”.

[F.J. Mitchell]

Tsk! Tsk!

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

Did you read the entire comment, or were you just looking for a point to argue about?

Here's the earlier quote:

" It seems there are some here who may be ideologically loathe to laud a 'heroic Muslim.'

It is debatable whether the movement was deliberately to save the guy's life, but it does seem that many are having a hard time believing that there could be such a thing as a hero who happens to have self-identified as Muslim."

You read the part in bold? That strongly suggests that it could have been propaganda--they sure didn't seem to go into the details. But it does seem that some people here, not necessarily you, are not willing to even allow for such a thing as a "heroic Muslim."

[scan58]

Great point and well said.

[Clara Lou]

Right-o!

[olderwiser]

Yeah, I read the entire comment. You turned legitimate suspicion about the motives behind this story to a commentary about the “many...having a hard time believing a hero who happens to have self-indentified as a muslim”.

You made a wrong turn, imo.

[cgbg]

This German anti-semetism dated back to the 1700's and grew to the point where all Jews were viewed as filthy vermin, which helps explain how a monster like Hitler could come to power and do what he did with the full support of his country. What happened in Germany could happen again to another group of people, even here in the US, as long as there are people like you who allow hate to override their conscience.

First of all, it is happening, again, in Europe, to the Jews. Try to be a Jewish shop-keeper in the Paris suburbs and watch what happens next.

Our government and media has already chosen a group to hate. They are called white males.

I have had several friends from the Middle East, including one from Saudi Arabia. However, they were secular or Christian. The Muslim religion and the Koran do not inspire confidence--that is not prejudice but rather fact imho.

[CAWats]

The fact that this Egyptian student had the balls and the selflessness to save a fellow student at the cost of his own life is something to be lauded and not soon forgotten.

Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

John 15:13

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

You made a huge misunderstanding--seemingly a DELIBERATE one.

The post was extremely similar to Clara Lou's.

There was NO "turning legitimate suspicion about the motives behind this story to a commentary..... [about freepers who have difficulty reconciling Muslim with hero.]"

On the contrary, the post (and the earlier ones, if you want to look at them, too) CLEARLY state that the gestures could not have been to save the other's life, and that it could be a "conspiracy," or what you dub propaganda.

As for freepers not accepting that there can be such a thing as a "Muslim hero," the evidence is lain out right in front of you in several of the comments on this thread, and several other freepers have also pointed it out (either to you--Clara Lou--or to others). Again, none of the comments states that you held that viewpoint.

If you still don't understand the comment(s) after this explanation, then just ignore them--have repeatedly tried to explain this to you, but you don't seem to be "getting it."

So, for lack of making more headway with you, bye.

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

..... could not have not been.....

[eleni121]

“who wishes to remain anonymous?”

Why on earth why?

[lucysmom]

You see, muslims as an affiliated community deserve a bad rap. Just the way the Germans of Europe or the Japanese of Japan did in WWII. Because they as a community have not acted nearly as aggressively as they could to cast out radical haters within their ranks. Because far too many of them sympathize or actively aid and abet terrorists and their aims.

Their ills are institutional, not just owing to isolated individuals. Their ideological and theological tenets are a root cause of their inability to co-exist with others in peace. They require sharia and submission, jihad and dhimmitude.

So no. There is nothing wrong, and everything right with condemning Muslims, the millions of muslims who adhere to and intolerant, violent Islamist faith.

If you were Muslim, no doubt you would have a long list of wrongs justifing hatred of Americans.

[eleni121]

Muslims lie as a matter of their so called
“religion” -— a duty to advance their cause.

Non muslims lie in violation of theirs.

[wastedyears]

More Muslims should take note of this.

[olderwiser]

Good out. Congrats. Your own words aren’t worth defending, even by you.

As far as freepers here, what posts here said no muslim in any instance could commit a selfless act of heroism? I missed them. Point one out.

[suijuris]

You know, I admire heroes as much as the next guy. But I have no faith in this story what-so-ever and it sounds like BS.

You put exactly in to words my feelings when I read the story. It doesn't pass the smell test.

Sui

[olderwiser]

If so, I would be deluded, as far too many of them are.

But now we come to it—America is no better than these Middle East potentates, these promulgators of Islam. Is that right? It all depends on who’s doing the looking?

[FourPeas]

First, I’m happy to hear that you are ok and that a follower of Jesus helped.

Next: ah, but Christians are (rightly) despised for their diseased world view, whereas Muslims, especially those who seek to kill Americans, are misunderstood victims of western imperialism.

(Do I really need to close my tag?)

[lucysmom]

Why on earth why?

Believe it or not, there are many of us who have no wish to be in the spotlight. Or, perhaps the person has no wish to be dragged over and over again into recalling a nightmarish event.

[Muzzle_em]

me too

[F.J. Mitchell]

Some of us do allow for such a thing as a heroic Muslim. Aren’t they the ones who send their children out in explosive vests to blow themselves to hell in the middle of a group of innocent unsuspecting people?

[F.J. Mitchell]

Horse hockey!

[Muzzle_em]

I COMPLETELY agree with you!
I know from personal experience of a family member that the media will LIE completely to create a story!
They are desperate right now to make Muslims look good, especially with the web abuzz with the whole “Ismail Ax” story, which by the way, I first heard about here on FR within hours of the shooting but DAYS LATER by the media.
There is an article today in the Associated Press about it and they try to say this guy was a CHRISTIAN!

I seem to recall the MSM’s rush to DISPROVE the story about the female victim in the Columbine shooting who was asked if she was a CHristian and shot when she replied, “yes.”

I believe that the muslim student was probably moaning in pain and moving enough to catch Cho’s attention to shoot him again....and that was it.

[Muzzle_em]

Yes, we know the MSM would NEVER fabricate a story or stretch the truth....EVER.

[A. Pole]

There’s no plausibility to such an anonymous tale, coming out days after the stories of the Israeli professor, trying to counter-balance that with a story of “Muslim heroism”.....

My thought exactly.

[razzle]

In a perfect world, this story would have been the other way around. Heroic Korean immigrant protects a life from a demonic Muslim terrorist.

[F.J. Mitchell]

Could be. I wouldn’t know. My entire 74 plus years, have been lived in a very imperfect world.

[TN4Liberty]

I just don’t believe this story. I think the wounded kid saw the gunman and just moved in reaction. Some people play possum. I assume he just startled, moved and made the murderer saw that and finished him off. The kid who was saved just saw the movement of the other kid and since he came through alive assumed an intent on the part of the wounded kid who was killed.

I agree with you. You would have to believe the muslim kid reasoned that the killer came back to finish off the wounded, and that he was only going to shoot one person - the one who distracted him - and let any others live. But there is no reason at all to think that the killer wouldn't have shot him, then turned and shot someone else. If the act lead to an escape, I might think "intent," but there just isn't a way to make the logic work in my mind, and I am a lot calmer and more logical now than someone laying wounded on a classroom floor.

This doesn't take away from the sadness of his death, or the deaths of any of the innocents.

[mimaw]

Try and remember this Muslim kid was a victim. Since I wasn’t there and can’t confirm or deny the report I’ll rely on my Christian ethic and not disparage the dead innocent student. Until proven otherwise I’d hope others would do the same.

[F.J. Mitchell]

The thing is, Lucysmom, we don’t hate anybody. We’re just not gullible enough to believe that any member of a sect driven by hate and sworn to our destruction, would do diddle to save one of us.

I smell useful idiots.

[RS]

“(2) why does the person telling the tale hide behind anonymity?”

“It might have something to do with the fact that Muslims have been getting a bad rap ever since 9/11.”

... Or could it have something to do with the fact that if anyone happens to say something in support of any Muslim for whatever reason there are plenty of so-called Americans who will attack them on that basis alone, facts be damned ?

[jmcenanly]

He may have fallen in with a good crowd.

[dfwgator]

So does this mean he doesn’t get 72 virgins?

[lucysmom]

What mimaw said.

[BigSkyFreeper]

I tend to believe there are good Muslims out there. In fact, last December, my folks and I took a train ride to Minneapolis to catch a plane the next day from Minneapolis to Denmark, at the train station we hailed a cab, the cab driver happened to be Muslim. He gave us a tour of much of the area between the train station and the hotel near the airport where we were going to stay. He turned off the meter as he was giving us a tour of many notable landmarks in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro.

The normal 5 minute ride from the train station, along the interstate to the hotel lasted over a half hour.

He was thrilled to show off his city to three out-of-towners, and gave us his pager number so that we could call him when we got back. A month later we called his pager, he met us at the airport (even remembered us) and he drove us up to the train station when we returned from Denmark.

[Mr. Brightside]

Nice story.

But why is the MSM pumping up the Muslim religion?

Remember the Christian girl Rachel Scott who was murdered in the Columbine shootings?

IIRC, the MSM buried any mention of her religion.

[F.J. Mitchell]

I prefer the Reagan, “trust but verify” approach. So far I see no verification of this MSM Fairy Tale.

[Yorlik803]

Yes but Muslims believe that lying to a non Muslim is Ok.
Dont ever turn your back on any Muslim, they are like mad dogs...
The US helps them every chance we can, and we get what in return: Hated, reviled and killed by the ROP that we just helped. Remember when that tidal wave hit Aach, they took our help, then told us to get out of the area. the Balls of these “people” is amzing.
What good has this so called religon ever gave mankind.

[Utilizer]

Colour Me as one who thinks this story is quetionable from the get-go. Having dealt with several injured individuals in the past (and being injured personally on more than one occasion) I do not believe the details of this story lend great credence to the account of ‘distracting someone to save someone else’. I see nothing in that account that immediately jumps out to make that distinction. I see it more as someone attempting to either attribute grander qualities to the referred individual or with a more ulterior motive (read: Specific Talking Points) in mind. Nothing I can think of in past experiences better fits the published circumstances and actions than that and the playing-it-up-for-the-media attitude.

[Wormwood]

IIRC, the MSM buried any mention of her religion.

You recall incorrectly. Her religion was mentioned frequently, as was Cassie Bernal's famous declaration of faith (inaccurately, it turned out, but her Christianity was reported).

[mimaw]

Sure trust but verify, but why trash an innocent victim. He after all didn’t come out and make these claims. He’s someones son who died in a violent attack thru no fault of his own. He wasn’t wearing a suicide belt nor brandishing a weapon he just simply went to class that day. You can question account without losing your humanity.