Ok trying this again
I am just curious if people think this is workplace violence or act of terrorism.
This terrorist had a crafty plan for timing his attack. He would wait until he got suspended from work and then attack his fellow employees because…well…because, terrorism!
I get why there is talk of terrorism here. The dude was reportedly trying to convert people to Islam and he decapitated one of his victims. But is there any real doubt about whether this guy was a terrorist or an employee who went postal? I don’t think so. It just gets more eyeballs on Fox News.
I think that ‘workplace violence’ seems to underplay the severity of what happened…but calling it ‘terrorism’ is nothing but a play to garner more viewers/readers/hits.
I wonder…if he had simply walked in and shot the place up like a ‘normal’ person, would we be asking the same question?
I believe that’s precisely what the OP is getting at. Does the beheading change things.
The way I read the one article I happened to read on the subject, he stabbed his one ex-co-worker until her head was severed. It doesn’t even seem like he set out to “behead” anyone. He just went way overboard on the stabby.
Wait-- WHAT? :eek: would someone please link to an article? if there was ever an OP that cried out for one, this is it!
Phew–I thought this was going to be one of those “Strongly in favor, in favor, slightly against, strongly against” polls.
Why can’t it be both a floor wax AND a dessert topping?
If he did it with enough élan, would he be awarded both ears?
Depends. Is it fiesta time in Akron, Ohio? 
Well played, Sir. I salute you.
p.s. I wonder how many others will get the reference?
I’ve never been to Guadala(phlegm)jara but I got it.
He didn’t go after the people who fired him. He randomly killed the first people he came too.
He didn’t just kill them he repeatedly stabbed people and cut off heads. And he went after the very people (women) he thought it OK to stone which was the very argument that got him fired.
So as arguments go his choice of victims mirrored his religious convictions and he made it as gruesome as possible. His choice of location was certainly triggered by his firing but it’s reasonable to assume he was going on a road trip.
This needs some sort of “that’s what the FBI investigation into his background is for” option.
Reportedly using a knife normally used on the food production line for chopping lettuce and such. I’ve not seen a picture of the knife but that sounds like a machete.
Only if you’ve never worked in food service.
Feel free to suggest some other knife from an industrial food production line which can easily chop up lettuce and off people heads.
Killing someone for religious reasons, even gruesomely, isn’t terrorism. I suppose certain less-enlightened people now equate the word “terrorist” with a polite way to say “radical Muslim,” but to the rest of us it has an actual definition:
What are his connections to terrorist organizations? What are his stated political goals? The entire point of terrorism is that there’s an implicit promise that the terror will stop once the terrorists get what they want. So, what did this guy want?
I suppose we could find a manifesto somewhere and a connection to an organization that plans to execute similar workplace stabbings, but in the absence of such information or evidence i don’t see how we can call this anything other than workplace violence, or even just violence that happened to take place in a workplace.
I note that Fox News is quick to make conjecture, stating, “ISIS had recently called for lone wolf attacks on the United States after releasing a series of videos showing the beheadings of three Westerners, including two American journalists,” without offering up a shred of evidence that this guy had heard those calls or was acting upon them. It’s a strange drum that they’re beating, I really don’t get it.
well I suppose the less-enlightened were inclined to post without researching their opinion.
His stated goal at work was to convert people to Islam. As part of his discussion with his former co-workers he stated that women should be stoned. His Facebook page shows he changed his name to Jah’Keem Yisrael and his cover photo shows Islamic fighters brandishing weapons.
From the New York Times referring to the FBI: The official said that the F.B.I. was attempting to discern whom Mr. Nolen interacted with online. The official said that Mr. Nolen, who had posted at least one photograph of a beheading on his Facebook page had experience with knives because of his job at the food processing center.
Again, his stated goal was to convert people to Islam. What can you surmise from someone who posts pictures of beheadings and Islamic terrorists and then goes on to emulate them?
We already have a manifesto from the people he posts pictures of. The installation of Islam at the point of a gun.
What do you suppose the philosophy is of a person who actively tries to convert people to Islam and then beheads them after posting images of Islamic fighters and beheadings? the connection can’t be drawn any straighter.
Well, put me down on the record for “strongly in favor.”
I’m against it.