'Ismail Ax:' Virginia Tech Mass Killings and Islam

Well, I said posting might be slow in my last weeks of school, but this is definitely important enough to post on.

The recent Virginia Tech murders were deeply disturbing, and being one who is realistic about the murderous tendencies of Islam, I immediately wondered if there was a connection as the story broke. When it appeared to just be the work of a crazed loner, I was disgusted that someone could do something that horrible for no reason (great coverage on the story at Hot Air here and here). But my fellow poster Rutheford just emailed me this:

I noticed in a news report that Cho Seung-Hui, the VA Tech shooter, had "Ismail Ax" written on his arm in red ink. Wondering what that meant (as Wikipedia failed to clarify) I did a little Googling, and guess what?

"Ismail Ax" is a well known phrase in the Muslim world. The Muslims believe that the [Old Testament] is wrong in saying that Abraham was supposed to kill Isaac with a knife, rather they believe he was supposed to kill Ishmael (Ismail) with an Axe. They also believe that Abraham was supposed to go out and attack idols with an axe, and some also attribute the phrase to meaning that Ishmael was supposed to kill Isaac, the father of all Western culture, with an axe.

Cho was a South Korean immigrant to the US, but it seems undeniable that his killing spree, at least in part, was motivated by some sort of belief in Islam.

Chalk another mass killing up to Islam, but don't expect the MSM to.

I'm posting this because other blogs fail to be noticing it. Many have caught that "Ismail" is a Muslim reference, but no one else seems to have elaborated. Cho Seung-Hui was of South Korean decent, and looking at his disturbing writings at The Smoking Gun, he clearly had poor grammar and spelling; thus "Ax" instead of "Axe" and "Ismail" instead of "Ishmael."

Rutheford's right; this may be yet another mass killing due in part to the murderous teachings of Islam.

*** Update, 5:49pm***

Rutheford found this photo posted on a blog with a caption reading "...and ismail ax in the middle." So it appears that, if that is Cho in the middle, "Ismail Ax" was his nick-name.

There's also this one on Flikr which calls him Ismail, "because his name is very hard to pronounce."

That seems to remove the suspicion he was motivated by Islam. The blog to go along with the Flikr acount says (in very poorly translated Korean):

Evidently that his Indonesian name, the name in fact was Jo Sung Ho [Cho Seung-Hui].

He and several of his colleagues from KorSel, was studying Indonesian for 2 months in WH. after that he will go to Palembang to teach the computer in the TECHNICAL COLLEGE OF MACHINERY for 2 years...

By the way the matter of the name, they were asked to choose the Indonesian name personally. Sy asked why Sung Ho chose the Ismail name, he every because he wanted to be friends with the person Islam.

Maybe the "Ax" was added as a literary reference to The Prairie or Ishmael. Ishmael in particular has a disturbing parallel to Cho's actions:

"As to what brought me back to the neighborhood, Hannah, it was to do some business for the judge, and to buy some stock for the farm. But there, my dear! that boy has slipped out, and is cutting the wood; I'll go and do it for him," said Reuben, as the sound of Ishmael's ax fell upon his ears.

Hannah arose and followed Gray to the door, and there before it stood Ishmael, chopping away at random, upon the pile of wood, his cheeks flushed with fever and his eyes wild with excitement.

"Hannah, he is ill; he is very ill; he doesn't well know what he is about," said Reuben, taking the ax from the boy's hand.

"Ishmael, Ishmael, my lad, come in; you are not well enough to work," said Hannah anxiously.

Ishmael yielded up the ax and suffered Reuben to draw him into the house.

"It is only that I am so hot and dizzy and weak, Mr. Middleton; but I am sure I shall be able to do it presently," said Ishmael apologetically, as he put his hand to his head and looked around himself in perplexity.

"I'll tell you what, the boy is out of his head, Hannah, and it's my belief as he's a going to have a bad illness," said Reuben, as he guided Ishmael to the bed and laid him on it. "