Religiously motivated Home Depot-cide

Schizophrenic mental illness always seems to reflect the times in which we live. That is, in the old days, schizophrenics thought they were God or the Devil. Beginning in the post war era, they often thought they were aliens (or had been in touch with aliens). Apparently Islamic culture produces its own form of schizophrenia. I say this because a Jordanian born young man deeply committed to Islam went on a Home Depot rampage that seemed to have at its roots insanity that acted itself out through an Islamic filter. Thus, according to a December 29, 2005 story in the East Valley Tribune out of Scottsdale (a story that is not online):

Ali R. Warrayat hadn’t slept in days, planning this moment down to the last detail. Now, his face was void of any expression. A store employee jumped out of the car’s path. To drown out the man’s yells, Warrayat reached over to his car radio and blasted Arabic music before crashing through the front doors. *** He told Chandler police he was angry at Home Depot, where he worked as a paint stocker, about not getting a proper raise. He was mad at the United States for proposing a 700-mile fence along the Mexican border. He wanted to make America "more free."

Clearly, this is not a rational thinker. This is the Home Depot equivalent of going postal. What's interesting, though, as one reads through the story, is how his Islamic beliefs kept merging with his manifest insanity, right down to murdering a dog as part of his plot. What he wanted to do was drive through the store and set the place on fire by crashing into the flammables section -- which he did, although with no loss of human life. His planning was confused -- but Islamic:

At first, he wanted to wear a Palestinian flag, but later decided to place it in the trunk of his car, along with a copy of the Quran and a necklace. *** When an officer asked if he understood his Miranda rights, Warrayat shot back in a foreign language. The officer asked if he understood English, and Warrayat replied in English, "Do you speak Arabic?" *** Bustamante said Warrayat was deeply religious and had a Quran hanging from his rearview mirror. In police statements, Warrayat referred to his religion often. He said a swastika was once painted on the mosque where he prays, so he had the mark tattooed in red and black on the bottom of his foot. In his religion, stepping on things is considered disrespectful. He also described trying to put the dog in his trunk to show it the Quran. He said dogs are "filthy" and that was why the dog didn’t want to be in the trunk with the holy book. *** Initial images on his computer depicted men lighting Molotov cocktails and a cartoon of two bloodied and dead children with a Middle Eastern flag in the background.

I really don't think, after reading the whole article (which I wish was available on line) that Warrayat was engaged in jihad. I just found fascinating how his murderous insanity and his religious beliefs merged.