When I heard the breaking news yesterday that a gunman had opened fire at Ft. Hood yesterday, my first thought was "I'll bet he was Muslim".

There.  I've said it in public.  Now you can all call me a racist Islamophobe.

I was therefore not at all surprised to read that the suspect, Major Nidal Malik Hasan shouted "Allahu Akbar" before he started shooting.  Yes, his motivation was (apparently) his opposition to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and his fear of his impending deployment over there.  I'm not saying he was tied to any known or suspected terrorist groups.  What I AM saying is that his religion may well have played a role in his decision to shoot his comerades.  It sure didn't restrain him.

Despite the touting of tolerance as America's highest virtue, and despite the increased call for legislation preventing people from using common sense when assessing potential threats (c'mon now.  Nobody but modern liberal lawmakers really believes that a 60-year old Caucasian woman and a 25-year old Arab male pose the same potential threat to an airplane), most of us still have common sense.  So while I'm not advocating interment camps for Arab Americans, don't ask me to embrace Islam as a world view that is compatible with American ideals of religious freedom.  Until experience proves me wrong, I'm going to be on heightened scrutiny as regards Muslims.