Her records show that Aghdam has most probably attacked the YouTube headquarters over money or for animal and environment protection concerns. Yet, the police said they are still working on her motivation. Although no official statement has yet been made about what motivated Aghdam in the shooting – and authorities have not alleged that her religion was in any way a factor – her writings on the topic of Baha'ism do help fill out the biography of the suspect.
One lengthy blog post by Aghdam at the Interfaith Vegan Alliance website was
titled "Meeting the Bahai.” The blog post’s author bio refers to Nasim by her
YouTube pseudonym of Nasime Sabz. It says "Nasime Sabz is a Bahai activist who
has written extensively about her findings, her experience, veganism, and
human-animal liberation. Nasime is mainly active on YouTube but has previously
had her own TV Show on Persian Satellite (the first of its kind in Persia)". The
TV channel is run by the opposition to the Islamic Republic. It adds that
"however due to financial constraints Nasime is no longer on mainstream TV, but
no doubt, she’ll be back. Nasime’s approach is aimed at ‘inciting’ kindness to
all living beings", a phrase that is much bragged about by the Baha'i followers
who claim to be after kindness and affection.
The bio mentions that Aghdam has posted about recipes, posted prolific videos on
YouTube and Google Plus, had a Facebook page and had her own website. According
to the US-based media outlet, Heavy, many of these pages have now been deleted.
The bio concludes "Another Bahai leading the way.” She also mentioned the Baha’i
religion in video posts. They are somewhat bizarre videos about cooking,
exercise, being a vegan, and even include a Taylor Swift parody. One video
highlighted her anger toward YouTube, which she accused of discrimination for
filtering her content.
Although local news reports in California initially said it was possible the
mass shooting – which wounded three people – might have been domestic
violence-related, authorities now say otherwise. In fact, Aghdam’s father,
Ismail Aghdam, told The San Jose Mercury News that his daughter was angry at
YouTube because the company stopped paying her for advertising due to her
YouTube videos on the platform. Authorities revealed in a press release that
Nasim Najafi Aghdam was the shooter and wrote, "The San Bruno Police Department
is investigating a motive for this shooting. At this time there is no evidence
that the shooter knew the victims of this shooting or that individuals were
specifically targeted."
According to the Mercury News, the father says he warned police that his
daughter had gone missing and was angry at YouTube but they called and said they
found her sleeping in her car. She had recorded a video ranting that YouTube was
discriminating against her. However, she did write about religion in the context
of the Baha’i.
The blog post starts, "At the turn of 2014, one of our campaigns led us to the
Baha’i. Thanks to Supreme Master Ching Hai et al, we were already aware of some
Baha’i texts containing guidance on diet and abstinence from animal flesh.
Therefore, was very keen to meet people from the Baha’i community and learn
more. Not long after, we were invited to attend a local Baha’i meeting on the
8th of January 2015 at Leeds Quaker house.” You can read more of the post here.
She also wrote, "It is now down to the universal house of justice to take
affirmative action, to ensure that the growth of Bahai principles increases it
must pay special tribute to Abdul’s prophecy, about the ‘pity’ and ‘compassion’
that he observes in his verses animals/vegetarianism.”
She also vlogged about Iran. "When it comes to freedom of speech do you think
Iran is better than the USA or the USA is better than Iran?” Aghdam said in an
Instagram video posted on March 25. In the video, Aghdam was wearing a hijab.
However, she wore non-religious dress in all other videos and photos, in which
she called herself a Persian vegan bodybuilder. For those who have no time to
study her accounts, these photos and videos indicate right from the beginning
that she is not a Muslim.
"Be aware! Dictatorship exists in all countries but with different tactics! They
only care for personal short term profits & do anything to reach their goals
even by fooling simple-minded people, hiding the truth, manipulating science &
everything, putting public mental & physical health at risk, abusing non-human
animals, polluting environment, destroying family values, promoting materialism
& sexual degeneration in the name of freedom,….. & turning people into
programmed robots! ‘Make the lie big, Make it simple, Keep saying it, And
eventually they will believe it’ Adolf Hitler,” she wrote on her website.
What is the Baha’i religion? A website devoted to the faith says, "Baha’i
Teachings says that many people falsely believe that Baha’i adherents are
Muslim. Some still erroneously believe that the Baha’i Faith is a sect or an
‘offshoot’ of Islam. Since 19th Century Persia (now Iran) served as the cradle
of the Baha’i Faith in its earliest days, that impression continues even among a
few otherwise educated people. Despite all the legitimate and accurate
information about the Baha’i Faith now available online, some websites still
cling to that old misinformation."
The Baha'i faith is not recognized by the Islamic Republic and its followers
claim that they have been facing restrictions and bans in the country. Muslims
believe that Islam's prophet (PBUH) was the last of 124,000 divine messengers
sent by God and hence do not regard Bahai'ism as a divine faith. Bahaollah, the
founder of the religion, was first a Shiite Muslim, but then claimed to be a God
prophet and established a religion under his name in Central Iran in 1863. He
was immediately recognized as an apostate by the state, public and religious
figures. He was sent to exile by the then rulers of Iran, the Qajar dynasty,
where he was found as a blasphemous person again by other Muslim communities and
imprisoned by the Ottoman empire. Muslims believe that the faith was established
under a mission given by the 19th century British empire that sought to
undermine Islam to wear off the power of the Ottoman empire and weaken Shiite
Islam in Iran that was perceived as a major obstacle to the British hegemony
over the region. The Baha'is have always been in excellent terms with Israel,
where their most important religious center is located. They have always had
strong ties and cooperation with London and continued their close relations and
cooperation with the Freemason secret assembly. They also occupied vital posts
during the reign of the Pahlavi dynasty over Iran until the Islamic Revolution
in the country in 1979. Hoveida, the longest serving prime minister under
deposed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, held his post for 13 years. Friendship and
shared agenda with Iran's arch foes and cooperation with anti-Islamic Republic
spy agencies that admittedly seek to topple the Islamic Republic are just few of
the reasons why they can't cope with Iranian rules and regulations. A small
community of Baha'is live in Iran now. Iranians have always been showing
acceptance and tolerance in dealing with other religious and ethnic minorities
such as Jews and Christians throughout times, at least since Cyrus the Great
according to recorded history. Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians are represented
in the Iranian parliament and enjoy citizenship rights equal to Muslims under
the Islamic Republic's Constitution. But the Baha'is have always been seen as
apostates since the birth of the faith nearly two centuries ago when the public
took to the streets to demand an end to the heresy. They are tolerated in modern
day Iran, but are still seen by the public as a political agenda of the West not
just for the nature of their faith, but because of the record of its followers.
They contribute a major share to the human rights violation claims against the
Islamic Republic and are given a powerful ploy in all opposition media run from
the West, specially the US and Britain. The community shows no interest in
integrating into the Iranian society.
The police report as well as all other information available on Nasim Aghdam,
including her biography, all indicate that if not a case of domestic violence,
this has surely been an individual incident that could not at all be identified
as an act of terrorism. Terrorists fire machineguns, and not a hand-held gun,
and have a good volume of munitions with themselves when they go on such
missions, and they spray bullets and kill at least several victims before they
are gunned down. But in this case, she has wounded three and then committed
suicide, another fact that shows this has not been an ideologically-driven
attack by a Muslim. There is a very strong religious ban on suicide in Islam and
even terrorists as diverted and far from Islam as ISIL members believe that
suicide may send them nowhere but hell. Besides, the Baha'i faith is admittedly
completely different from Islam, as mentioned above.
The mainstream media has been smart enough not to tie this attack to Islam or
Iran, but still some Trumpsters have sought to mislead their audience through
their social media accounts to link the case to Islam or Iran.
There are too many posts, pictures and videos in Aghdam's social media accounts
showing that she had no respect for Islamic code of dressing, Hijab, when she
appeared in front of the camera, and she shouldn't because she was a Baha'i. She
has dressed as a typical western woman in all these videos.
In one video she is wearing a military uniform, claiming to have served in the
Iran-Iraq war. The claim is so funny that doesn't need a rejection, but for
those who may not be informed, mention should be made that first, Aghdam was
born in 1979 and the Iraqi imposed war on Iran started in 1980 and ended in
1988. If true, then she should have registered her name in the Guinness Book of
World Records because she has been the only 9-year-old girl who has managed to
pick up a rifle.
Away from the ridiculous claim, mention should also be made about the fact that
there is a ban on recruiting Baha'is in the military.
In addition, women are not recruited by the Iranian military and they are exempt
from the compulsory military service, similar to the case in many other Islamic
countries.
The chances of a Baha'i woman to serve in the Iranian military are smaller than
an absolute zero in mathematics.
The case is so evident and unrelated to Iran and Islam that even a person as
illogical as President Donald Trump has shown no interest in it.
SOURCE:FNA