“I thought mad dogs foamed at the mouth, galloped, leaped and lunged at throats, and I thought they did it in August.” — To Kill a Mockingbird

In Roanoke, Virginia, Wasil Farooqui had attacked a couple with a knife while shouting, “Allahu Akbar”. His targets, a Muslim man and his non-Muslim girlfriend, had been swimming in the pool and were behaving immorally by Islamic standards. The Pakistani attacker had recently traveled to Turkey and was suspected of trying to join ISIS. His male victim had been cut “all over his body, including his neck.”

Wasil’s lawyer fought hard to keep jurors from hearing about the “Allahu Akbar” part of the attack because it would play on stereotypes. He brought in a professor to testify that, “Allahu Akbar” is used to “express praise or appreciation.” But the judge made his decision and jurors will hear the grim sound of Allahu Akbar in the courtroom just as Wasil’s victims did.

The defense in this case, as in almost every other Muslim terror case, is mental illness. Wasil had been “hearing voices”. Since a homicidal maniac hearing voices is how Islam was founded, that’s not much of a defense against accusations of Islamic terrorism. If antipsychotics had existed in the 7^th century, ISIS, Al Qaeda, Hamas and the everyday horrors that tourists have encountered this August would not exist.

August isn’t quite over yet, but there’s been quite a few expressions of praise and appreciation this month sung in the same key as the pool hating Pakistani living on the Great Indian Warpath.