Word cloud of underwear-bomber's posts at Islamic forum

"Just / want / allah / help / good / people." Link, requires Java and no adblockers.

Via Wired Danger Room on Twitter, from @i2pi and via @drewconway

• [Anonymous]

  You mean… “Just / want / allah / help / GET / good / people.”

• [hoodiot]

  I gather the size of the word indicates frequency…what does the darkness correspond to?

• [Anonymous]

  Yes, the size of the word represents frequency.

  I don’t think the darkness relates to anything, it’s just randomly selecting colors from a palette (in this case, the palette is all shades of gray).

• [scifijazznik]

  I just want Allah to help good people, too. One of the most frustrating aspects of this entire situation has been the total lack of moderate Muslim voices condemning things like this. Or maybe it’s the total lack of coverage by the media.

  I am tempted to think it’s the former, because as we saw with the health care “debate” over the summer, the squeakiest wheels get the most air time. If there was some noise, some massive peaceful demonstration, I think it would be a lot easier to feel sympathy for some of these guys.

  But then again, it’s always the extreme that gets the media attention. I want to sympathize because who can’t relate to being lonely and feeling isolated? But even when I’ve been at my darkest, even when I’ve had fleeting thoughts of ending it all, it’s never once occurred to me to try to take out as many others as possible to prove some kind of point.

  The really sucky thing is that the incident will be reduced to hackneyed political bullshit about who’s stronger on terror and how this proves we really are at war. But the truth is Richard Reid and Umar Farouk nothing more than, too put it in internets speak, successful trolls.

  Sorry for the ramble. A couple of cats decided they were going to throw down outside my window at about 3:30 this morning and I never got back to sleep. So I feel like I’m thinking through a bottle of sudafed right now.

  • [Anonymous]

    I think to be honest it’s the lack of airplay that moderate muslim’s get in the media. Indeed by definition moderate Muslims are against extremist actions. Anyway, there aren’t any moderate Muslims making dramatic hostage/pr videos from caves and that’s the sort of stuff that gets airplay. Go and speak with any moderate Muslims or moderate Muslim group in your area and you’ll hear them denounce acts of violence. Trust me, they are out there and in large numbers. Almost everyone in the world, including the vast, vast, majority of Muslims wants pretty much the same thing. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

    • [teapot]

      I’d say you’re right about moderates not getting much airtime. People talking common sense and dispelling the stereotypes that Fox News has been working so hard to foster just doesn’t make good television.

      What kind of educational system can produce people who think that killing a couple hundred of people will make them stop feeling lonely?

      nixie: can you please send me blueprints for your time machine?? I haven’t heard this kind of idiocy since 9/11. What kind of educational system creates idiots who don’t understand the basics of serious problems facing their country? DO YOU REALLY THINK HE DID THIS COS HE WAS LONELY? geez… that’s impressive ignorance you’re sporting there!

      Need I remind you of Dr. George Tiller? He was shot in church last year. Ah, the irony of the right-to-lifers killing someone (RIP Bill Hicks). Now… please explain to me where your misguided feeling of riding the moral high ground comes from?

• [nixiebunny]

  What kind of educational system can produce people who think that killing a couple hundred of people will make them stop feeling lonely?

• [mcmrbt]

  Oh. I thought that said “Allan.” I’m not good at reading sideways. Obviously.

  Just / want / good / people / help / Allan

• [dainel]

  I get this nasty feeling that he didn’t really want to kill anyone. Maybe he read on an online forum somewhere (like here), “think of some silly plot that will make the TSA ban everyday items”. Then he thought, if I were to hide it in my underwear, maybe the TSA will ban underwears. Then he decided to test it out …

• [Vinayak]

  Here’s what you get when you put one of the English translations of The Koran and Wordle together

• [Anonymous]

  If you’d like a list of Muslim condemnations of al-Qa’ida and its affiliates, please go to:

  http://www.juancole.com/2005/07/friedman-wrong-about-muslims-again-and.html

  Most Shia authorities have completely condemned the actions of Salafi extremists.

• [toolbag]

  “Feb” I wonder what was going on in his life in February.