Donuel was the first in this thread to use the word "amok"--a Filipino word used to describe
a Moro (Filipino Muslim) who, angered and shamed by his dealings with Christian Filipinos , shaves his head and eyebrows, dresses in white, perhaps gets blessed by an imam, grabs a weapon--usually a machete--and kills as many Christians as he can before being killed himself, to spend eternity in heaven served by the Christians he has killed. I cannot comment on the validity of this belief, having met no Muslim Filipinos during my time there in the Peace Corps and never having heard of an actual example of the behavior (except for a case when two Christian Filipino farmers, brothers who had boarded a train and were confronted by a conductor who asked for their tickets and told them they would be put off the train when they were unable to produce them, used their machetes to hack up the conductor and as many of the other occupants of the train car as they could before being killed themselves. I also have no idea if the practice, if it really exists/existed in the Philippines, exists in any other areas where Muslims and non-Muslims live in close proximity, or if there is anything in general Islamic culture which might explain it. But Hasan's action does sound eerily like "running amok" in that sense, complete with the
anger and shame causing treatment Dr. Hasan received at the hands of the Army.

Charles