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A former Northern Illinois University newspaper reporter says the killer who gunned down five innocent students in an apparently unprovoked attack liked to study Arabic and the terror group Hamas."'Assalamo alikum,' he [Steve Kazmierczak] would say to me, which means 'peace be with you' in Arabic," wrote Rasmieyh Abdelnabi in an essay published in the Chicago Sun-Times."He would proceed to ask me how I was doing and what I was up to, all in Arabic with a thick accent and a huge, excited smile," she continued.She said the two met in class at the university, took several classes together over the years, and periodically kept in touch when they didn't share classes."Our topics of choice: foreign policy and the Middle East. He would especially enjoy practicing his Arabic on me. In 2004, NIU decided to offer a year's worth of Arabic classes. Steve took both classes without hesitation, excited as could be," she wrote. Just over a week ago, Kazmierczak burst into a lecture hall and shot and killed five students and then himself. The New York Times reports he was taking an anti-anxiety drug and a sleeping aid in addition to the antidepressant Prozac.But authorities have yet to announce what they believe could have been a motive for his attack, which left Daniel Parmenter, 20, of Westchester, Ill.; Catalina Garcia, 20, of Cicero, Ill.; Ryanne Mace, 19, of Carpentersville, Ill.; Julianna Gehant, 32, of Mendota, Ill.; and Gayle Dubowski, 20, of Carol Stream, Ill., dead.On Thursday, a week after the attack, the university observed five minutes of silence, one minute for each of the victims.Abdelnabi wrote that she initially could not believe Kazmierczak was the killer."But now I find myself wondering if I ever knew Steve, the man who shot and killed five people and then himself in a lecture hall at my alma mater, Northern Illinois University," she said.She found out about the killings through a text message from a friend, and confirmed it online.She said she acted as his "walking dictionary" occasionally. "'What does this word mean in English?' or 'What is this word in Arabic?'" she reported he would ask."Once we took a course called 'The Politics of the Middle East.' At the beginning of the course, our instructor informed us a research paper would be due by the end of the semester. Steve decided on Hamas, which is known mainly to the world as being a Palestinian terrorist group, which was the first thing that interested Steve about the group. But he also heard Hamas funded many social services, which also interested him. How could one group be put into two completely different categories, Steve would ask," she wrote.
"Unlike most of us, Steve started his research from day one, reading every book he could find on Hamas. He'd give me a status report when we saw each other in class. Steve said that his perception of Hamas changed with all the research he did," she said.Authorities also have reported that Kazmierczak took several precautions that would impede investigators, including removing a memory card from his cell phone and removing the hard drive from his computer.
Hundreds of witnesses are being interviewed, but university officials have said it's unclear of Kazmierczak's reasons.On a a blog called Muslim Watcher, writer Bruce Keegan noted Abdelnabi was the women's representative in the Muslim Student Association at NIU.
As in the days of Noah....
