The View From Arlen

Posted 2:37 PM by Hank
ROAD RAGE OR MUSLIM TERROR?

Has the "cartoon controversy" come to America?

ABC News is reporting that an Iranian former student at University of North Carolina is in police custody "after he allegedly drove a sport utility vehicle through a popular gathering spot on campus Friday, clipping and scattering startled bystanders."

Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar, 22... was in the custody of campus police. They intended to charge him with attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill.

Taherir-azar's nationality would probably be irrelevant, except, as ABC also notes:

Taheri-azar...allegedly made statements that he acted to avenge the American treatment of Muslims.

ABC's local affiliate had additional information:

Taheri-azar apparently told police he tried to rent the biggest SUV he could find to use in the attack. A law enforcement source tells Eyewitness News that Taheri-azar had been plotting the attack for some time and was prepared to die.

The scene of the alleged attack, UNC, was recently the site of protests by Muslim students, after the school paper published a Muhammad cartoon:

The student newspaper at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has been labeled bigoted and racist for daring to publish an image of Muhamed. The Muslim Students Association at UNC is demanding an apology from the staff of the Daily Tar Heel for the transgression.

The cartoon...shows Muhammad appearing to decry both Denmark's role in the controversy and the violence that has erupted since.

Because the attack may have been religiously or politically motivated, the F.B.I. has been called in the case, ABC notes.

The local Muslim student group has condemned the attack, and insisted that Taheri-azar is not a member.