Friday, June 23, 2017

Anonymous Letter To Islamic Center, Portland Maine



What can we identify about the author of this anonymous letter sent to an Islamic Center in Maine?

A letter is a statement which reveals four things about the author:

1.  The Author's Background
2.  The Author's Experiences in Life
3.  The Author's Priority or priorities/motive in sending the letter
4.  The personality traits of the Author 


13 comments:

Kit Perez said...

I do not see this as written by an anti-Muslim. I believe it's written by a Muslim, and possibly a member of that particular center.

Statement Analysis Blog said...

Kit Perez!

Natasha said...

The writer is angry at one specific person who works at the mosque?

The letter is addressed to "Muslim" (singular).
The writer states "you (singular) and your fellow vermin".

Leakage of something that happened to the writer ?
"Great experience"(sarcasm)
"Life will never be the same again"

Could the writer be leaking out something that was done to him/her that made their life "never the sane again" and that she rightfully associated with being done to her by Muslims (maybe in a different country) like female genital mutilation?

Kit Perez said...

A few observations:

- The person uses terms that are more grandiose. Vermin? The visual he's painting describes what Muslims themselves want to do to the rest of non-Muslim society. It's Koranic language.

- The handwriting mimics someone who is used to writing Arabic. The direction he's used to writing in is right to left; you can see it in the way he forms his 'b'. In addition, his 'g' resembles an Arabic letter, and the entire piece looks like someone who is 1) uncomfortable writing in that direction, 2) uncomfortable writing in a non-script. This also tends to lead me to possibly discount the idea that the person writing this is a white American non-Muslim.

- The 'title' of the entire thing is "Muslim." Not "Dear Muslims," or even "To the Muslims of Islamic Center." Since he starts with that word, that's an important word. That almost seems like an embedded announcement. MUSLIM! As in, "I AM MUSLIM."

That's just the quick once-over impression. I am certain there is much I missed.

General P. Malaise said...

I agree it seems that the author is muslim. the letter is titled muslim centred and underlined with capital letter.

The talk of blood running is the street is symbolic of the feast of Eid when muslims slaughter animals.

the author feels marginalized and wants to bring attention to his mosque. mosqueteering can be competitive businesses and they vie for attendees.

it is ramadan isn't it.

Anonymous said...

Great observations Kit & Malaise. I agree looks like writer used to writing Arabic. That is interesting Re: writer probably leaking their own identity with title being MUSLIM (all caps and underlined).

I wonder why the writer is threatening an attack not tomorrow, or next week, but rather "Come August". I am unfamiliar with the Muslim calendar, but is there something happening at the mosque in August that the writer does not like, some religious holiday or something, and therefore wants the mosque to shut down during that month of August out of fear of the attack?

Also , what is that underneath the writing...it looks like letters "S" and "W" at the top of two columns? But I am on a small screen so I can't see it well .

kimisan03 said...

Wouldn't someone who is anti-Muslim use stronger language than "Muslim?"

Statement Analysis Blog said...

Kit, fascinating insight.

We both know that no matter how thorough we are, tomorrow we will find more!

I hope to post analysis soon. I am awaiting our resident HWA expert.

We hope to have him cover a class for us.

Peter

Statement Analysis Blog said...

General Malaise,

interesting insight about motive.

Peter

Hey Jude said...

'fellow vermin' - the writer considers those he writes of to be equals in fellowship/friendship/unity of which he is not part? I think the description of vermin as 'fellow' vermin gives away that the writer feels disaffected from those with whom he once shared things in common.

'Fellow' is a word used by the more educated?

I think the writer is not so committed to seeing the blood of the 'fellow vermin' - the 'and' dips below the line and is followed by a misplaced full stop as though the writer hesitated on the next words, I think the sentence can be read in two ways - also 'fellow vermin' is not as hostile as it is intended to appear - 'fellow' is not a derogatory word, even if intended with nastiness or sarcasm, it almost neutralises 'vermin' - to my mind it sounds comical. I wonder if the writer believes the subject of the note has turned friends against him or her?

'I will enjoy the sight of the blood of you and your fellow vermin running into the streets.'

That could mean the writer will enjoy the sight of his subject's blood and the sight of others running into the streets - or it could mean he will enjoy the sight of all their blood running into the street. I think the former, as it is people who run *into* streets, while blood runs in the street. I think the author is fantasising about the subject being bloodily attacked, causing people present to run into the streets.

There is no direct personal threat from the author, but the writer is attempting to create fear through knowledge of something which is to happen - he/she will enjoy 'the sight of the blood of you', and it will be a great 'experience'. 'Come August. Life will never be the same again.' In August the 'experience' will change the author's life. The author intends to witness the 'experience'. Such an event could only change the author's life if the person/s threatened were of significance to the author. It seems a personal note to add - why does the author believe his subject should know or care that the writer's life will never be the same again? 'Never' - the author is maybe not so convinced anything will happen to make his/her life never be the same again, come August?

'The blood of you' rather than 'your blood' - distancing?
'The blood of you and your fellow vermin running into the streets' - if that was intended as all their blood, sounds less committed than say, 'your blood and the blood of your fellow vermin running in the streets'. It sounds like an allusion to Eid sacrifice, when the blood of animals runs in the streets - livestock - vermin would not be included or considered a worthy sacrifice.

I wonder if a worshipper has fallen out with an imam?

Anonymous said...

Hoax letter.

1) Background: Is Muslim, prompt, precise and to the point with some fantasy.
2) Experience in Life: not first threat letter.
3) Priorities: Putting mosque goers on guard
4) Personality: planner, list maker,spacial equation specific (creases in letter) and leaves initials to make others guess.

"t" looks like "v" except in street

Anonymous said...

The letter was sent from across seas. Police have already determined that.

Maybe a student who returns to the area for college/grad school in August?
Maybe someone sent by parents/relatives back to their home country for some length of time.
What about the columns with the S and W at the top? Clearly the writer began using the paper to make some kind of list? But then changed their mind. Any thoughts or should we just ignore that part of it?

Nickolas Nickolas said...

Impersonal signature of some kind at the bottom? M and then a 5 or S, but if I had to guess a 5. Then a cross type sword symbol? Is he part of a group or pretending to be and this is a signal, or is it his personal symbol? the first thing that came to mind was a right-wing extremist nod from the author.

sorry this isn't coming from a statement analysis perspective, because i have none yet, but nobody mentioned it yet and i was wondering if there was any significance.