Something to Weave Into Your Small Talk With Friends and Co-Workers

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Something to Weave Into Your Small Talk With Friends and Co-Workers Posted: 20 Dec 2015 10:00 AM PST I read a story from The Week Magazine yesterday, and when I was at work, I mentioned one little tidbit in conversations with four different co-workers. What I mentioned was that Syed Farook, the male shooter in San Bernardino, hesitated after he and his wife came into the conference room. He seemed to be looking for someone according to some survivors. He might have been looking for a man he had argued with earlier about whether Islam was a religion of peace! Everybody I told this to burst out laughing. And it made a serious point in a somewhat lighthearted way. Below are some other interesting excerpts from the article. At 11 a.m., less than 30 minutes after Farook had left the center, he was back. The couple walked through the doors and took what witnesses described as "a stance." She stood on the right of the door to the conference room; he was on the left as they pointed their long rifles at his astonished co-workers. Farook appeared to hesitate, perhaps momentarily losing his nerve or maybe to seek out a specific victim, such as Thalasinos, with whom he had argued over whether Islam could call itself a peaceful religion. Thalasinos was among the dead at the center. Also killed were Michael Wetzel, 37, a father of six, and Bennetta Betbadal, 46, the wife of a police officer and a Christian who fled to America from Iran when she was 18 to escape Islamic extremism. When Malik (Farook's wife) arrived at Chicago O'Hare airport on July 27 last year after a flight that originated in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the FBI and U.S. Department of Homeland Security had already carried out extensive background checks on her. She had submitted her Pakistani passport and been fingerprinted, but no red flags had been raised... The FBI found evidence that in their final days the couple tried to erase their electronic footprints, destroying devices. Two smashed mobile phones were discovered in a garbage bin near the home; Malik had what appeared to be a "burner phone" — one meant to be used for a short time and discarded — on her body. When you find small pieces of information that really stand out, remember them and work them into casual conversations. This does two things: It can help gradually change someone's understanding of the problem of Islam, and it creates a mind set that says, "It's okay for us to talk about these things."