Arcan Cetin may not have been a Muslim

Right wing social media have latched on to the shooter's Turkish ethnicity, and just assumed he must be a Muslim. However, there are many signals on his myspace and twitter accounts that point to him not being a practicing Muslim, and possibly even being a Catholic.

First, let me point to all the things on his twitter feed that do not look like a practicing Muslim:

1. The header on his twitter profile is Santa Claus. Santa Claus is haram in Islam. Haram means forbidden.
2. His twitter feed is full of references to playing video games, like Halo and Guardians of the Galaxy. Playing video games is frowned upon in Islamic cultures as a "waste of time".
3. He certainly liked playing Guardians of the Galaxy, which is based on the movie of the same name. The fact that the movie is dripping with Christian memes seems to turn off a lot of Muslims. Seriously, the "Star Lord" is the son of an angel, and his nemesis is called "The Accuser", which is actually what "The Satan" means in the OT as well as part of Revelations. Also, "The Accuser" is clearly a caricature of jihadists.
4. He also liked to play Halo, which also contains a lot of Christian memes (the crusades, ark of the covenant), and "the Covenant" is clearly an stand-in for Islam and the modern "clash of civilizations".

Second, his facebook profile has some odd things, like a fascination with Russia.

Third, on to his myspace profile. We can only see pictures, but it certainly doesn't look like a Islamic jiahdist's profile:

1. He has an image of Balrog, the fictional character from Lord of the Rings, Fellowship of the Ring. The Balrog is the beast Gandalf blocks by saying "you shall not pass". This certainly isn't Islamic, and some Imams have even labelled it haram (forbidden).
2. In an image where he's holding a Smith & Wesson pistol, he appears to be in a garage. The toolbox next to him has some stickers that certainly don't look Islamic: NHRA, Choppers, etc. Perhaps he was at some kind of gun show, as the seats behind the curtain don't really look like a configuration you'd expect to find in a car repair shop or a home garage.

THE BIG ISSUE:

If you look at the "fat boy with a gun" picture from his myspace profile (below), you will notice a painting hanging on the wall behind him.

That is "Saint Bride", by John Duncan.

Saint Bride is a Catholic Saint, also known as Brigid of Kildare. The caption on the "fat boy" picture says the man sitting behind him is his uncle. Presumably, that uncle owns the house, or perhaps it is the house of Mr. Cetan's parents.

Would you expect to find a painting of a Catholic saint on the wall of a Muslim family home? Nope!

So, now that I've shown reasonable doubt as to the religion of the shooter, let's delve into the clues about who he actually was.

Army Wannabe? His twitter feed includes a shout out to his "ROTC peeps".

His twitter feed also has pictures of him wearing a shirt that says "Army Strong" with some kind of map print on it.

Hillary Supporter? (doubtful)

On January 18th 2015, he tweeted "OMG WE GOT HEADS!!!!!" at 3:24 PM.

Two minutes later (3:26 PM), he posts "We win I vote for Hillary Clinton".

Something to keep in mind about this: Hillary Clinton didn't announce her candidacy until April 12th, almost 3 months later. Considering the fact that he posted "we got heads", then two minutes later says "we won", it really sounds like a group of friends playing "heads or tails", and he ended up on the "heads" side which was assigned to Hillary Clinton. If the coin had fallen the other way, he probably would have posted "We win I vote for Donald Trump". This certainly isn't a ringing endorsement of Clinton, especially since she didn't announce her run for president until 3 months later. Some reports say the "I vote for Hillary" tweet was over the Seahawks beating the Packers that day. Apparently it was some kind of bet.

In another tweet, he lumps Hillary Clinton in with Hitler's wife. Does that sound like someone who supports Hillary? I think not.

Someone who went to school with him has posted that he was a "conservative" and "in the rifle club & ROTC".

Gun Enthusiast? His myspace profile shows pictures of him holding two different guns. The first is posted above (see fat kid holding M-16). In the second, he is holding a Smith & Wesson revolver.

He was obviously fond of guns. He also liked playing "shoot 'em up" games, especially Call of Duty.

My Conclusion: Arcan Cetin seems to be a wannabe soldier with a gun fetish. His Turkish heritage and his alleged (but clearly not certain) religion have absolutely nothing to do with the fact that he killed 5 people at a mall. As of this writing, his motives have not been released.

I'm so sad to see so many Americans scapegoating a minority religion. As an atheist, I'm not a fan of any religion. I see the serious problems in Islam. Hell, I've actually read the Quran to see what a blood thirsty book it really is. I've also read the bible, and in comparison the Quran isn't all that different in it's thirst for the blood of infidels. Even if Mr. Cetin is Muslim, I'd say his enthusiasm for guns and violent video games, along with his violent past contributed far more to this evil deed than his religion.