A man prays at the Silver Spring Muslim Community Center, a mosque in Maryland where Hasan used to attend prayers. (AFP)

Texas, Nov. 7: Leaders of the vibrant Muslim community in Texas expressed outrage on Friday at the shooting rampage being laid to one of their members, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, who had become a regular attendee of prayers at the local mosque.

But some of the men who had befriended Hasan at the mosque said the military should examine the policies that might have caused him to snap.

“When a white guy shoots up a post office, they call that going postal,” said Victor Benjamin II, 30, a former member of the army. “But when a Muslim does it, they call it jihad.

“Ultimately it was Brother Nidal’s doing, but the command should be held accountable,” Benjamin said.

Hasan began attending prayers at the mosque, the Islamic Community of Greater Killeen, about two months ago.

The mosque has about 75 families who have lived peacefully with their Christian neighbours.

“After 9/11, nothing happened here,” said Ajsaf Khan, who owns three convenience stores with his brother, Abdul Khan. “We are very cooperative.”

A mosque leader, Manzoor Farooqi, when asked if he feared retribution for the shootings, said he hoped good relations would prevail.

Hasan was one of about 10 men from Fort Hood who attended prayers in their uniforms, Farooqi said, and he was shocked to see the major’s face on television identified as that of the gunman. “He is an educated man. A psychiatrist,” he said. “I can’t believe he would do such a stupid thing.”

“I have no words to explain what happened yesterday,” Farooqi said at Friday afternoon prayers, in which about 40 men were led by the mosque’s imam, Syed Ahmed Ali.

“The Islamic community strongly condemns this cowardly attack, which was particularly heinous in that it was directed at the all-volunteer army that protects our nation,” Farooqi said.

Nihad Awad, the national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said: “We reiterate the American Muslim community’s condemnation of this cowardly attack.”