The Creeping Homegrown Threat
 

The Creeping Homegrown Threat
The arrest of seven North Carolinians on conspiracy charges shows, says Steve Emerson, how the U.S. is becoming like Europe, where homegrown terror plots get stopped—or not—seemingly every week.
by Steven Emerson
The Daily Beast
August 2, 2009

http://www.investigativeproject.org/...megrown-threat


This week's arrest of seven North Carolina residents, including Daniel Boyd and his two sons, on charges of supporting terrorism and conspiracy to commit murder abroad, showed how the problem of homegrown Islamic terrorism is far more rampant than the media or the public is aware of. Just look at the major cases in the past year alone:

The convert from Long Island who joined al Qaeda (disclosed this past week) and gave the group information about Long Island trains and New York City's subways.

The plot to blow up two synagogues and a National Guard plane in upstate New York by prison converts (scheduled to go to trial).

The plot to kill hundreds of soldiers at Fort Dix by assimilated American Muslims living here 25 years (all convicted).

The plot to operate a terrorist training camp in Oregon (pleaded guilty).

The plot to blow up buildings by the Liberty City 7 (all convicted).

The sweeping conviction of Hamas officials for conspiring to support terrorism overseas.

The cases of young Somali teenagers raised in the U.S. going overseas to become suicide bombers.

The Boyd case in North Carolina proves that radical Islamic ideology transcends economic class problems as has been claimed by pointy-headed sociologists. The Boyd family was white, had a middle-class existence, and had the economic opportunities afforded all Americans—just like most of the terrorists cited above—and yet chose to engage in jihad to the point that Daniel Boyd was willing to send his two kids on suicide missions to Israel.

That the FBI stopped all these plots is amazing, but they will never continue to bat a thousand. One of these days, the jihadists will succeed.

In the end, the mainstream media refuses to recognize that the "mainstream" Islamic groups are actually radical organizations that teach and imbue their followers with a hatred of the United States and Israel. These groups front as civil-rights groups, but in fact are radical Islamic groups whose constant message disseminated to the millions of Muslim followers is that the U.S. is an evil country engaged in a war against Islam. Once that message takes hold—and after all, these groups control the mosques, the Islamic newspapers, the Islamic schools, and the Islamic leadership from which American Muslims and converts get their ideas about the world—it is not a huge leap for some of them to become committed to violent jihad.

We are talking about a situation that is far more rampant than government leaders want to admit because the Islamic groups routinely throw the term "racist" at anyone who claims there is radicalism in the Muslim community. Two years ago, a poll was taken of American Muslims: 29 percent of young Muslims approved of suicide bombings. And those 29 percent are the ones that admitted their views. How many more would not tell the pollsters what they really thought?

The U.S. is becoming more like Europe, where homegrown Islamic terrorist plots get stopped (or sometimes succeed) nearly every week. It's because of the message that today's Islamic religious leadership hammers home: that the West is the enemy of Islam, that Christians and Jews are involved in a conspiracy to subjugate Islam. And so what is the logical result of these teachings? Many young Muslims hate the West. And of that number who hate the West, a certain smaller percentage—like the Boyds—are willing to take matters into their own hands and carry out jihad.

We have a major problem on our hands that no one is addressing, especially the Obama administration. After all, the Obama administration won't even use the term "radical Islam." If we cannot name our enemy, how in God's name are we supposed to defeat the enemy? This past week, Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano gave widely heralded speeches using the term "homegrown terrorism" for the first time. But which homegrown terrorism were they referring to? White racists? The Aryan Nation? The KKK? Eco-terrorists? A close look at their rhetoric shows that the only time they used the word Islam was in referring to the city of Islamabad. In other words, we have met the enemy and he is us.

The problem is not all Muslims. Far from it. It is radical Islam, just like German Nazism and Italian fascism were pinpointed as the devils in World War II. And in Christianity and Judaism, there are Christian and Jewish terrorists, terms no one is afraid of using.

Documents obtained last year by the Investigative Project on Terrorism through a Freedom of Information Act request show that it was the Bush administration, lead by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, that initiated the policy of prohibiting the use of the terms "Islamic terrorism," "Islamic militants," or "Islamic radicals"—or even the use of the word "jihad." These censorious vernacular prohibitions were the product of advice given by several Islamic advisers hired by Homeland Security, including Eboo Patel, founder of the Interfaith Youth Core, and Reza Aslan. The administration's reasoning here was the embodiment of appeasement; the goal: to protect Islam from any negative connotations. Islam today suffers from negative connotations not because of biased and selective media, as Aslan and others contend, but because so many acts of terrorism are committed by Islamists and so many of today's Islamic leaders rationalize these acts.

For Islam to restore its image as a tolerant religion will require Islamic leaders to admit that Islam has a problem, that the anti-women Sharia, the code of Islamic law, as interpreted by Islamists, is racist, that Islamic radicalism does in fact exist and is not the crude or Islamophobic imagination of writers like myself. The courageous Zuhdi Jasser, a Muslim leader from Phoenix, already admits this and more. We need more of him—not the apologists like Aslan who try to cover up for Islamic radicalism. Aslan's recent comments at a panel about the film The Stoning of Soraya M.—the story of an Islamic woman stoned to death by virtue of her husband conspiring to use the Sharia as an excuse to falsely accuse her of infidelity when in fact it was he who was guilty of infidelity—were simply "outrageous" according to those who heard him speak. After saying, "I guess it's up to me to put this into some sort of historical context," Aslan obfuscated by asserting (incorrectly) that "many cultures" struggled with the issue of stoning.

In the end, homegrown Islamic terrorism is not going to stop; it is manifestly going to be abetted by a demonstrably counterproductive campaign of prohibiting the term "Islamic terrorism" from being uttered. If we cannot describe who our enemy is in the hopes of discrediting them, how are we ever going to defeat them?

Steve Emerson is executive director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism and author of five books and countless articles on terrorism. His most recent book is Jihad Incorporated: A Guide to Militant Islam in the U.S

So by hi-lighting this section of text in the article you're saying that you agree with this statement? :confused:

Now I'm really confused - as this statement of "The problem is not all Muslims" is 180 degrees opposite of the arguments so often expressed in many of these forums. Which is it - all Muslims are the problem or not all Muslims are the problem?

I know where I stand on the issue - as I actually agree with the author's thesis - but now I have to wonder about some of the 'all' desk pounding that was posted earlier... :confused:

And so it goes...;)

Richard's $.02 :munchin

Sharks and the ocean
 

Muslims believe.

If they believe then they believe that Islam is the one true religion.

To believe means you support. "Support what" then becomes the question.

Support can be in not telling.

Right now Islam is the ocean that allows the sharks of terrorism to in it.

Street justice appears to control the casual Muslim real well as is found in some of WM's posts and links.

So many are afraid to call an islamic terrorist an islamic terrorist - or even mention religion as a source of ideological justification for violence. People - and media especially - recoil from being called an islamaphobe or a racist.

What race is a muslim, anyway?

Related, but digressing, the best answer to the academic/intellectual terrorism espoused in Edward Said's "Orientalism" is Ibn Warraq's "Defending the West." Started this over the weekend and I'm impressed with how succinctly Warraq shuts down Said's psycho babble.

If you want to shut down the "your quoting out of context" argument (based on the fact you're not reading it in the original arabic) get a copy of Ibn Warraq's "Leaving Islam." Read Appendix A, pages 400-404. Shuts that down cold.

I've found some of the most credible people on this subject are the apostates who are willing to speak out - particularly Warraq and Brigitte Gabriel* ("Because They Hate" and "Why They Must be Stopped"). Think about it. They've known the religion up close and personal. they've lived it. They know the penalty for leaving islam is death - yet they bravely risk themselves (and their families) for what is right.

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* http://www.actforamerica.org/index.p...out-ms-gabriel

U.S. terror suspects spoke of "jihad"
 

U.S. terror suspects spoke of "jihad": FBI wiretaps
Tue Aug 4, 2009 3:56pm EDT
By Gene Cherry

RALEIGH, North Carolina (Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors played FBI recordings in court on Tuesday as evidence that seven North Carolina terrorism suspects discussed waging "jihad," which can mean "holy war," as part of a conspiracy to conduct attacks overseas.

Prosecutors at the detention hearing in Raleigh used the recordings to argue that Daniel Patrick Boyd, his two sons and four other men, who are all accused of conspiring to carry out terrorism attacks abroad, should remain in custody. An eighth suspect in the case is not in the United States.

The seven, who appeared in orange prison jumpsuits, were arrested last month on charges of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and conspiracy to murder, kidnap, maim and injure persons abroad. Boyd and others also face weapons charges.

"They are all at risk of flight. They have associates and ties overseas," FBI agent Michael Sutton told U.S. Magistrate William Webb, who was due to rule later on whether the suspects should remain detained.

The seven face up to life in prison if convicted. Relatives and family members have insisted they are innocent. U.S. officials have told reporters the eighth suspect in the case is in Pakistan.

The Raleigh detention hearing followed a warning from U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder last week of the increased "radicalization" of Americans in recent months. Seven of the eight accused are U.S. citizens.

The United States has been on heightened security alert since the September 11 attacks in 2001, when al Qaeda militants using hijacked jetliners killed 2,749 people.

"MILITARY TRAINING"

On the scratchy FBI wiretaps played in court, prosecutors said Boyd, whom they say trained in terrorist camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan from 1989 to 1992, could be heard proposing and discussing "engaging in violent jihad."

Jihad is an Arabic word that means simply "struggle" and often has a spiritual meaning, but in Western countries, is taken to mean "holy war." *

Sutton also told the court authorities had intercepted email messages in which the defendants discussed similar plans. He said they had engaged in "military training" with weapons in North Carolina.

The indictment alleges Boyd and others traveled to Gaza, Israel, Jordan, Pakistan and Kosovo to plan or engage in attacks. But details of specific targets have been vague.

In one recording heard by the court, Boyd and other defendants could be heard talking about immigration officials, and Boyd was heard to say "We need to make jihad on them," according to prosecutors. Sutton said this indicated an intent to attack immigration officials but gave no more details.

The FBI agent said Boyd had told officials after his arrest that he went to Afghanistan in the late 1980s "to fight against the Soviets" after receiving training first at a camp in Connecticut, and then at camps in Afghanistan. The Soviet army withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989 after a 10-year presence.

Sutton said Boyd had told authorities he had fired against Soviet troops in Afghanistan and "saw Soviets fall."

Rifles and pistols capable of piercing body armor and money in sums totaling thousands of dollars were found at Boyd's house, prosecutors said.

As the accused were led into the courtroom, they were greeted in Arabic by supporters and family members.

Those indicted beside Boyd were Hysen Sherifi, Anes Subasic, Zakariya Boyd, Dylan Boyd, Mohammad Omar Aly Hassan, Ziyad Yaghi and Jude Kenan Mohammad. Mohammad, the eighth absent suspect in the case, was not present.

Seven are U.S. citizens. Sherifi, a native of Kosovo, is a legal permanent resident of the United States, according to the indictment.


http://www.reuters.com/article/domes...57366520090804

____________________

Gotta hate sloppy and/or misleading reporting. :mad:

* Jihad means to war against non-muslims, and is etymologically derived from the the word mujahada,
signifying warfare to establish the religion.
SEE "Reliance of the Traveller; A Classic Manual of Islamic Sacred Law." page 599, section o9.0 - JIHAD