The recent case of Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, who murdered one soldier and injured another at a Little Rock military recruiting center last year, reflects several trends in the growing danger of extremism on American soil.
The New York Times reports that Mr. Muhammed—née Carlos Bledsoe–was born a Baptist. Shortly after beginning college, he converted to Sunni Islam and dropped out of school. He became increasingly devout, and was active in Nashville’s Somali community where he began wearing Arab-style clothing, gave up alcohol, and changed his name.
He eventually went to Yemen to study Arabic.He overstayed his visa, was deported, and ended up in a U.S. prison.
Mr. Muhammad told his father that while in prison he met Islamic radicals who told him that the American government had forsaken him. “We are your real brothers,” they said…
Yesterday a terminal in Munich, Germany was closed due to a bomb scare. An individual’s laptop tested positive for explosives and he ran away.
Today we read in the news that perhaps it was a false alarm, perhaps he was running because he was late…
Forgive me for being confused. It is very possible that the laptop did not have explosives and that that information was false, however, how often do innocent people run? As well, aren’t people only checked when they enter the airport, so he left the airport and missed his flight?
If we do not take these incidents seriously we have learned nothing from Flight 253 which happened just a month ago! Calling this Munich incident a false alarm without having more details does not help the threat of terrorism disappear.
Click here to learn more about the threat that terrorism poses.
A man arrested in Memphis “stated he was a Muslim, and wanted to start jihad here in Memphis.” He will be brought to court on January 7 for allegedly trying to blow up office buildings on Christmas day. Two days earlier, the same man, Mohammed Ibrahim was arrested for possession of a ten inch butcher knife found in his sleeve.
When are we going to realize that theses attacks are all the same? Whether they come from a wealthy Nigerian, a military psychiatrist or Mohammed in Memphis, they are all united by one goal: to take over the west and spread radical Islam.
The New York Post in an article today entitledLying to Ourselves speaks about the fact that Umar Abdulmutallab, a wealthy Muslim university graduate, clearly planned to carry out his attacks on Christmas day in the name of religious fanaticism.
What he planned was a terror attack on Northwestern flight 253, inspired by the doctrine of radical Islam. His own father, a wealthy reputable banker in Nigeria, called the US embassy to warn them that his son had become radicalized. And yet, not only did the security system fail to catch him, our administration refuses to connect this incident with radical Islamic terror.
Much like the initial reactions after Fort Hood, our government rejects the claim that this man acted out of religious zeal. By continuing to ignore this fact and try and interpret every incident as isolated, we are only making it easier for the terrorists to take another shot at us. They have a well financed, global network powered by religious fervor and a penetrating ideology that has its goals set on bringing down the West.
Until we stop lying to ourselves and our administration starts to “connect the dots” no number of deodorant cans collected at the airport will put a real end to the terror.
To mark the closing of a new year Time Magazine published an article about how the year 2009 saw an “unprecedented surge” of terror activity on US soil. There have been 32 planned attack since the tragedy of 9/11. Some of the more well known cases included the shooting at the Fort Hood military base in November. The murder of a soldier by a Muslim convert in Little Rock, and in January, the arrest of a Long Island convert who pleaded guilty to helping Al Qaeda with a plot to blow up a train in Penn Station.
The spokespeople for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) claim that these events do not point to a trend and the charge that Muslim Americans are being radicalized in US Mosques if false. What do you think about this? There is plenty of evidence that points to the fact that this is untrue and four of the cases outlined in the article are about Americans who converted to Islam and then carried out their plans.
One of the lessons learned in 2009 is that the internet has become a breeding ground for terrorist training activity. American Muslims are encouraged to stay in the US rather than travel to Pakistan or Afghanistan and commit isolated acts of terror.
Brian Jenkin’s a RAND corporation expert suggests that many of the young men carrying out these attacks were at a very impressionable age when the attacks on 9/11 were carried out. He says that “some would have been inspired by it and caught up in the jihadist narrative”. Thankfully, Americans are becoming more aware that this threat is here and more people are contacting their local officials when they see something suspicious.
I wonder what 2010 will bring?
Drug Trafficking in North Africa is directly linked to Al Qaeda:
An article in yesterday’s LA Times speaks about the clear link made between the cocaine smuggling routes in North Africa and an Al Qaeda group in the Maghreb.
“Reporting from Washington - Three men alleged to be Al Qaeda associates were charged Friday with conspiring to smuggle cocaine through Africa — the first U.S. prosecution linking the terrorist group directly to drug trafficking.”
The terrorists provide protection along these dangerous routes in exchange for large sums of money. They then use the cocaine profits to acquire better weaponry, expand recruitment and buy off corrupt governments.
An even scarier element of this story is that the personal relationships being formed between the terrorists and the drug organizations can become operational in the future.
It is time that this dimension of the global terror threat gets more attention in the media.
A new Palestinian Sesame Street is set to begin broadcasting in February. The project is funded by non profit organizations and boasts that the show will be unlike any other and will promote tolerance.
However, the website makes no mention of Israelis, so it will be interesting to stay tuned and see if/how Israel is portrayed on the show.
For now, we can just hope that it will in fact be a positive move for Palestinian children.
On November 5th, a group is planning to protest against “FBI terrorism.” 1,000 attended the funeral services for Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah on October 31. He was shot by FBI agents a few days earlier. Groups to demonstrate at Federal Building, a workers websites reports:
“In response to the assassination of Imam Abdullah, the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice (MECAWI) has called for a mass demonstration outside the federal building in downtown Detroit on Nov. 5, from 4:30 to 6:00 p.m. The demonstration is designed to both condemn the assassination of the Islamic leader as well as demand an independent investigation into his death at the hands of the FBI.”
What is FBI terrorism anyways? Why was the Imam armed?
We need to be grateful that the FBI is working to protect us from more terrorist attacks. Attend the protest and show your support for the FBI. Thank them for putting their lives at risk every day so that we are safe.
Two recent excerpts from the expatriate Arab-language press, published by MEMRI, show the uphill battle with radical Islamism, given the extremist ideology being inculcated in Saudi youth.
While the Saudi government may be making significant efforts to combat terrorism, little is being done to combat it in the educational and religious spheres. Children are taught by a Wahhabi system to hate infidels for the sake of Allah, and then we see receive reports that some of them have run off to join Al-Qaeda.
Sometimes they run to America, where one of the authors (who lives in America) notes conversations with students who support killing apostates. Others don’t need to import their views to America with them. They can get educated in these beliefs right at home, courtesy of curriculum exported to America from the homeland. It would be unreasonable to assume these views will stay in the classroom, or the headspace of the Arab students who bring them. Rather, they will likely share the things they believe with others, either informally, or in their own roles as educators in the schools, their homes, and their mosques. These beliefs may not necessarily lead to terrorism. But, it’s an ominous sign when one in four American Muslim youth support suicide bombings against civilians some of the time.
The New York Times reported yesterday, that a New York businessman has been accused of attempting to funnel money to a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan. He pled guilty and could face up to 25 years in prison.
Is this an appropriate amount of time to go to prison? If his contribution eventually would have caused the death of hundreds should he not be sentenced to life? Are the people who fund terrorism not just as guilty as those who perform the acts themselves?
New York businessman Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari should be used as an example. If you help fund terrorism you are just as guilty as the terrorist him/herself.
