Two new reports shine light on the crucial role American Muslims play
in stopping terrorism in the United States
By Mark Benjamin
Reuters
A young Muslim American woman holds the U.S. flag at the Islamic
Center of America in Dearborn, Michigan on March 26.With the volume of
Islamophobia on the rise in the United States, a recent report
prepared for Congress and new law enforcement data are shining fresh
light on the significant role American Muslims play in foiling
terrorist plots, particularly those of the domestic "homegrown"
variety.
The report from the Congressional Research Service, sent to Congress
with little fanfare on September 20, contends that soon after 9-11,
American Muslims "recognized the need to define themselves as
distinctly American communities who, like all Americans, desire to
help prevent another terrorist attack" and explores how federal, state
and local law enforcement organizations responded by tapping into
American Muslims' language skills, contacts, information and cultural
insights.
CRS is a branch of the Library of Congress that conducts research on a
confidential basis for members of Congress and committees. Its report
was obtained by the Federation of American Scientists and released on
September 24, but a CRS spokeswoman would not say who in Congress
originally requested it.
Meanwhile, the Muslim Public Affairs Council has crunched FBI data,
information in government press releases, and media reports on
potential al Qaida-related plots and determined that since 9-11,
Muslim Americans have helped thwart 11 al Qaida-related plots, nearly
one-third of all such planned attacks that threatened the United
States. (A vivid example of an American Muslim warning authorities of
a problem: a Muslim was the first to report to law enforcement last
May the suspicious vehicle in Times Square which turned out to be a
dud car bomb.)
The cooperation from American Muslims is no secret to law enforcement
officials, who have established, all the way down to the local level,
formal and informal connections to American Muslim communities to
cultivate the flow of intelligence -- like the Muslim Community
Affairs unit of the Los Angeles Sheriff Department, established in
August 2007. For their part, Muslim-Americans have established a
litany of organizations to better understand and refute extremism,
like the Muslim American Society's "Straight Path Initiative," which
focuses on rooting out potential extremism, particular on Muslims aged
15 to 30. The CRS report on American Jihadist terrorism contains a
list of examples of American Muslim organizations established to rebut
extremism and an appendix listing federal, state and local
authorities' efforts to work with American Muslim communities.
Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown University, agreed
that the American Muslim community has played a crucial but often
overlooked role in the fight against extremism, actively reporting to
law enforcement about potentially dangerous developments. "We can't
expect the intelligence community to spot these aberrations on the
fringe," Hoffman said. "That work comes from communities who are best
poised to work with the authorities to prevent problems from even
surfacing."
Ironically, the American Muslim community is simultaneously facing
what seems to be a swelling wave of Islamophobia, fueled, in part, by
specious rhetoric that fuses terrorism and Islam.
Earlier this month, columnist and birther Frank Gaffney, Rep. Pete
Hoekstra, R-Mich., the ranking Republican on the Intelligence
Committee, and others held a news conference on Capitol Hill to
release a report on Muslim religious law entitled "Shariah: The Threat
to America." That document alleges that Muslim adherents to Shariah
law are categorically "making a determined, sustained, and
well-financed effort to impose it on all Muslims and non-Muslims,
alike."
"This is laughable. This is pure prejudice and fear mongering," is how
Nihad Awad, executive directory of the Council on American-Islamic
Relations, reacted to Gaffney's report. "What they are presentingis
contrary to Islamic ethics. They are just trying to scare people. This
is the new McCarthyism. They are exploiting fear and public
unawareness of Islam in general."
Some American Muslims are also frustrated by grappling with
anti-Muslim sentiments while simultaneously working so hard against
extremism and assisting law enforcement to root out terrorists.
"Ironic doesn't even begin to explain this," said Alejandro Beutel
from the Muslim Public Affairs Council. He said Islamophobes are
"failing to see who are the potential enemies and who are the
potential allies." Beutel predicted, however, that this new evidence
of American Muslims' role in thwarting attacks wouldn't change the
minds of many Islamophobes, saying, "Nothing we do is going to be good
enough for them."
More:
http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2010/09/29/american_muslim_terrorism_report
--
Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time.
Have a great day,
Tommy
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