Read The Terrorist Next Door Online
Authors: Erick Stakelbeck
The Terrorist Next Door (30 page)
Sounding like a Saudi ambassador, Brennan launched into a paean to Islam, expressing his “respect for a faith that has shaped my own worldview,” referencing his personal experience traveling the world and learning about “the goodness and beauty of Islam,” and speaking about a long-ago trip to Indonesia in which he “came to see Islam not how it is often misrepresented, but for what it is, how it is practiced everyday by well over a billion Muslims worldwideâa faith of peace and tolerance and great diversity.” Brennan also waxed poetic about Middle Easterners who taught him that all of us, everywhere in the world, aspire “to practice our faith freely”âapparently the widespread persecution of
Christians throughout the Middle East, and the sharia-inspired laws that punish conversion from Islam with penalties up to and including death, failed to make much of an impression on him.
Christians throughout the Middle East, and the sharia-inspired laws that punish conversion from Islam with penalties up to and including death, failed to make much of an impression on him.
Although he found no fault on the part of the Muslims, Brennan gave credence to a long list of Islamic grievances against America. Denouncing the supposed “ugly rise in scapegoating and fearmongering” against Muslims in America, he bemoaned that U.S. Muslim communities “have also been targeted from the other side by inexcusable ignorance and prejudice here in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere.” He then condemned his own government for a litany of supposed past transgressions against Muslims, including violations of the Patriot Act, profiling, excessive surveillance, no-fly lists, and scrutiny of Islamic charities.
Throughout his speech, Brennan fully adopted the Islamic worldview and the accompanying terminology, referring to Israel as “Palestine,” calling Jerusalem by its revanchist Arabic name “al-Quds,” speaking about the “sacred obligation of zakat [charity],” and praising the Saudi regime's custodianship over “the two holy mosques at Mecca and Medina.” For good measure, he sprinkled into his speech extended Arabic-language remarks and a recitation from the Koran.
Amidst all the fawning over Islam's beauty and tolerance, Brennan indicated where the impetus for the government's refusal to address jihadist ideology ultimately lies: “President Obama declared in his address in Cairo that he considers it part of his responsibility as president to fight against negative stereotypes of Islam. This is not only a matter of civil rights. It's a matter of our national security and it's a matter of our morality as a nation.” Brennan reiterated the point while yet again condemning anti-Muslim bigotry, declaring, “Ignorance is a threat to our national security. Prejudice is a threat to our national security. Discrimination is a threat to our national security.”
And there you have it. President Obama believes “fighting negative stereotypes of Islam” is a national security matter of the highest order. Noticing that nearly all terrorists are Muslims, and that they justify their atrocities by citing Islamic scripture, and that this interpretation is promoted
widely in Islamic communities throughout the worldâwhy, that would cast Islam in a negative light and promote negative stereotypes. Those dots just cannot be connectedâthus we're left with the continued insistence that every new jihadist attack and every foiled Muslim terrorist plot is just a random, isolated event occurring without any larger context.
widely in Islamic communities throughout the worldâwhy, that would cast Islam in a negative light and promote negative stereotypes. Those dots just cannot be connectedâthus we're left with the continued insistence that every new jihadist attack and every foiled Muslim terrorist plot is just a random, isolated event occurring without any larger context.
In other words, the reason why the military, the Justice Department, the Defense Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and every other branch of government are willfully blind to jihadist ideology is because that attitude is enforced from the very top. The directive to placate Muslims even extends to NASA, where the agency's chief, Charles Bolden, boasted to the pro-jihad TV network al-Jazeera that NASA's “foremost” mission, as charged by Obama personally, is to “reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science ... and math and engineering.”
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You read that correctly: according to NASA's director, the space exploration agency's main priority is to make Muslims “feel good” about themselves.
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You read that correctly: according to NASA's director, the space exploration agency's main priority is to make Muslims “feel good” about themselves.
As for John Brennan, his national security prescriptionsâsuch as reaching out to “moderates” he has apparently located in the Hezbollah terrorist organization
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âare right in line with Obama's pro-Islam policy. And nothing exemplifies this policy more than Brennan's refusal to acknowledge jihadist ideology. Incredibly, he has argued that we should not even refer to Islamic terrorists as “jihadists” because jihad is actually a peaceful, “legitimate tenet of Islam”
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âa false assertion that was debunked by Islam expert Andrew Bostom, who noted that thirty-six of the forty uses of the word “jihad” in the Koran refer to warfare and fighting.
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âare right in line with Obama's pro-Islam policy. And nothing exemplifies this policy more than Brennan's refusal to acknowledge jihadist ideology. Incredibly, he has argued that we should not even refer to Islamic terrorists as “jihadists” because jihad is actually a peaceful, “legitimate tenet of Islam”
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âa false assertion that was debunked by Islam expert Andrew Bostom, who noted that thirty-six of the forty uses of the word “jihad” in the Koran refer to warfare and fighting.
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Obama himself presented his view on the topic during a November 2010 visit to a college in Mumbai, India. During a townhall-style discussion with an audience of Indian students, a woman asked Obama to explain his opinion on jihad. Considering the city where these students lived was subject to a horrific jihadist massacre just two years earlier, the student had a justifiable interest in discovering what the leader of the
free world thinks about the ideology that had spawned such violence. Obama answered her question with a Brennan-style tribute to the glory of Islam, combined with the usual multiculturalist platitudes:
free world thinks about the ideology that had spawned such violence. Obama answered her question with a Brennan-style tribute to the glory of Islam, combined with the usual multiculturalist platitudes:
The phrase “jihad” has a lot of meaning within Islam and is subject to a lot of different interpretations, but I will say that, first, Islam is one of the world's great religions. And more than a billion people who practice Islam, the overwhelming majority view their obligations to their religion as ones that reaffirm peace and justice and fairness and tolerance. I think all of us recognize that this great religion, in the hands of a few extremists, has been distorted by violence towards innocent people that is never justified. So I think one of the challenges that we face is how to isolate those who have these distorted notions of religious war, and reaffirm those who see faiths of all sorts, whether you are a Hindu or a Muslim or a Christian or a Jew or any other religion, or you don't practice a religion, that we can all treat each other with respect and mutual dignity, and that some of the universal principles that Gandhi referred to, that those are what we're living up to, as we live in a nation or nations that have very diverse religious beliefs.
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One wonders whether Obama's panegyrics about Islam's inherent “peace” and “tolerance” were warmly received in a city in which 164 people had recently been murdered and 300 more wounded by Islamic jihadists. And a sharp-eyed reader might notice that the president's insistence on the need to “isolate” those “few extremists” contradict his administration's rote argument that the perpetrators of every new jihadist attack are already “isolated” individuals. Nevertheless, regardless of what India's Hindusâthe prime victims of the Mumbai attackâthought of Obama's comments, his remarks seem to have fulfilled their purpose. As a
Times of India
headline stated, “Muslim leaders approve Obama's âjihad' remarks.”
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Times of India
headline stated, “Muslim leaders approve Obama's âjihad' remarks.”
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America's counter-terrorism policy, both at home and abroad, is being fatally undermined by the Obama administration's stubborn refusal to acknowledge the deep theological roots of violent jihad. In his NYU speech, Brennan declared to his audience that he “look[s] forward to an honest and candid discussion” about national security. But Brennan demonstrated in that very speech his fundamental inability to have such a discussion. In fact, throughout the speech he could not even bring himself to utter the phrase “Islamic terrorism,” instead referring generically to “violent extremism”âa meaningless term that senators Lieberman and Collins, after investigating the Fort Hood massacre, specifically denounced as an indication of the flawed mindset that allowed the Fort Hood jihadist attack to occur.
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Brennan showed his true attitude toward an “honest and candid discussion” on terrorism when he met with
Washington Times
editors in June 2010. Questioning Brennan's characterization of jihad as peaceful and legitimate, an editor asked him to comment on the assertions of jihadists that Islamic scripture defines jihad as being inherently violent. Brennan responded by snapping, “I think we've finished. I have to get going.” Then he stormed out of the room.
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It was a stunning, physical depiction of the administration's petulant refusal to acknowledge the violent mandates of Islam.
Washington Times
editors in June 2010. Questioning Brennan's characterization of jihad as peaceful and legitimate, an editor asked him to comment on the assertions of jihadists that Islamic scripture defines jihad as being inherently violent. Brennan responded by snapping, “I think we've finished. I have to get going.” Then he stormed out of the room.
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It was a stunning, physical depiction of the administration's petulant refusal to acknowledge the violent mandates of Islam.
Lieberman and Collins strongly admonished the administration to begin calling the threat we face by its proper nameâ“violent Islamic extremism.” But that expression, of course, implies a connection between those three terms that Obama vehemently denies.
Until the U.S. government finds the courage to abandon its bromides about the glories of Islam and confront the cold, hard fact of violent jihadist ideology, we can expect to see a lot more Fort Hoods here at home, and a lot more Mumbais abroad.
Let's return for a moment to James Clapper's affirmation that the Muslim Brotherhood is a secular organization. How could the director of national intelligence be so wrong about such an influential jihadist group? That's a story in itself. By the time Clapper was soft-pedaling the Brotherhood threat, American Islamic groups associated with the organization had long positioned themselves as the go-to experts on Islam for the U.S. government. Since the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, whenever a terrorist attack has occurred or a terror plot has been thwartedâoften involving individuals who were associated with and had been radicalized by Muslim Brotherhood ideologuesâour government leaders time and again have turned to the Muslim Brotherhood's U.S. front groups for advice. These organizations are the government's “interfaith partners” who have been telling our homeland security, law enforcement, and intelligence agencies that the Brotherhood is a benign, peaceful organization that could be our greatest ally in the Middle East.
And every time our government gets burned by listening to and associating with these Brotherhood fronts, U.S. officials go right back to them for more advice. In late 2010, my friend, investigative reporter Patrick Poole, published a report reviewing some of the worst examples of the “blowback” from the government's outreach to the Muslim Brotherhood.
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A few of the most glaring examples include:
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A few of the most glaring examples include:
â¢
Abdurahman Alamoudi
. The most frequent Muslim visitor to the Clinton White House and a consultant in establishing the Pentagon's Muslim chaplain program, Alamoudi was also al-Qaeda's top fundraiser in America and was eventually arrested and convicted in a Libyan intelligence plot to kill the Saudi crown prince. The government's former top Islamic adviser is currently serving a 23-year prison sentence.
Abdurahman Alamoudi
. The most frequent Muslim visitor to the Clinton White House and a consultant in establishing the Pentagon's Muslim chaplain program, Alamoudi was also al-Qaeda's top fundraiser in America and was eventually arrested and convicted in a Libyan intelligence plot to kill the Saudi crown prince. The government's former top Islamic adviser is currently serving a 23-year prison sentence.
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Ali Mohamed
. Al-Qaeda's security chief, Mohamed infiltrated the U.S. Army Special Forces and was even used to
help train soldiers in Middle East affairs. While he was working with the FBI and CIA as an informant, he was secretly double-crossing these agencies and helped Osama bin Laden plan the 1998 attacks on the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Ali Mohamed
. Al-Qaeda's security chief, Mohamed infiltrated the U.S. Army Special Forces and was even used to
help train soldiers in Middle East affairs. While he was working with the FBI and CIA as an informant, he was secretly double-crossing these agencies and helped Osama bin Laden plan the 1998 attacks on the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
â¢
Anwar al-Awlaki
. Before he fled the United States in 2002, al-Qaeda cleric al-Awlaki was mentor to at least three of the 9/11 terrorists, led Islamic prayers inside the U.S. Capitol for the Congressional Muslim Staffers Association, and was hosted at an “interfaith” lunch inside the still-smoldering Pentagon just after the 9/11 attacks.
Anwar al-Awlaki
. Before he fled the United States in 2002, al-Qaeda cleric al-Awlaki was mentor to at least three of the 9/11 terrorists, led Islamic prayers inside the U.S. Capitol for the Congressional Muslim Staffers Association, and was hosted at an “interfaith” lunch inside the still-smoldering Pentagon just after the 9/11 attacks.
â¢
Faisal Gill
. A former deputy of al-Qaeda fundraiser Abdurahman Alamoudi, Gill was appointed policy director for the Department of Homeland Security's Intelligence Division. Members of Congress later demanded an investigation into how Gill, with no previous intelligence experience, could have been hired to such a position with his terror-tied background. Gill resigned before the investigation could be completed.
Faisal Gill
. A former deputy of al-Qaeda fundraiser Abdurahman Alamoudi, Gill was appointed policy director for the Department of Homeland Security's Intelligence Division. Members of Congress later demanded an investigation into how Gill, with no previous intelligence experience, could have been hired to such a position with his terror-tied background. Gill resigned before the investigation could be completed.
The common thread among these incidents is the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood in America. And the U.S. government can't plead ignorance about the Brotherhood's goals. During the Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing trial in 2007 and 2008, federal prosecutors entered into evidence documents recovered in a raid of top Muslim Brotherhood leader Ismail Elbarasse's home in suburban Washington, D.C. One such document was a 1991 Muslim Brotherhood strategic memorandum that laid out the organization's ultimate goal in America:
The Ikhwan [Muslim Brotherhood] must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house by their hands and the hands of
the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all other religions.
the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all other religions.
How does the Brotherhood intend to do this? The memo directs the Brotherhood members to gain “mastery of the art of âcoalitions,' the art of âabsorption' and the principles of âcooperation.'”
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The document makes clear that the Brotherhood's chief tactic is to use our own democratic and pluralistic systems against us. One only needs to look at the laundry list of infiltrations and the government's failure to respond to those incidents to see that the Muslim Brotherhood's “grand jihad” on U.S. soil has been wildly successful.
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The document makes clear that the Brotherhood's chief tactic is to use our own democratic and pluralistic systems against us. One only needs to look at the laundry list of infiltrations and the government's failure to respond to those incidents to see that the Muslim Brotherhood's “grand jihad” on U.S. soil has been wildly successful.
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