THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XIII, Issue # 15, January 12, 2011
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
RADICAL MUSLIMS IN AMERICA:
All the Benefits & Still Turning to Jihad
By Raymond Ibrahim
THE DOMESTIC & INTERNATIONAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE EVOLVING ISLAMIST THREAT TO AMERICA: THE
INTERNAL THREAT: RADICALIZATION OF AMERICAN MUSLIMS, CREATING A VERY POTENT ISLAMIST FIFTH
COLUMN INSIDE THE BORDERS OF THE U.S.A., ONE THAT POSES A SERIOUS & GROWING THREAT TO U.S. INTERNAL
SECURITY -- A PROBLEM ON THE INTERNATIONAL FRONT: COUNTERING ISLAMIST JIHADISM BY ENDEAVORING TO
SPREAD WESTERN VALUES & WAYS OF GOVERNANCE IN THE ISLAMIC WORLD DOOMED TO FAILURE -- NEEDED:
AMERICA RETHINKING ITS STRATEGY FOR THE WAR ON ISLAMIST TERRORISM, BOTH AT HOME & ABROAD
FULL STORY:
Recent remarks by Attorney General Eric Holder on the threat posed by "radicalized" American Muslims are revealing
not just because of what they say regarding the domestic situation, but for their international implications as well.
According to Holder:
"[T]he threat is real, the threat is different, the threat is
constant. The threat has changed
to worrying about
people in the United States, American citizens raised
here, born here, and who, for whatever reason, have
decided that they are going to become radicalized and
take up arms against the nation in which they were born.
It is one of the things that keeps me up at night. You
didn't worry about this even two years ago about
individuals, about Americans, to the extent that we now
do."
Holder noted that, while he was confident in the United States' counterterrorism efforts, Americans "have to be
prepared for potentially bad news
. The terrorists only have to be successful once."
Holder's assertion that "the terrorists only have to be successful once" has important implications: aside from the
obvious that it only takes one strike to create devastation on U.S. soil it is also a reminder that when people
argue that most American Muslims are moderate, and only a few are radical, it does not help our internal security.
It took nineteen to commit 9/11; and we have already seen that some American Muslims are radical. According to
Holder, in the last two years, 50 of the 126 people charged with terrorism were U.S. citizens.
Conversely, Holder's point that "You didn't worry about this even two years ago about individuals, about
Americans, to the extent that we now do," is odd. Why should Americans not have been worrying two years ago?
Anyone even moderately familiar with Islamist ideology knows that it allows for absolutely no national allegiance.
The notion that some American Muslims could become radicalized should have been a concern since 9/11 nearly
a decade ago, not two years ago. It should have been a concern when it became obvious that American Muslims
like John Walker Lindh, Gregory Patterson, Levar Washington, Kevin James, Christopher Paul, and Jose Padilla
were turning to violent jihad.
More significantly, the fact that Americans are being radicalized not only bodes ill for U.S. internal security; it also
suggests that American efforts in the Muslim world are doomed to failure. Consider: if American Muslims, who
enjoy Western benefits including constitutional democracy, liberty, prosperity, and freedom of expression
are still being radicalized, why then do we insist that importing these same benefits to the Muslim world will
eliminate its even more ingrained form of "radicalization"?
After all, the mainstream position, the only one evoked by politicians, Democrats as well as Republicans, is that all
the sacrifices America makes in the Muslim world (Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.), will pay off, once Muslims discover how
wonderful Western ways are, and happily slough off their Islamist veneer, which, as the theory goes, is a product
of you guessed it a lack of constitutional democracy, liberty, prosperity, and freedom of expression. Yet, here
are American Muslims, immersed in the bounties of the West and still do they turn to violent jihad.
In short, America needs to rethink its strategy for the war on Islamist terrorism both at home and abroad.
Domestically, this means cracking down without compunction on anything that smacks of Islamist activity, without
fear of being "politically incorrect;" it means better monitoring of jihadist websites which play a major role in
radicalizing American Muslims, such as Inspire (which was started by a North Carolina Muslim); and it
means exercising prudence when granting visas to people from dubious backgrounds. Internationally, it means
understanding that the one solution promoted by most Western politicians spreading Western values and ways
of governance as the means of solving the problem of Islamic warfare, of Islamist jihadism is no solution at all.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
The Islamist Fifth Column -- America's Internal Enemies:
Disloyalty, Subversion, Sedition, & Treason
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
American Foreign Policy -- Constitutional Democracy:
U.S. Promotion of Constitutional Democracy in Foreign Countries
American Foreign Policy -- Political & Psychological Warfare
International Politics & World Disorder:
War, Peace, & Geopolitics in the Real World:
Foreign Affairs & U.S. National Security
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
Counterterrorism & U.S. National Security
U.S. National Security Strategy
Raymond Ibrahim, a historian of Islam, Islamism and the Middle East, is the Associate Director of the Middle East Forum,
a guest lecturer at the National Defense Intelligence College, and the editor of The Al-Qa'ida Reader, a collection
of tranlations of key texts and documents of the Islamist movement. Ibrahim's translations of the religious texts and
political propaganda comprising this collection help readers comprehend the origins, development, history, and serious
danger of the Islamist war doctrines of Usama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Founders of Al-Qa'ida and
implacable enemies of the U.S.A. and the West.
The foregoing article by Raymond Ibrahim was originally published in Hudson New York, January 12, 2011, and
can be found on the Internet website maintained by the Middle East Forum, a foreign policy think tank which seeks to
define and promote American interests in the Middle East, defining U.S. interests to include fighting radical Islam,
working for Palestinian Arab acceptance of the State of Israel, improving the management of U.S. efforts to promote
constitutional democracy in the Middle East, reducing America's energy dependence on the Middle East, more robustly
asserting U.S. interests vis-ΰ-vis Saudi Arabia, and countering the Iranian threat.
(URL: http://www.meforum.org/2818/radical-muslims-in-america)
Republished with Permission of the Middle East Forum
Reprinted from the Middle East Forum News
mefnews@meforum.org (MEF NEWS)
January 12, 2011
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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