How the Muslims thrive in the USA but Strive to Destroy the Hand that feeds them

Dressed in a navy suit and red tie, his hair parted neatly on the side, Special Agent Charles E. Frahm sat with practiced calm as Muslims rose, one after another, to hurl raw complaints at him. Mr. Frahm, who heads the counterterrorism division of the F.B.I. in New York, was at a banquet hall in the Midwood section of Brooklyn on Thursday night to listen, he had told the hundreds of residents gathered there.

Although Muslims live in the USA and enjoy our Social Security benefits, make careers here and live the American Dream, their loyalty does not lie here, but is centered around Mecca and the sermons for revenge attacks on the West that ring from its pulpits.

The arrests, detentions and mass deportations of Muslim men as part of a now-suspended government program gave rise to what many Muslims describe as a culture of fear. But still it is far below the operations that wer elaunced after Pearl harbor to move the far less dangerous Japanese-American into detention facilities.

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"America is our land!" Faruq Wadud, a Bangledeshi man, hollered hoarsely into the microphone as the room broke into a thunderous applause. "We are not foreigners! Our children, this is their motherland!"

Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, the relationship between Muslims and law enforcement agents has been predictably fragile. The two groups have engaged in a delicate dance, balancing self-interest with political calculation.

Due to the actions of Muslim worldwide, the relationship has frayed - and the voice of dissent among Muslims grown more audible - as a result of a series of criminal cases that have raised questions about the methods used by authorities in their fight against terrorism.

The government's focus on undercover sting operations to counter terror operation and stop the recruitment of a network of Muslim informers has provoked the sharpest criticism. The most recent sting, which to checkmate terrorists, produced arrests last week in New York and Florida, has further stirred debate, although many details of the investigation, which led to charges that two American Muslim men (one of them a reputed Doctor) conspired to aid Al Qaeda, remain unknown.

To more distant observers, these cases offer varying degrees of intrigue. But among Arab-Americans, they have become something of local lore, their details endlessly picked over and debated.

"It's nerve-racking that every time you hear there was a sting operation you start praying it won't be an Arab," said Antoine Faisal, the publisher of Aramica, an English and Arabic newspaper in Bay Ridge. Like they hoped and prayed that on 9/11 the hijackers should not be Arab and as many of them still believe that it was all a Jewish plot!

The arrests, detentions and mass deportations of Muslim men as part of a now-suspended government program gave rise to what many Muslims describe as a culture of fear. But still it is far below the operations that wer elaunced after Pearl harbor to move the far less dangerous Japanese-American into detention facilities.

In the first of its kind for an event organized by a major national Muslim organization, Kamal Nawash and the Free Muslims Coalition (FMC) recently held the Free Muslims March Against Terrorism. Not surprisingly, the leaders of every other major Muslim organization shunned the march and declined to take a public stand against terrorism and extremism.

Noticeably missing from the list of over 80 sponsors Nawash rounded up was any of the Muslim groups that claim to be moderates, such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC). Though these groups pay lip service to opposing terrorism, they couldn't put their money where their mouth is and bring themselves to stand side-by-side with the Free Muslim Coalition.

The reasons for the absence of the major national Muslim groups are obvious. The empirical evidence has clearly demonstrated where the true loyalties of organizations such as CAIR and MPAC lie. In this particular case, it is anathema for many Muslim groups to identify themselves with these unambiguous message of the rally. Nawash is among the few Muslim leaders—and certainly one of the very few leaders of the overtly political Muslim groups—to explicitly confront the real threat, the real root cause of terrorism: radical Islam.

Where most prominent Muslim leaders prefer ambiguity and moral equivalence, Nawash stakes out an unmistakable position not only opposing just violent jihad, but the doctrines of Wahhabism and political Islam as well. Nawash is, without exception, against the creation of Islamic states—anywhere. The other major Islamic organizations simply can't take this position. Their refusal to back even Nawash's message exposes their true sympathies.

If other Muslim groups could even go as far as condemning specific acts of Islamic terror, that would be a step in Nawash's direction. But organizations such as CAIR, for instance, have pointedly refused to condemn Islamic terrorist organizations, such as Hamas and Hezbollah, or even specific Islamic terrorist attacks. The best example of the latter occurred after the murder, burning, stoning, and mutilation of four American contractors in Fallujah. CAIR only condemned the mutilation as contrary to Islam, but did not condemn specifically the murder, burning, or stoning of the men—a position that was also taken by a leading Fallujah cleric.

MPAC's apologist agenda has also become transparent. In a June 1999 publication, MPAC argued that Hezbollah's 1983 attack killing 241 Americans in Lebanon was not a terrorist attack. From its "Position Paper on U.S. Counterterrorism Policy": "Yet this attack, for all the pain it caused, was not in a strict sense, a terrorist operation. It was a military operation, producing no civilian casualties—exactly the kind of attack that Americans might have lauded had it been directed against Washington's enemies."

Another of the major Islamic organizations, Muslim American Society (MAS), actively promotes the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood, which has served as the theological inspiration for many leading terrorists. At a conference last month, a consultant to the group passed out a MAS paper called, "An American perspective on why the U.S. must engage the Muslim Brotherhood."

It is clear why Nawash poses such a great threat to groups like CAIR, MPAC, and MAS: he is a genuine moderate Muslim leader who emphatically condemns not just Islamic terror, but also any efforts to create Islamic states. His unflinching stances make it much more difficult for these groups to engage in verbal acrobatics by issuing vague condemnations of "terrorism," while simultaneously refusing to admit the "Islamic" influence cited by its perpetrators.

For participation in the rally, Nawash set a very low threshold: opposing terrorism. (Almost every speaker, though, was careful to condemn Islamic terrorism, and not just terrorism in the abstract.) By his own account, and by that of others, Nawash actively tried to enlist the support of other Muslim groups—but to no avail. Nawash most likely realized that no matter how low he set the bar, none of his counter-parts would endorse an event sponsored by a Muslim who unequivocally denounces Islamic terrorism and just as enthusiastically supports free societies for Muslims everywhere.

CAIR, MPAC, MAS and other Islamic leaders shown up by the real moderate Muslims who locked arms with Nawash were both testy and defensive. CAIR forwarded all calls to Hussein Ibish, the former Communications Director at the Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), an avowedly secular Muslim who nevertheless does the dirty work of Islamists and radical Muslims. MPAC did not return calls seeking comment, and did not appear to have given comment to any other media outlet regarding the rally.

Of the two Muslim leaders who shunned the rally who were willing to give comment—Ibish and MAS Executive Director Mahdi Bray—both resorted to attacking the messenger.

In two rambling smear jobs at MuslimWakeUp.com, Ibish labeled Nawash's FMC as "the ugly" among leading groups, and called Nawash's invitation for other Muslim leaders to denounce radicalism a "crude ploy." Ibish went so far as to say that Nawash's contention that other Muslim leaders don't denounce radical Islam is an "odious lie." While Ibish find Nawash's message "odious," it's flat-out wrong to say it is a "lie"—especially when applied to Ibish himself.

Appearing on CNN in August 2002, Mr. Ibish was asked about a 1991 fund-raising letter from suspected (and now indicted) terrorist Sami al-Arian that read, in part, "Jihad is our path! Victory to Islam! Death to Israel and victory to Islam! Revolution, revolution until victory! Rolling, rolling to Jerusalem!"

Rather than criticize those plainly radical—and violent—words, Ibish played defense. "`Death to Israel' does not necessarily mean violence. Jihad can mean a lot of things," he explained. Without explanation, Mr. Ibish abruptly—and bizarrely—switched the topic. "I'll tell you who is advocating violence. It is Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz, who advocated torturing people."

Ibish, of course, was not alone among Muslim leaders defending al- Arian—despite a substantial body of evidence that had already been in the public record since the mid-90's. MPAC, which had nothing to say regarding Nawash and the rally, said after al-Arian's arrest, "Dr. Al- Arian is being punished for the non-crime of sparking dissent."

After al-Arian was suspended in 2002 from his job as a University of South Florida professor—but before his February 2003 arrest—CAIR expressed outrage because he was "a respected leader in the community and a committed civil rights advocate." Even after the 50-count indictment laid out a comprehensive case that included as evidence documents and wiretaps, CAIR wasted no time reflexively defending the alleged Islamic terrorist, calling the arrest "a fishing expedition by federal authorities using McCarthy-like tactics in a search for evidence of wrongdoing that does not exist."

Perhaps the biggest defenders of al-Arian, though, were the folks at MAS. Immediately following the arrest, MAS' Shaker Elsayed bellowed, "This is becoming a war on Muslim institutions." Perhaps to stress that Elsayed's comment was no isolated outburst, MAS sent out a press release that proclaimed: "The arrest of Professor Sami Al- Arian today conforms to a pattern of political intimidation by an attorney general who seems to be targeting the American Muslim community's leaders and institutions in a drive to erode Americans' civil liberties."

Muslim Doublespeak

When asked about Nawash and his rally, MAS leader Bray said, "It is absolutely the right message, but Kamal is just the wrong messenger." But if it's "absolutely the right message," why isn't MAS congratulating the government for prosecuting the likes of al- Arian instead of castigating them?

The game of claiming to have condemned Islamic terrorism or even radical Islam without actually doing so is one that has been mastered by many Muslim leaders. Ibish mocks the idea that Nawash is the first leader of a Muslim political organization to condemn Islamic terrorism and radical Islam, but when he was given the chance to do just that on CNN regarding al-Arian's call to jihad, Ibish actually defended the accused terrorist. To date, Ibish has devoted more ink to attacking Nawash than all radical Muslims—combined.

Story Credits: NY Times and townhall

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