Thursday, October 12, 2006

Winds of War: Could Muslim be Getting a Clue?

From The Gathering Storm

Many bloggers and pundits on the Starboard side of the bloggosphere have decried the fact that ‘moderate’ Muslims are predominantly silent on the acts of intimidation and terror that their fundamentalist brethren commit almost daily. We’ve asked the ‘overwhelming majority of moderates’ to get off the fence and be proactive in their support of the war against Islamo-fascism and the Islamist agenda. After all, it’s this type of mindless fundamentalism that they’ve fled from in their home countries.

And it seems, perhaps, just perhaps, the worm is starting to turn. Instead of acting the victim, there are moderate Muslim voices that ask Muslims to be more proactive in their response to Islamo-fascism.

Farhana Ali is a terrorism expert at the RAND Corporation. He wrote an interesting piece the other day at the UPI site entitled America’s Muslim Resource. He offered a list on how American Muslims can help the country with its fight against terror.

Today's Muslim Americans are often thought of as part of the problem of terrorism rather than solution -- a fifth column working against America. Certainly, a few Muslim Americans sympathize with Osama bin Laden's call for liberating Muslim lands and small numbers have provided financial support and joined the jihadist ranks. But the vast majority of Muslim Americans have no sympathy for or involvement with terrorists, any more than the majority of Italian Americans are in the Mafia, or the majority of Japanese Americans were agents of the Japanese Empire in World War II.

Some of his solutions have been what the anti-Islamic bloggers and pundits have been saying for months now.

One effective way would be to get the help of more Americans with the language skills, cultural and religious knowledge, and contacts to identify and stop would-be terrorists before they strike…….Good intelligence can't be based solely on electronic devices and satellites. Intelligence is about understanding one's adversary -- and who better to help do that than Muslim Americans? Many are native speakers of Arabic, Farsi or Urdu -- or learned these languages growing up in America from their immigrant parents…………American police departments learned decades ago that hiring African American officers would help them do a better job patrolling black neighborhoods, reducing racial tensions between police and the community, and making them aware of problems over the horizon. Bringing more Muslim Americans onto police forces could do the same today with their community. They can encourage members of the Muslim community to cooperate with local police and be better informed of suspected criminals or terrorists.

He goes on.

In addition to serving intelligence and law enforcement agencies, Muslim Americans also can be valuable to the military and other parts of the U.S. government in fighting terrorism and protecting America. They can work to help improve U.S. relations with police, military and intelligence agencies from Muslim nations that are crucial allies in the war on terrorism. They can enable U.S. military forces in Muslim nations to better understand foreign cultures, traditions, and peoples. By understanding other cultures, U.S. military forces are in a much better position to influence operations and engender long-term partnerships.

How refreshing. He ends his piece, though on a dissonant note.

Today, the detention of Japanese Americans during World War II is recognized as a terrible mistake. In addition to being a grave injustice that deprived Japanese Americans of their liberty and their other constitutional rights, the action deprived America of the services of a group uniquely qualified to help win the war against Japan. The United States can avoid repeating that mistake by utilizing the services of patriotic Muslim Americans to help win the global war of the 21st century.

Is he saying this because he believes that the Japanese interment was wrong or perhaps, he is giving a non so veiled warning to his fellow Muslims that if the moderate Muslims do not proactively show the non-Muslims in our country that they are patriots, they too may wind up in internment camps if the nation has a knee-jerk reaction to a series of new terror attacks on our soil.

I’ll choose the veiled warning.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

The term "moderate Muslim" is an oxymoron tantamount to saying, "Hess was a moderate Nazi," or that "Trotsky was a moderate Communist."

I know not all Muslims are Jihadists -- I would estimate that they number not more 10% of the Muslims -- However, the Jihadists have the correct idea about Islam, which is the fact that Islam is little more than a terror cult founded by a psychopath for psychopaths.

The term I use for those Muslims who focus on the Mohammad's early Mecca period of lovingkindness towards mankind when he was not powerful enough to force conversions to Islam, as being "cultural Muslim."

Thus a cultural Muslim, like a cultural Christian or Jew, belongs to their professed religion in name only and has no problem in obeying the secular authorities and the civil law code with its separation of church and state.

Yes, good use can be made of the cultural Muslims living among us -- But can they be trusted?

Yes, they can...Trust by all means, but verify. Always remember that a Jihadist is simply a devout Muslim. A devout Muslim who was, perhaps not that long ago, a "moderate Muslim."

Pastorius said...

I think he is giving a veiled warning.

However, I don't think this guy is as friendly to America as it may sound. Note that he says "a few" support Osama Bin Laden. No, that is not accurate. A LOT OF MUSLIMS HAVE VOICED SUPPORT FOR OSAMA BIN LADEN.

There, that's accurate.

I read a comment here the other day (don't remember who it was from) saying that they expect when the West begins to wake up and do something about our problem that the western Muslims will "go into hudna mode."

I think that was a good warning to us. Don't believe them when they TELL us they are our friends. Believe them when they BEHAVE as our friends.

Anonymous said...

"Don't believe them when they TELL us they are our friends. Believe them when they BEHAVE as our friends."

Excellent point, Pastorius.

BTW: When would you like to come on my show?

Pastorius said...

Next week would be good as far as I'm concerned. I'll be busy tomorrow.

Pastorius said...

I like the direction your thinking is going in Ronbo, but two things,

1) wouldn't taqiyya be a problem when it comes to a loyalty oath?

2) American Muslims haven't really been shown to actually be a problem, so I don't think we could justify such actions.

What do you think?

Epaminondas said...

Veiled warning
Anyone who happens to be an american, muslim or not, understands very well that if people start blowing themselves up in malls, or theatres, or at Sabrett Hot Dog stands in Manhattan, or if there is a WMD attack, that support locally MUST be present and that therefore the future holds BARBED WIRE.

As FDR thought to himself in the bathroom... HEY, BILL ME LATER

Pastorius said...

What do you mean, "several of us guys?"

One guy posted it, and everyone else is disagreeing with him.

Ronbo said...

I like the direction your thinking is going in Ronbo, but two things,

1) wouldn't taqiyya be a problem when it comes to a loyalty oath?

2) American Muslims haven't really been shown to actually be a problem, so I don't think we could justify such actions.

What do you think?


1. "Trust, but Verify."

2. At the present time this is true, however, when (not "if") American Muslims are responsible for a large sacle terrorist attack in the USA, the country would likely respond with mass arrests, concentration camps, imprisonment and exile of many American Muslims.

See my article:


http://ronbosoldier.blogspot.com/2006/10/on-moderate-muslims-in-america.html

Pastorius said...

Ok, gotcha. Makes sense.