US SECURITY AND ISLAM

We continue to read that Defense officials involved in waging the global war against Islamist extremism are increasingly frustrated by the apparent failure of senior military and civilian officials in distinguishing between the good guys and the bad guys. In fact, as far as most of us who aren't fixated on celebrity sightings and other useless pursuits of happiness are concerned these so-called community outreach efforts have helped legitimize some U.S. Islamic groups with covert or overt ties to extremists, a problem that also is occurring at the FBI and Justice Department.

The Pentagon's problem was highlighted by a recent Marine Corps ceremony marking Ramadan. The little-noticed "iftar," or fast-breaking, was held Sept. 26 at the Washington Navy Yard in Southeast and was hosted by Marine Corps Deputy Commandant Gen. Robert Magnus. Among the guests was Agha Saeed, national chairman of the American Muslim Alliance (AMA), a political group that has been linked to Muslim organizations that continue to voice support for Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists. In rare candor, several Pentagon and military officials have stated to the media that official Pentagon backing for the Marine Corps event and a similar Pentagon iftar celebration on October 1 were demoralizing.

"During the Cold War, we at least had the brains to recognize Soviet front groups and didn't invite them to the Pentagon for vodka and caviar," one defense official said. "Now, the Islamic militant front groups are [the Department of Defense's] guests of honor."

According to the Web site—DiscoverTheNetworks.com—AMA is a political group that works to get Muslims elected or appointed to senior influential positions in the U.S. government.

"AMA is an active member of the American Muslim Political Coordinating Council," DiscoverTheNetworks stated. "It also is affiliated with Muslim groups—such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Muslim Public Affairs Council—whose members have publicly supported Hamas and Hezbollah, or have been linked to the funding of terrorist activities."

Stephen Coughlin, a counterterrorism analyst on the Joint Staff, has warned in a recent memorandum that U.S. government efforts to work with front groups for the extremist Muslim Brotherhood had increased the danger that instead of countering Islamist extremists, the government is helping to legitimize groups that are potential terrorist and insurgent support groups. Officials said Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England has been among the least careful in associating with various suspect Muslim groups and their leaders. But that's not all.

This report is an outrage. The same groups who do everything they can to thwart investigations, impede police surveillance activity, and hamstring the judicial process when dealing with jihadists then cite statistics about prosecutorial success as evidence that there is no threat. That the report apparently does not acknowledge these impediments, and does not cite any rationale for ignoring them, means that the authors are agenda-driven. And their agenda is denial.

Morgaan Sinclair in a slightly different take, writes:

I have had Muslim friends for about 35 years, and have worked with Muslims from some 18 countries. So I have a very personalized picture [of the general Muslim public in the West] over almost four decades now.

My theory is that about 85% of Muslims are actually practicing a spiritual (not orthopraxic) Islam that is NOT part of any of the eight formal schools of fiqh. This is rather best exemplified by the Soheib Bencheikh, the former Mufti of Marseilles. It would nice if you would sometime read up on this fellow, and there are quite a number of others as well.

They are headed as fast as they can toward the Ninth Mahdhab. And this is likely the only way that we can pull this off. Only if there is a formalized Ninth Mahdhab—certainly a possibility since the 8th was created only in 2003 (a mystery that!). There is the real possibility, given the creation of a mahdhab so recently, that another may be created, the joining of which, will start to draw immense amounts of energy OUT OF the radical system.

The only way to fight a bully is to get off the gameboard. That means that WE ought to be getting off oil as fast as possible, refusing admission to people from countries supporting terrorism, shutting the borders, refusing trade, et cetera. Especially stop training them in our universities.

Adopt Israeli rules of border crossing: You cross into Syria and you never get to come back. You go to Pakistan, you don't come home.

BUT THEN, the Ninth Mahdhad becomes the energy drain off of radical Islam. Just back away. The problem right now is that the Mufti of Marseilles, et al., have no formal mahadhab but are trying to create one. That is something we should support. Otherwise we're left with people like you bitching about it with no solutiosn whatsoever EXCEPT a world conflagration in which we do hand-to-hand combat with 1.6 billion angry Muslims.

And so it goes. Forty years ago things were different. Times have changed, and allianaces and impetus change. But this much is self-evident. The enemy continues to thwart our collective and personal visions of world peace without bloodshed. But we, in our sinister resolve, haven't completely lost our dignity (which ain't never been photographed by the way) as we crawl about on our hands and our knees searching for solutions to God's own mystery dance in the fair calling meant only for those two or three gathered...

Duh Swami elsewhere says, "This reminds me a little of fishing. Where the guys in the boats are trying to cast close to the shore, while the fishermen on the shore, are trying to cast out where the boats are. Terrorists train here for fighting over there. While terrorists over there are training for fighting over here. It only makes sense if you are a fisherman or a terrorist..."

Time of the Assassins. The marching, the wincing, the evidence, the plea. Guilty, filthy, frothing as sin, there's you, oh yes, and me...

GT