Yesterday a federal jury handed down a guilty verdict to five men for conspiring to kill American soldiers at Fort Dix in New Jersey last year. They face a maximum term of life in prison. Our American Islamic Forum for Democracy hailed the verdicts which brought the criminals to justice and will hopefully deter others like them from ever contemplating similar plots in the future. But then when I read the comments of the local CAIR-NJ (Council of American Islamic Relations) Chapter Executive director, I could not believe the tenor of his comments and those of CAIR supporter, James Yee.
But then again, I never cease to be amazed at the depths to which Islamist groups like CAIR and their supporters like James Yee will stoop to find some kind of fault with federal prosecution, whether they are dealing with facts or their own fiction. It matters little to them that they are faced with a conviction by a jury of our peers and they rather look for ways to weaken the evidence and the conviction.
The hypocrisy of Islamist organizations like CAIR has no limits. Ibrahim Hooper, NIhad Awad, and CAIR had the temerity to send out a press release on November 24, 2008, asking President-elect Obama to “restore the rule of law” hinting about Guantanemo Bay. Awad expressed those words before a national CAIR audience in D.C at their annual banquet that weekend. Their press release was actually sent out on the day of the convictions of the leadership of the Holy Land Foundation in Dallas on all counts for funding terrorism. CAIR’s silence about the verdict spoke volumes about the problem last month as it does again this week on the heels of five Muslims convicted with the Fort Dix conspiracy.
On December 22, 2008, Jim Sues, executive director of the New Jersey chapter of CAIR also seems to have a profoundly hypocritical problem with the “rule of law.” He stated that “many people in the Muslim community will see this as a case of entrapment…from what I saw there was a significant role played by the government informant”.
Not only did the jury disagree with that, but Patrick Rowan, assistant US attorney general for national security said it best, “The word should go out to any other would-be terrorists of the homegrown variety that the United States will find you, infiltrate your group, prosecute you and send you to a federal prison for a very long time.” That is exactly what we should be hearing from my fellow coreligionists. We should as a faith community be putting every would-be militant Islamist on notice that our community will have zero tolerance for any behaviors which are militant. Not only will the government infiltrate these groups but the organized Muslim community will help them do it.
Rather than give us such long overdue reassurances, CAIR’s apologists again prove that when it comes to the rule of law there appears to be a different one for Islamists than for those adjudicated by juries in New Jersey or Dallas. James Yee also provided an incredulous comment after the guilty verdict. “All this doesn’t help build trust with the American Muslim community, and that is vital if our law enforcement is going to fight terrorism.” Mr. Yee, please speak for yourself and cease and desist representing yourself as a spokesperson for the American Muslim Community and I am personally offended that you are touted as a representative of American Muslims who are former military officers. As a former US Navy Lieutenant commander, I take great umbrage with an individual who has not only taken the oath of citizenship but that of a US military officer and yet portrays a sentiment that he and thus by inference, ‘the American Muslim community’ has a problem with government informants and their efforts to infiltrate possible jihadist cells. With Mr. Yee’s pronouncements on the heels of this case, it becomes difficult to see when he would ever find it appropriate for the government to do its job and infiltrate radical cells with whom they have probable cause and stop their activities.
Mr. Yee, we have an obligation as citizens and as officers to our oath and to uphold the law regardless of any other allegiance to a faith group or political movement like Islamists. Mr. Yee goes on to say that, “If anyone can improve security, it’s our community, but we need to be seen as trusted partners, not potential suspects.” It is certainly interesting that Mr. Yee seems to identify with the individuals who now stand convicted of conspiracy to kill military personnel. I certainly do not and if anything the fact that they called themselves Muslims makes it more important that they be made an example of by the Muslim community in my own estimation.
It is truly sad that such offensive comments are touted as representing the sentiments of the American Muslim community. In fact, if media were to interview non-Islamist or better yet, anti-Islamist Muslims they would find many of us celebrating the verdict and encouraging continued heroic reporting like that of the store clerk which led ultimately to the infiltration and conviction. From Mr. Yee’s comments, it would appear that he would have not reported the video to authorities as reporting these jihadists and looking upon them as ‘potential suspects’ would alienate Muslims- his Muslims that is. Sorry, but law-abiding Muslims who believe in our oath to protect the US from enemies foreign and domestic will report jihadist activity as soon as we see it and leave it to the authorities and the justice system and the “rule of law” which we swore to uphold to determine their guilt or innocence.
These individuals stand convicted and Mr. Yee, Mr. Sues, and other Islamist apologists from CAIR cannot get themselves to laud the tireless efforts of our Homeland Security and Justice Departments. Their comments speak volumes to the problems endemic among those who believe in the ideology of political Islam. To them, justice is not about American security or the rule of law as defined by evidentiary procedures in the United States. Rather to the Islamist, justice is about preferential treatment for Islamist Muslims over the rule of law which is thankfully applied in this country blind to one’s personal religious practice. Draw a cartoon, criticize an Islamist, or report unusual activity on an airplane and the wrath of Islamist leaders will be brought upon you. However, be convicted of a conspiracy to kill military personnel by a jury and CAIR’s apologists will find a reason to apologize for the verdict and put America on warning that they will not help improve security if these types of criminals are targeted.
