Hey, Let's All Indulge In A Guilt-Fest Over Our Treatment of Muslims...Not!

Hardball Tactics in an Era of Threats
To the government, they were a terrorist risk in the Washington area. To local Muslims, they were unfairly singled out for prosecution and severe sentences in a post-9/11 world.

By Mary Beth Sheridan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, September 3, 2006; Page A01

The crowd was so big it spilled out of the Alexandria courtroom: teachers, parents, the leader of a College Park mosque. Ali Asad Chandia, 29, a bearded man in a crisp, white shirt, sat quietly amid the throng -- a beloved third-grade teacher convicted of supporting terrorism.

"The defendant portrays himself as a mild-mannered, kind individual," federal prosecutor David Laufman told the judge at the sentencing nine days ago. But in Chandia's home and car, he said, FBI agents had found recordings glorifying terrorism, one even asking God to "grant safety to Osama bin Laden."

"That," concluded Laufman, "is who the defendant really is."

After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, law enforcement officials pledged an aggressive effort to choke off future plots. People identified as security threats would be charged as soon as a crime could be proven, even if it was well short of a terrorist strike. The Washington area, where seven of the 19 al-Qaeda hijackers spent time before the attacks, became a focus of their investigations.

"Awaiting an attack is not an option," Paul J. McNulty, the deputy U.S. attorney general, said in a recent speech. He described the approach as "preventative prosecutions."

Yes, these are just poor misunderstood Muslim youths. We should simply admonish them and forget about their desire to destroy our culture and our people.

I got news for all of you Muslims out there; if you don't want to be regarded as a suspect by your fellow citizens, then you need to get out in front on the condemnation of those Islamic Global Jihadists. I have yet to see a concerted campaign of anti-terrorism, anti-martyrdom, anti-radical Islamism from the Muslims who are so ready to complain about how they are being treated. Mealy-mouthed half-measured statements just don't cut it.

When Zogby gets out there and complains about how Muslims are being treated in America and then makes a statement similar to, "Of course we condemn these terrorist acts and oh, by the way, why Americans shouldn't treat Muslims so badly," it just isn't convincing. I am still waiting to see a Muslim Cleric in America stand up and shout at the top of his lungs that these maniacs are violating God's Laws. Why don't the stand up and condemn those among them who have been caught working against American interests rather than protesting everytime one of them is convicted.

Until I see a change of attitude, until I see a bunch of Muslim Clerics out there protesting the behavior of Osama bin Laden and Hassan Nasrallah, and declaring them guilty of apostasy, I will not have any degree of sympathy for their complaints. Their cries of outrage are empty words undeserving of our concern.

Full Story: Muslims, Look to Your Own for Blame

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