The Radicalization Of American Muslims

      Al-Qaida now is recruiting home-grown killers within the United States, declares House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King. That’s why he has set hearings on the radicalization of American Muslims.

      It is “extremely difficult for them to attack us from outside,” as al-Qaida did on 9/11, because of increased security. So al-Qaida switched to recruiting from within U.S. borders.

      “They’re taking people who are under the radar screen who are not on any terrorist surveillance list at all and they are recruiting them to fight against America,” King said.

      In a lengthy, emotional, and at times contentious hearing on Thursday, members of Congress and a panel of experts testified before the House Homeland Security Committee on the theme of radicalization in the Muslim American community - and whether or not that topic merited such a discussion in the first place.

      The hearings aimed to investigate what was described as "the extent of radicalization" among Muslims in America. Evidence came in the form of the testimony of family members of young men who became radicalized Islamists, as well as the founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser.

      The topic of Islamic radicalization in the United States should be emphasized that the issue is not Islam itself but how the religious ideology is used by violent extremists to inspire and justify their actions. The FBI does not investigate members of any religion for their religious beliefs, but rather focuses on investigating activities that may harm the United States.

      Successes in the war on terrorism and the arrests of many key al Qaeda leaders have diminished the ability of the group to attack the U.S. homeland. At the same time, a broader Sunni extremist movement has evolved from being run entirely by al Qaeda central to a broader movement. This is demonstrated by the 2004 Madrid bombings, the July 2005 bombings and attempted bombings in London, and recent disruptions in the U.S., United Kingdom, Canada, Bosnia, Denmark, and elsewhere.

      President Barack Obama has been slow to acknowledge the urgency of the terror threat and take a hard line, King said, noting: “Let me just say President Obama has gotten better over the last two years, but it’s sort of a schizophrenic administration.”

      The radicalization hearings are intended to highlight the threat, although some Islamic leaders have expressed concern that the hearings will be a witch hunt or devolve into a spectacle reminiscent of those run by anti-communist crusader Sen. Joe McCarthy in the 1950s. But the hearing - which King says will be the first in a series - was the subject of a slew of criticism from those who believe that Muslim Americans were being unjustly targeted as a community.

      U.S. prisons are becoming major breeding grounds for Islamic terrorists, but state and local authorities are too cash-strapped to prevent or track recruiting, a new report concludes.

      The report, was released Tuesday, found there aren’t enough legitimately trained Muslim religious leaders to counsel an estimated 9,000 U.S. prison inmates who want Islamic services. That allows Islamist extremists to target their vulnerable prison-mates with distorted versions of the Quran and other Muslim readings that urge radicalization and violence.

      “Radicalized prisoners are a potential pool of recruits by terrorist groups,” concludes the joint study by George Washington University and the University of Virginia. “The U.S., with its large prison population, is at risk of facing the sort of homegrown terrorism currently plaguing other countries.”

      Additionally, state and local prison officials struggle to track radical behavior changes of inmates or religious counselors. And staff and funding shortages limit preventative programs, the report found, noting that California officials “report that every investigation into radical groups in their prisons uncovers new leads, but they simply do not have enough investigators to follow every case of radicalization.”

      An estimated 2 million people are imprisoned in the United States; 6 percent of them are Muslim, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

      Prisons have long been considered recruiting stations for gangs and, more recently, terrorists, but little has been done throughout government to combat them. The report, which will be released at a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing, comes as law enforcement and intelligence officials focus on finding out how and why extremist sympathizers cross a line to become operational terrorists.

      The report cited several high-profile cases of terrorists who became radicalized while incarcerated, including British shoe bomber Richard Reid. It also noted what authorities call a foiled plot of a potential shooting rampage against California military facilities, synagogues and the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles by followers of Kevin James, who founded the radical group Jamiyyat Ul-Islam Is-Saheeh, or JIS, as an inmate at California State Prison in Sacramento.

      A new study confirms that al-Qaida uses the Internet for such recruiting. Online tools that al-Qaida operatives are using include the social network Facebook and video-sharing YouTube, according to the Pentagon-funded study from the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Such sites allow terror groups to recruit under radar and around the world by reaching potential new members in their homes, says the study, which the center released last week.

      “We have to find out who is being radicalized, how are they attempting to do it, how are they recruiting within the Muslim community and whether or not Muslim leaders are cooperating with law enforcement, what Muslim leaders are doing to find out who in their midst is being recruited and who is a potential danger to the United States.”

      A new study confirms that al-Qaida uses the Internet for such recruiting. Online tools that al-Qaida operatives are using include the social network Facebook and video-sharing YouTube, according to the Pentagon-funded study from the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Such sites allow terror groups to recruit under radar and around the world by reaching potential new members in their homes, says the study, which the center released last week.

      Not all  Muslims in the U.S.are of Middle Eastern descent, one-third of the Muslim community are black Americans who have converted to Islam or descendants thereof; another third are of Middle Eastern/Arab/Iranian descent; and another third come from South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh). According to the Arab American Institute, 63 percent of Arab-Americans are Christian and only 24 percent are Muslim.

      Muslims are the fastest-growing minority group in the U.S, but in any case, there are far fewer Muslims in the U.S. compared to Western Europe for example, there are at least 5 million Muslims in France alone.

      However, what is perhaps more relevant politically in a society in which different groups inevitably compete for attention and influence is the number of Muslims versus the number of Jews in the U.S. There are currently more Jews than Muslims in the U.S., but in the future that can change since Muslims have a higher birth rate and continue to migrate here; while Jews are concerned that they are losing people through intermarriage and assimilation.

       Detroit Michigan has the highest concentration of Arabs and Muslims the original influx of Arabs were very hard working-class and/or rural villagers, like most other immigrant groups. They came to Detroit because Henry Ford recruited them to work at his auto company. Other cities, including Toledo, Ohio and Schenectady, NY also have long history of Arab settlements. 

      I think that as you can see, a lot of people are still in denial that we even have a problem in America with radicalization, wake up America, we are losing American babies. Our children are in danger. This country must stand up and do something about this problem before we are all wearing burkas and kneeling on prayer rugs; It this country that is at risk.