Author: Daniel Pipes
Publication: New York Post
Date: September 29, 2003
URL: http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/6697.htm
URL: http://www.danielpipes.org/article/1259
The news last week that two Muslim
military personnel, James Yee and Ahmad al-Halabi, had been arrested on
suspicion of aiding Al-Qaeda prisoners at Guantánamo Bay (with another
three Muslim servicemen under watch) seemed to prompt much surprise. It
should not have.
It has been obvious for months that
Islamists who despise America have penetrated U.S. prisons, law enforcement,
and armed forces. In February, a milestone Wall Street Journal article
established that imams who consider Osama bin Laden "a hero of Allah" dominate
the Islamic chaplaincy in the New York state prison system.
In March, I documented the case
of FBI Special Agent Gamal Abdel-Hafiz: His superiors not only overlooked
this immigrant's pattern of pro-Islamist behavior, they promoted him.
And at least six prior cases of
Islamist servicemen have come to light:
Ali Mohamed: An Egyptian immigrant
who after discharge from the U.S. Army went to work for Osama bin Laden,
Mohamed pleaded guilty to helping plan the 1998 bombing surveillance of
the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi. He's now in prison serving his sentence.
Semi Osman: An ethnic Lebanese immigrant
and non-U.S. citizen who served in the Army and in the Naval Reserve, Osman
was arrested in 2002 and accused of "material support for terrorists."
He pleaded guilty to a weapons violation and served his sentence.
Abdul Raheem Al Arshad Ali: An African-American
convert to Islam and former Marine, he awaits trial in prison for supplying
a semiautomatic handgun to Semi Osman.
Jeffrey Leon Battle: An African-American
convert and Army reservist, Battle awaits trial in prison on charges of
"enlisting in the Reserves to receive military training to use against
America."
John Allen Muhammad: An African-American
convert and Army veteran, Muhammad is suspected of having thrown a grenade
at a fellow soldier in 1991. He awaits trial in prison as one of two charged
in last year's Beltway sniper killings.
Hasan Akbar: Another African-American
convert, Akbar awaits trial in prison for two counts of premeditated murder
and three charges of attempted murder in a March fragging incident against
his fellow soldiers.
The Akbar incident prompted Deanne
Stillman of Slate magazine to conclude that Islamists "may be infiltrating
the military in order to undermine it."
That infiltration also has a mundane
quality; take the example of Nabil Elibiary: An Islamist who protests the
"defaming" of bin Laden and defends polygamy, he also led the holiday prayer
service at an Air Force base early this year.
Executive-branch insistence on "terrorism"
being the enemy, rather than militant Islam, permits this Islamist penetration.
And it continues. The Defense Department
responded last week to the chaplain's arrest by defending its hiring practices.
Only under external pressure, notably from Sens. Chuck Schumer and Jon
Kyl, did it agree to reassess them. Even then, the Pentagon insisted on
reviewing the appointments of all 2,800 military chaplains - rather than
the 12 Muslims among them.
Political correctness run amok!
Which Christian or Jewish chaplains would be accused (as the Washington
Times has reported of their Muslim colleague Yee) of "sedition aiding the
enemy, spying, espionage and failure to obey a general order"? By pretending
not to see that the enemy emerges from one source, the authorities dilute
their focus, render their review nearly meaningless and endanger security.
The U.S. government needs to use
common sense and focus on militant Islam. It should consider such steps
as:
* Breaking off contact with organizations
(like the Islamic Society of North America and the American Muslim Armed
Forces and Veterans Council) that place Islamists in government jobs.
* Suspending presently employed
Muslim personnel who got their jobs through those institutions until their
loyalty can be confirmed.
* Working instead with anti-Islamist
Muslim groups, such as the Islamic Supreme Council of America for Sunni
Muslims and the American Muslim Congress for Shi'ites.
* Confirming that government-employed
Muslims do, as many of them swore under oath, "support and defend the Constitution
of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic." A mechanism
is needed to identify employees with an Islamist outlook and expel them
from government service.
Ironically, the Defense Department
finds it easier to kill Islamists in Afghanistan than to exclude them from
its own ranks. But only if the latter is carried out can Americans be confident
their government is fully protecting them.