Captains Quarters points out the danger presented from radical Islamists who appear to be using the same means of networked communication as do bloggers, businesses and any number of individuals forming communities on the world wide web. To some extent, it shouldn't be a surprise - but chilling, it is.
This should send chills through Western populations and open eyes as to the nature of the terrorist enemy. Seventeen native-born Canadians, whose families apparently had no connection to radical Islam, managed to plug themselves into a network that spanned six nations and literally went around the world, despite their amateur status. How did this happen? How can a group this large and inexperienced make such inroads into a jihadi network?
Here's something else that gave me pause while surfing the web tonight - the new jihad. Welcome to the Islamic Center of America.
The small jihad is over and now remains the greater jihad; we have finished off with the smaller challenge so thankfully we can move onto our larger challenge which is to establish the roots of moderate and open minded Islam in a pluralistic society such as the United States.
I appreciate the moderate rhetoric, though question the need to use the word jihad. I realize he has met with President Bush ... and apparently also advocated removing Saddam Hussein. But some would suggest Imam Hassan Qazwini isn't the moderate he would profess.
This supposedly "moderate" Imam from the Detroit, Michigan-based Islamic Center of America (ICA) has some disturbing connections to radical Islamists that cannot be overlooked by a conservative President who has been entrusted by the American people to fight a war on global terrorism.
For starters, Imam Qazwini's Islamic Center once invited Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan to be the keynote speaker at a memorial for its deceased founder Imam Mohamad Jawad Chirri. At the time, Arab American News described his address as "dynamic" and "always controversial," and reported that he urged the Muslim community "to become politically active...[and] as powerful as the Zionists."
The Iman may well be a moderate in his beliefs, though he has also been linked to a group in Florida which has invited other anti-Semitic speakers in for conferences.
MIM: Imam Sayed Al Qazwini thought he could spread his message of Islam as a 'peaceful religion' by inviting the community to a birthday bash for the prophet Mohammed at the Boca Raton Marriott. In a classic example of interfaith as bad faith, Al Qazwini's mosque, The Assadiq Islamic Educational Foundation, listed the mayors of Boca Raton and Coral Springs as 'guests of honor' at the event. Besides exposing their their radical Islamist agenda, and mendacity of their claims to be interested in peace and understanding, Assadiq appeared unaware that Jewish groups had pressured cancellation of a speaking gig by William Baker at an MSO sponsored event on the FAU campus a year before .To add insult to injury, the listed guest of honor Mayor Abrams, who is Jewish, denied every having been invited,let alone knowing of the existence of the mosque. The Mayor of Coral Springs, whose wife is Jewish, had agreed to pay a courtesy call at the Imam's request in the interests of promoting understanding unaware of who the speakers were.
Ultimately, putting aside what one Iman believes, the reality is that a networked community within the United States, including brick and mortar centers or mosques and an Internet component is well established and growing. That it can easily be co-opted by those with less than a moderate view of Islam has been all but proved by the recent arrests in Canada. Many of those individuals were linked to a particular center, which is how I came across the American Islamic Center and its particular theory of a new jihad.
The eldest of the 17 Canadian residents arrested in the sweep, Qayyum Abdul Jamal, 43, was described by his lawyer as an active member of the mosque, the Al-Rahman Islamic Center for Islamic Education, though not its leader.
"He's on the board, he's there regularly, but he's not an imam," said Anser Farooq, the lawyer representing Mr. Jamal and three other people from this Toronto suburb who were arrested Friday night and who also attended the same mosque. "He's one of about a half dozen people who lead prayers at the mosque."
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