The New York Times reported Monday, with no hint that it understood the implications of what it was reporting, that Barack Obama is reaching out to Hamas-linked groups in the United States, while hamstringing our response to the terror threat by making obfuscation of the ideology of jihad terrorists official U.S. policy.
Times reporter Andrea Elliott says that “Muslim and Arab-American advocates” have met with top White House officials, including Obama Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Atty. Gen. Eric Holder. They’ve discussed, among other things, “counterterrorism strategy.”
Their influence has been felt. White Houses sources say they had a hand in Obama’s scrapping a policy that subjected airline passengers from 13 Muslim countries to greater security scrutiny. According to Elliott, “That emergency directive, enacted after a failed December 25 bombing plot, has been replaced with a new set of intelligence-based protocols that law enforcement officials consider more effective.”
Which ones? On what grounds? More effective for what? How can it be ineffective to subject people who come from areas where there actually are terrorists to greater scrutiny?
The Times also mentions that Hillary Clinton this month allowed controversial Muslim spokesman Tariq Ramadan, who had been barred from the U.S. by the Bush Administration, to enter the country. It did not deem fit to print, however, Ramadan’s contribution to a charity that was funneling money to Hamas—which was one of the reasons he was barred in the first place.
In any case, despite all Obama’s efforts, the objects of his affections are not yet satisfied with his performance. “Arab-American and Muslim leaders,” Elliott reports, “said they had yet to see substantive changes on a variety of issues, including what they describe as excessive airport screening, policies that have chilled Muslim charitable giving and invasive FBI surveillance guidelines.”
Yes, airport screening is excessive. So let’s relax it, at least for Muslims. What could go wrong?
And as for Muslim charitable giving, the Times quotes John Brennan, Obama’s chief counterterrorism adviser, telling a Muslim audience that there has been “an unhelpful atmosphere around many Muslim charities.” He didn’t mean that the fact that Islamic charities such as the Holy Land Foundation (once the largest Islamic charity in the U.S.) were passing charitable contributions on to jihad terrorist groups had created an “unhelpful” atmosphere of legitimate suspicion of the charities’ intentions. He meant that it was “unhelpful” of the U.S. government to want to stop that money flow. And so it will, presumably, soon flow again.
Elliott also noted that Brennan “and other officials have made a point of disassociating Islam from terrorism in public comments, using the phrase ‘violent extremism’ in place of words like ‘jihad’ and ‘Islamic terrorism.’” This is an initiative that began with Bush, and now Obama is taking credit for it, when actually it shames them both. The Islamic jihadists refer to Islamic texts and teachings to justify violence and supremacism, and make recruits among peaceful Muslims. Whom does it benefit when government and law enforcement officials ignore that? Only the jihadists, whose motives and goals remain unknown, unexplored, and unchallenged.
Meanwhile, Obama has been reaching out to unsavory Islamic groups with ties to jihad terrorism. He sent Jarrett to give the keynote address at the Islamic Society of North America’s convention, ignorant of or indifferent to the fact that this group was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation’s Hamas-funding case.
No Anti-Jihad Teaching
Islamic groups in America are doing exactly nothing to teach their people against the jihad doctrine of warfare against unbelievers and their subjugation under the rule of Islamic law. Surveys have shown that such material is taught in a large majority of mosques in America. Yet instead of calling Islamic groups in America to account, Obama is relaxing airport security and busying himself finding new ways to placate Muslims in the U.S., who are so skilled at playing the aggrieved victim card.
How long will it be before Barack Obama’s appeasement policies come back to bite him, and us?
| Mr. Spencer is director of Jihad Watch and author of “The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades)”, “The Truth About Muhammad,” “Stealth Jihad,” and most recently “The Complete Infidel’s Guide to the Koran” (all from Regnery -- a HUMAN EVENTS sister company). |
