Posted on 10/18/2005 8:41:15 PM PDT by cgk
Oct 18, 2005
by Chuck Colson
In August, law enforcement officials foiled a Jihadist plot to attack a synagogue and military recruitment center in Los Angeles.
What made the plot especially disturbing wasnt only the nationality of the organizersthey were native-born Americans of non Middle-Eastern descentbut where the plot was hatched: inside Folsom prison. As the Weekly Standard rightly points out, its a perverse take on the idea of Prison Fellowship.
The organizers were two inmates who converted to Islam while in prison. They recruited thirteen other prison converts into their holy war against America. Upon release, the converts would form their own terrorist cells.
While this particular plot was foiled, theres almost certainly more where that came from. According to Edward Caden, a retired California prison official, prisons are a prime, prime target for terrorist recruiting, and the recruiters include al-Qaeda.
What happened at Folsom prison should not surprise anybody who has set foot in a prison lately. If they had done that, they would have noticed that the Islamic presence inside our prisons ishowever you measure itfar greater than it is outside the prisons. I first wrote about this in 1991.
What makes prisons a prime target for al-Qaeda are two other things that, unfortunately, are in plentiful supply: a resentful population and people who will preach hate and violence to them.
After three decades of prison ministry, I can tell you that resentment and bitterness are the rule, not the exception, among prisoners. Radical Islam offers them a chance for vengeance against their perceived oppressors.
The incitement to hate and violence is provided by groups like the Al Haramain Islamic Foundation, a Wahhabist group. Its literature, which urges war against Jews and Christians, was primarily sent to prisoners and Islamic prison chaplains.
The Koran they distributed in American prisons included an appendix by the former Chief Justice of Saudi Arabia entitled The Call to Jihad (Holy Fighting in Allahs Cause) in the Quran. This appendix urged Jihad against all who refuse to convert to Islam.
While Al Haramain was shut down by federal authorities, there is, according to the Weekly Standard, reason to believe that the literature [it] distributed . . . is only the tip of the iceberg of what has reached and may still be reaching U.S. prisons.
Furthermore, Wahhabi influence over the selection of federal prison chaplains is well-documented. Given Saudi Arabias resources and intent to spread its brand of Islam, it would be foolish not to expect similar efforts at the state and local level.
Thats why the Weekly Standard
is right when it calls for a concerted effort to understand what extremist indoctrination has occurred and is occurring in our prisons. The best way to prevent attacks like the one planned in California is not just to keep extremism from spreading inside our prisonsthough thats absolutely necessary. We need to counter falsehood with the truth by bringing the Gospel to our prisons, as Prison Fellowship does, because the best way to keep a man from acting on his resentment is to free him from itsomething that the preachers of hate know nothing about it.
Read the articles
Terrorism Behind Bars (First Things, November 2002) and How a Muslim Chaplain Spread Extremism to an Inmate Flock (Wall Street Journal, 5 February 2003)available to Wall Street Journal subscribers, or call 1-877-322-5527 for a free copy.Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, Wahhabi Prison Fellowship, Weekly Standard, 26 September 2005.
Brian Ross, Terror Plot Hatched in California Prison, ABC News, 16 August 2005.
BreakPoint Commentary No. 040520, Dangerous Faith: The Threat of Radical Islam in Prisons.
BreakPoint Commentary No. 030303, Blues from Allah: Radical Islam in American Prisons.
BreakPoint Commentary No. 040726, Overlooking the Problem: Tolerance and Theological Blindness.
Is the Father of Jesus the God of Muhammad? (CD)interview with Dr. Timothy George on the differences between Christianity and Islam.
*ping*
Wahabbism should be outlawed in America. A religion that preaches death to non believers cannot remain a religion protected by law or by freedom of worship.
To do otherwise is insanity.
"plot to attack a synagogue"
I take this personally. I could be in there.
"Wahabbism should be outlawed in America."
Agreed.
DITTO what YOU said.....in fact, Wahabbism shouldn't even be CONSIDERED a religion....it's more like a cult or criminal group.
Same goes for Islam
"Jihad" is claimed to have a wide range of meaning which makes it slippery to ban calls for it.
If these Islamic-convert prisoners were given an opportunity to become a permanent resident of the Islamic country of their choice, (with a $40,000. cash incentive), as an alternative to their jail sentences, I wonder how many would accept the offer?
btt
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