Responsibility

National Review Online ^ | 8/6/2004 | David Frum

[Utah Girl]

So here we are in the midst of the most urgent and specific terror warning since 9/11 – and as it goes on, the FBI catches two leaders of a mosque in Albany trying to purchase a shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missile. We do not yet know what target the two would-be purchasers had in mind, but we do know that this kind of mosque-based violence and extremism is not exactly a freakishly rare event, to put it mildly.

Yet here is the reaction to the arrest of the nation’s highest-profile Islamic advocacy group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations:

"The government's allegations against the two men are deeply troubling to the American Muslim community. We strongly support any legal efforts to ensure the safety and security of our nation. As the investigation goes forward, we must all remember that every defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law and that the alleged actions of individuals should not be used to tar an entire community with the brush of terrorism.

"All too often, these types of cases are used by those with political or religious agendas to smear Muslims and to demonize Islam. We should stick to the facts of the case and avoid generalizations and stereotypes that only serve to create societal divisions and promote anti-Muslim bigotry.”

One excellent way to remove societal divisions and defeat bigotry would be for groups like CAIR to use their influence to enhance the security of the country rather than weaken it.

CAIR might for example urge American Muslims to cooperate fully with the FBI and other security organizations. It does the opposite.

CAIR could condemn terror-funding organizations like the Holy Land Foundation. Instead, CAIR is promoting rallies in support of the group’s director, Mohammad el-Mazein.

It could support the campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq. It has opposed both.

Or it could lend its strength to improvements in airline security. Yet as Heather MacDonald reported yesterday in a characteristically trenchant piece in the Wall Street Journal, CAIR and other American Islamic groups helped to scupper the CAPPS-2 airline passenger identification system, a system that would have matched four basic pieces of information – name, address, date of birth, and telephone number – against government databanks to check for terrorist connections.

Back in 1997, lobbying by CAIR and other Islamic groups fatally weakened the first CAPPS system – the system that pinpointed 11 of the 19 9/11 hijackers, but then did nothing to keep them off their flights. You might think that record would have caused CAIR and its allies some guilt or at least embarrassment. Yet three years after 9/11, these groups are still actively undermining American security.

Well, we know what CAIR is and what interests it serves.

But unfortunately it is not alone. It is backed by almost every organized Muslim group in this country in its lack of interest in the security problem inside the mosques and in its fierce opposition to new measures to protect the nation from that problem. American citizens, including Muslim citizens, have broad rights. Those rights should and must be honored. But citizens, including Muslim citizens, have responsibilities too. When will we see the emergence of an American Muslim group that accepts those?

[Faraday]

But citizens, including Muslim citizens, have responsibilities too. When will we see the emergence of an American Muslim group that accepts those?

When Mecca freezes over.

[Viet-Boat-Rider]

We need a thinnin' out in America anyway.

[Sender]

The government's allegations against the two men are deeply troubling to the American Muslim community.

Well I should hope so. They should be so troubled by the government's allegations that they march in the streets to end the terror.

[noodler]

Instead they "circle the wagons"or would that be "sycle" the wagons?