Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
Responding to Islamist Terrorism: Are We Too Late?
Dearborn, MI Ordinance Officer Amal Chammout.
As I assess the US attitude toward Islamism and terror, I’m concerned that we are deluding ourselves about the dangers of terror in this country, and how soon we may find ourselves in deep trouble. John Kluge wrote an excellent post on how the US assesses Islamism. I believe this post takes his ideas even further, providing evidence that the danger is even more immediate than we realize. My biggest issue, however, is that I’ve had to rely on the mainstream media, whose overall credibility has been challenged to some degree, to counter-balance the information I’ve discovered. For that reason, in two out of three of my major points of evidence, I leave it to you, the reader, to decide where the truth lies.
First, in assessing our terrorism risk, many people claim that once we defeat ISIS, we will be much safer. I’d like to suggest that defeating ISIS is probably a pipe dream. ISIS may eventually be defeated in Syria, but the organization is already preparing to expand its territory. Thursday’s Wall Street Journal reported that as they lose territory, ISIS will return to Europe and their home countries, while other ISIS operatives are sent to join Syrian populations in Germany where they will blend in. Another European counter-terrorism expert is investigating whether they will be able to re-locate to countries where they currently have no presence. ISIS also is adept at using the internet for recruitment, and although authorities continually take down their websites, new sites continue to crop up.
Aside from ISIS, there is also Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP. According to a counterterrorism report,
AQAP operates throughout Yemen, primarily in the country’s southern and central regions. In many of these provinces, AQAP governs small pockets of territory with sharia (Islamic law) courts and a heavily armed militia. AQAP attempts to appeal to the Yemeni people by meeting their basic needs and integrating into the local population, including by conforming to the local governance structures. In addition to controlling territory in Yemen, AQAP is believed to pose a major terrorist threat to the United States. (Italics mine.)
There is a likelihood that these organizations will continue to adjust to counter-terrorist activities and find new ways to spread terrorism internationally. I suspect they’re already here.
Second, some people take comfort from the knowledge that we are not in danger of becoming another Europe. Unlike the European countries, we have a history of being successful at integrating our immigrants. That may have been true in the past, but present circumstances, particularly in Michigan, contradict that tradition. I emphasize that not that all Muslims are radicalized or even potential terrorists. But in an effort to provide a well-rounded picture, let me explain a few things.
In the town of Hamtramck, four of the City Council’s six seats are held by Muslims. Politico reports that residents are more afraid of Donald Trump and Republicans than fearing their city will become a breeding ground for radical Islamism. But Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a widely recognized Somali immigrant, is concerned that the City Council will incorporate Sharia into the city’s laws.
Another town dominated by Muslims is Dearborn. In a video produced by Robert Spencer at JihadWatch, a Dearborn resident drove around the city and Spencer recorded video and audio. Again, it’s important to state that not all Muslims are terrorist threats, but a small percentage of that community might be.
Third, there is the issue of homegrown terrorism. Pew Research provides an overview of the Muslim population in the US:
In 2015, according to our best estimate, there were 3.3 million Muslims of all ages in the U.S., or about 1% of the U.S. population. Pew Research Center’s 2014 Religious Landscape Study (conducted in English and Spanish) found that 0.9% of U.S. adults identify as Muslims. A 2011 survey of Muslim Americans, which was conducted in English as well as Arabic, Farsi and Urdu, estimated that there were 1.8 million Muslim adults (and 2.75 million Muslims of all ages) in the country. That survey also found that a majority of U.S. Muslims (63%) are immigrants.
When we think of terrorists in our country, we prefer to believe radical Muslims are immigrants, misfits, unemployed and alone; Foreign Policy reported on a study that doesn’t confirm those perceptions. The report studied of 112 individuals “who the U.S. Department of Justice indicted for Islamic-related crimes between March 2014 and August 2016.” The report stated:
The average age of the 112 individuals is 27, with almost a third over 30. Over 40 percent were in a relationship, with a third being married. Nearly two-thirds went to college. Three quarters had jobs or were in school. All of this is quite similar to the United States population as a whole.
The other common perception of terrorists is that they come to the United States from abroad. This idea is simply out of date. One of the key findings of the study is that the vast majority of the 112 individuals are U.S. citizens. Nearly two-thirds were born in the United States, and nearly 20 percent were naturalized citizens. This is in sharp contrast to individuals who had been indicted for al Qaeda-related offenses between 1997 and 2011; only 55 percent of those were U.S. citizens. Only three were refugees — two from Bosnia and one from Iraq. The latter came to the United States as a refugee in 2009 and was radicalized sometime thereafter.
Foreign Policy was making the point that focusing on immigration from Muslim-majority countries might not serve our security needs as well as we think it will.
Finally, the last point, and perhaps the most contested, is whether we already have terrorist training camps in this country. PJ Media reported on a project that identified several camps in the US.
The Clarion Project has unearthed Federal Bureau of Investigations documents detailing a 22-site network of terrorist training villages sprawled across the United States. According to the documents, the FBI has been concerned about these facilities for about 12 years, but cannot act against them because the U.S. State Department has not yet declared that their umbrella group, MOA/Jamaat ul-Fuqra, as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
An article in the Washington Post labels this information as conspiracy theory. I will leave the decision about the credibility of these camps to you.
We needed to begin more aggressively planning for the threat of Islamist terror years ago. We’ve taken some steps, but many of them appear to be minor. Let’s hope it’s not too late to begin taking effective action now.
Published in Islamist Terrorism
I’ve made similar comments in the OP. I’m torn between thinking that all the small things that might just be “for show” might still have an impact collectively. But I don’t think any of us know. I think all security measures have the possibility of being useless or overreach. It would be unfortunate to initiate programs that make us feel more secure but don’t accomplish anything.
Read this piece by Mark Steyn. Very relevant to this discussion.
A fundamentalism flirting with fascistic totalitarianism that encourages “true believers” in a specific strand of any faith – that views non-adherents as apostates/worthy of extermination – in a cult-like way, is indeed, the root of the problem.
Pity that is most of Islam in how it is practiced around the world.
You can accomplish a lot by taking down the neon free stuff here sign we currently have up. Look how much illegal Mexican immigration has slowed down since Trump took office. All by announcing policies that made immigration not as rewarding as before. Much about the ban was about sending a signal that business as usual was changing. The Democrat judges have stopped that.
I don’t know how many are fundamentalists (which doesn’t mean terrorists), but here are some Pew Research facts:
However, the Middle East-North Africa region has the highest concentration of Muslims of any region of the world: 93% of its approximately 341 million inhabitants are Muslim, compared with 30% in sub-Saharan Africa and 24% in the Asia-Pacific region.
Muslims make up a majority of the population in 49 countries around the world. The country with the largest number (about 209 million) is Indonesia, where 87.2% of the population identifies as Muslim. India has the world’s second-largest Muslim population in raw numbers (roughly 176 million), though Muslims make up just 14.4% of India’s total population.
Before I’d fear that people think this, I’d want to know there are at least one or two people who think it.
I think anyone who thinks a complex problem like this one has a single solution is a fool. I fear that many “solutions” will be experiments because we don’t know what will be effective, and time, money and other resources will be wasted. And people will die.
Indeed, SQ, as happens in any life situation with unlimited “unknown unknowns”. There are people looking for a key to unlock this conundrum, though. Have you seen Ayaan Hirsi-Ali’s latest (Web-published by the Hoover Institution? http://www.hoover.org/research/challenge-dawa-political-islam-ideology-and-movement-and-how-counter-it)
Even reading the executive summary is well-worth the read, Nanda! I like her call for us to define what dawa is so we can better deal with it. Thank you!
Most welcome!
That was excellent Nanda. I hope Claire reads it. She essentially discarded Trump’s speech in Saudi Arabia.
What about people who think it has a single cause?
(I’m one of those people, btw, just saying.)
Okay, Zafar, I’ll bite. Please elaborate.
I think it’s lack of doubt – or rather a single rather than multiple sources of cultural authority. [Edit: Or truth.]
Zafar, I’m all for brevity, but I don’t know what you’re saying. A bit more, please: a lack of doubt or truth on what, by whom?
A lack of broadness in the perception of truth/safety/rectitude, maybe? What my chaplain-boss used to refer to as narrow or broad fences – in a theological sense…If I’m misstating here, @zafar, I apologize in advance, and seek correction. :-)
I doubt that it’s lack of doubt.
A lack of the capacity to question, to see inquiry as such, as a part of faith, perhaps, TR?
I think people are less likely to kill infidels, drown witches, engage in pogroms, burn widows alive if they have doubts that this is what religion/God/ ideology demands of them – and if they are unsure whether religion/God/ideology are right – and whether God even exists. Absolute certainty, or faith, can be a sharp edged sword – no matter how ‘good’ one’s intentions.
I agree with you Zafar, but my perception is that it will be impossible for Sunni muslims to insitutionalize a change. Unlike Sunni’s, Shia’s have a “church” structure that maintains and dictates the theology. As I understand it, for Sunni’s it’s every person with his or her’s interpretation of the religious texts. The texts can’t change; the theology can change through a religious governing body, but if the Sunni’s don’t have a governing religious body then all they have are the words in the texts. I am much more inclined to believe in the Shia muslims renouncing terrorism than I am with the Sunnis. Did I make myself clear?
Sunnis are not big on institutions telling them what to believe. Change, if it happens, will be bottom up rather than top down. My theology, if you excuse the insertion of myself as example, is whatever I decide it is. Or isn’t.
Thanks for clarifying and for @manny ‘s input, too!
Well, that’s the problem I’m identifying. I’m sure most Sunni Muslims may interpret the theology in a positive way, but as we can across the world many do not.
That system worked well for the first 1500 years for Christians, Manny, but there’ll always be someone who bucks the trend. :-)
@zafar, might part of the difficulty be the apocalyptic focus (on the part of Iran, for instance) that isn’t present in other schools of thought/cultural enclaves; not necessarily the presence/absence of an external authority structure?