- It happened again this week. I came out of the office
to find a flyer under my windshield wipers inviting me to a special informational
presentation on God and family values, and how to bring them back to the
forefront in America.
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- I'm a parent so the flyer caught my interest. But as
an analyst for the Northeast Intelligence Network, my eyes were riveted
to the address on the flyer: The session was being held at a nearby mosque.
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- Curiosity got the better of me, and I decided it would
be a good time for some onsite investigations of the mosque. In order to
not attract undue attention, I dressed conservatively, wearing a navy jumper
with a long sleeve white blouse, and low heels. I debated whether or not
to put on a hijab (head scarf) then decided not to - after all, I was going
to "learn," not to pretend I was a Muslim.
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- I checked the mosque schedule on the Web, and discovered
there was going to be an Arabic language session an hour before. So I showed
up an hour early. The imam met me at the door, and told me that the presentation
didn't start for an hour, and suggested I come back in an hour. Fortunately,
I had anticipated this. I explained that since I had quite a bit of reading
to do for a class I was taking. "Can I just sit here and read?"
-
- He hesitated a moment, then agreed. I sat in the back
of the room, with my book open, and made a mental note to remember to turn
the pages every so often, as I listened to the speakers in Arabic.
-
- The first speaker was the head of the Muslim Students'
Association at the nearby university. Although I missed the beginning of
the discussion, I caught up quickly. He was talking about the problems
he had encountered on a recent trip, when TSA flagged him for extra screening.
He joked about the fact that they had stopped him for extensive screening.
He had anticipated that he would be screened and he had filled his carryon
luggage with printouts of the Quran from the Internet, and had 15 or 16
CDs labeled in Arabic, and he had a notebook computer with him.
-
- As he expected, he was delayed - he thought it was very
amusing that while several TSA personnel were scrutinizing his personal
belongings that his classmate from Jordan was able to walk through security,
along with his American girlfriend, without any problems whatsoever.
-
- One of the men said, in Arabic: "Blonde Americans
are good for something!" Another man advised him to be cautious, since
there was an American woman in the room. The imam spoke up and told everyone
I didn't speak Arabic.
-
- At that point, another student took the podium. His name
was Khaled, and he began to recount his recent trip to New York City. Khaled
and three of his companions had gone to New York for several days in January.
He told of how uncomfortable his trip up to NYC had been. He felt like
he was being watched, and thought he was the victim of racial profiling.
-
- Khaled and his friends were pretty unhappy about it,
and while in New York, they came up with a plan to "teach a lesson"
to the passengers and crew. You can imagine the story Khaled told. He described
how he and his friends whispered to each other on the flight, made simultaneous
visits to the restroom, and generally tried to "spook" the other
passengers. He laughed when he described how several women were in tears,
and one man sitting near him was praying.
-
- The others in the room thought the story was quite amusing,
judging from the laughter. The imam stood up and told the group that this
was a kind of peaceful civil disobedience that should be encouraged, and
commended Khaled and his friends for their efforts.
-
- He pointed out that it was through this kind of civil
disobedience that ethnic profiling would fail.
-
- One of the other men, Ahmed from Kuwait, gave a brief
account of his friend Eyad, who had finally gone to Iraq. Ahmed was in
e-mail contact with Eyad, and hoped by the following week to be able to
bring them more information about the state of the "mujahideen"
in Iraq.
-
- As the meeting drew to a close, the imam gave a brief
speech calling for the protection of Allah on the mujahideen fighting for
Islam throughout the world, and reminded everyone that it was their duty
as Muslims to continue in the path of jihad, whether it was simple efforts
like those of Khaled and his friends, or the actual physical fighting of
men like Eyad.
-
- As the meeting broke up, several women in hijabs came
in the room, and two of them sat with me. They were very warm and friendly
and welcoming, and appeared to be clearly thrilled that I was there. They
asked me questions about who I was, and why I was interested in the session.
-
- By the time the session began, there were half a dozen
American women, four of them African-American. Where the previous session
had definite anti-American tones, this session was all American and Apple
Pie. The earlier session had been in Arabic - this one was in English.
-
- The woman leading the session, Nafisa, told of the concerns
she had regarding her daughters in the public-school system. She complained
about the influence of the MTV culture, and seemed concerned about the
rampant sexuality that pervaded all facets of American life, from television
to movies and on into the school system.
-
- She explained her personal solution - the local Islamic
school, beginning with kindergarten. Instead of worrying about her daughters
dressing provocatively and behaving inappropriately with boys, she talked
about the modest school uniforms they wore, and the single-gender classes
her daughters attended.
-
- She then began to discuss Islam, focusing on the commonalities
it has with Christianity. The sales pitch had clearly begun. While in the
previous section, the men had quoted over and over again sura from the
Quran calling for violent jihad, the women's session focused on the "gentler"
side of Islam.
-
- The same imam who demanded that the men continue in the
path of jihad did a complete 180-degree turn in this session, stressing
instead the suras that promoted the "brotherhood" between Muslims,
Christians and Jews. "After all, we worship the same God, and follow
the teachings in the books he gave each of us. We are all the same, we
are all People of the Book," he stressed.
-
- The differences between the sessions were striking. Clearly
the second session was a recruiting session.
-
- Were the women aware of what was being taught in the
first session? Certainly those women who spoke Arabic should have been.
-
- The reason for concern is obvious: Two different doctrines
are being promoted. One peaceful, friendly, warm and fuzzy doctrine is
being used to draw people in, with a focus on the well-being of their children.
-
- But the Arabic-speaking sessions clearly have an anti-American
tone.
-
- It shows clearly that as much as we'd like to pretend
it hasn't, jihad has reached Small-Town, USA. This mosque isn't in Washington,
D.C., or New York City. This is a small mosque in a small town in the deep
South.
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- And if it's in this tiny little quiet southern town,
it's probably in your hometown, too.
-
-
- Laura Mansfield is a freelance writer with over 20 years
of experience dealing with Middle East issues. She is fluent in written
and spoken Arabic, and has an excellent understanding of the complex cultural,
religious and historical issues. Her experience includes nearly seven years
living and working in the region for a wide range of private and government
clients.
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- http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=43868
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