The ‘Homegrown Terrorist’ Misconception
Domestic jihadists, like the one who attacked military recruiters, are symptoms of a foreign disease.
The killing of a soldier and wounding of another at an Arkansas military recruiting center has caused the subject of “homegrown terrorists” to once again become a topic of discussion for radio and TV hosts, bloggers, and pundits. The use of the technically accurate “homegrown terrorist” term brings some serious risks with it. It summarizes the threat posed by conversions to radicalism here in the United States, thus creating a jihad on our own soil, but it ignores the fact that the seeds planted to begin that growth, and the soil and water to sustain it, come from overseas.
This isn’t a non-consequential, academic argument over semantics. If acts of radical Islamic terrorism can be described as “homegrown,” then those wishing to downplay the warfare aspect of the struggle can point to statistics, arguing that any large group will inevitably contain a few fanatics. For them, the use of the term “homegrown terrorist” frees the West of having to acknowledge the international links and infrastructure that enable such acts, and depicts acts like this shooting as the spontaneous outburst of a lone wolf rather than the result of a clandestine movement. It is a gift to the incubators of terrorism and extremism overseas, who can state that the presence of such forces on their land is no different than that on our own.
Let’s review the case of Abdulhakim Muhammad, the Muslim convert arrested for the Arkansas shooting. His path to jihad did not simply begin and end in the United States, but rather included a suspicious trip to Yemen after his conversion, where he was jailed for possessing a fake Somali passport. Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch says that a “well-placed source” has told him that Muhammad went to Yemen in an attempt to study with a radical cleric named Yahya Hajoori. The story of his initial conversion is not yet out, but when it is, it will almost certainly also find foreign roots, even if just ideologically.
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Ryan Mauro is the founder of WorldThreats.com and the director of intelligence at the Asymmetrical Warfare and Intelligence Center (AWIC). He’s also the national security researcher for the Christian Action Network and a published author. He can be contacted at TDCAnalyst@aol.com.
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18 Comments
1. DavidN:The odd part of your article is that while you acknowledge that part of his education was while he was out of the country, you somehow discount the possibility that he could be led astray while he was here. Some years ago, Holland was struck by a series of terrorist attacks from Indonesians who lived in Holland, and wanted that country to somehow negotiate a return for them to their homeland. I was visiting Holland at the time, and asked someone to explain how this would work, or why someone would want to go, and the answer was that most of the terrorists had never visited the place they wanted to return to: they’d been born and raised in Holland. Their parents told them about the islands they lived on, and idealized the experience to the point that it sounded like paradise on earth.
This idiot who killed the recruiting soldier probably had a similar experience. Some other jackass told him that after the revolution and the establishment of a Muslim republic in America, he could have his pick of the women, marry four of them and have an unlimited number of concubines, all the cars and stuff he wanted, and of course he wouldn’t need to work. Allah would provide all the prosperity he needed, and the rest of us would have to work to serve his goals. Unfortunately there are enough people around to believe such things, and try and do their part to make it happen, that someone occasionally gets killed.
Jun 16, 2009 - 2:28 am 2. dmgold:Semantics ??? does it really matter whether 1/4 or 1/2 of a Muslim Americans Domestic terrorist agenda, indocrination and actions are home grown or from abroad. No !!! as the internet provides to any aspiring US based Muslim Terrorist what information, indoctrination S/he may reuqire or desire. Weapons training is out there in Islamberg or some other US outward bounds Islamo Terrorist training centre.
Jun 16, 2009 - 5:44 am 3. Morton Doodslag:Bottom line is the US has a Muslim terror problem that is growing and with the PC multiculturism of the Obmamobile the US is going up that creek and will certainly lose its paddle. .
Thought provoking article. Given our tolerance and our foundational freedom of religion ethos, most Americans have not yet grasped the fact that Islam itself is an alien and rival political ideology to our own. Muslims and their inimical ideology are solely at fault for the hideous intolerance and doctrinal violence and hatred which comprise their religion. But our real and epic tragedy began when we in the West first unquestioningly allowed millions of enemy Muslims to enter our sanctuary and establish their murderous house of Islam on our soil. The Muslim considers the very ground under his feet as “Islamic territory”, claimed eternally for the glory of Allah. In fact, his Allah will never be “happy” until the supreme religious/political/social totalitarianism of Islam is spread to every corner of the globe. This is the essence of Jihad.
We now insanely abet their disgusting Jihad by allowing them simply to abide and spread in America or Europe. We abet their Jihad every time we pretend or are fooled into thinking their religious system is similar to any other religion. We abet their Jihad every time we cater to their intolerance, cede aid to them, or “liberate” them or fight on their behalf in Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.
I have said it many times, but if zero or nearly zero Muslims resided in the West, their murderous global Jihad would pose no direct existential threat to us today. But we have allowed Muslims to arrive and establish thousands of beachheads to wage war (Jihad) against us. So when the Muslims constantly lecture us and blame us for the Jihad they wage, it is partially true, but not in the way they mean it: our misunderstanding of Islam is truly giving their global Jihad a huge leg up.
Jihad is not our fault. It is strictly the fault of all Muslims and the infectious disease they carry: Islam. We can be blamed for failing to know or mortal enemy in this conflict. The Muslims know us too well, and we know them not at all.
Jun 16, 2009 - 5:50 am 4. blotto:“Sometimes radical Islam can breed in Western democratic societies, but this almost exclusively happens among unassimilated communities and individuals.”
Heck we have unassimilated blacks, Mexicans living here so why not Islamic fundamentalists? Our government does not care and in fact suggests and provides for these unassimilated groups to flourish. Our government provides them with constitutional protections and rights plus welfare and other benefits only Americans should receive. As long as America and Americans tacitly agree with multiculturalism and PC, we will provide the means to our own destruction.
Can anyone here argue that the blown budgets of many states like CA, NJ, AZ, among others is not in part due to the vast numbers of illegal Mexican and other Latin American individuals living here and using our welfare, hospital and educational systems?
Can anyone here argue that in the name of tolerance, Islamic fundamentalist are training here in America?
Can anyone here argue that the Democrat party has fostered this anti-assimilation policy because it wants the power gained from these potential voters?
So the article in effect is not saying anything new nor is it suggesting what can be done to end this policy of allowing non-Americans to not assimilate into our society.
Jun 16, 2009 - 6:50 am 5. Erasmus:So I guess the whole “Freedom of Religion” thing really hasn’t registered with you clowns.
Jun 16, 2009 - 7:00 am 6. Ed Wallis:Profound “insight” (/sarc), Erasmus #5.
Okay for muslims but not for Christians.
You f*cking hypocrite.
Jun 16, 2009 - 7:45 am 7. Michael:Freedom of religion is the law of the land. Killing other Americans will not be tolerated however. (by the way that includes the killing of Muslims who convert to other religions.) As long as Muslims work with police regarding homicidal lunatics in their midst everthing will be fine.
Freedom of religion does not extend to those who wish to kill people of other religions or to overthrow the govenment. They must live by the American laws and American law must trump Sharia law on all counts.
Jun 16, 2009 - 7:54 am 8. Free Hat:“The term “homegrown terrorist” will be used by those advocating a softer line in the global war on terror to argue for a law enforcement approach, viewing the problem as on par with glorified gangs and criminals.”
After 9/11, the FBI and police task forces across the country basically dropped their cases against gangs and started looking for Muslim terror cells at the behest of the DOJ. This left thousands of American criminal organizations free to consolidate more power, sell more drugs, commit more acts of violence and kill more rivals, generally free of any Federal interference. Didn’t matter if you were smuggling or dealing drugs, pulling triggers, ordering hits or running rackets; if your name wasn’t Mohammed, they basically weren’t paying attention to you.
Now, we have a nationwide crisis as US law enforcement is struggling, and failing, to catch up with the catastrophic organized crime epidemic that they ignored for the better part of a decade while they were looking for Muslim terrorists under every molehill.
Your ridicule of the prospect of domestic terrorism being on par with gang violence illustrates the massive error of the war on terror. By seeking to put Muslim terrorists in their own special category of evil, you inflate their perceived threat to an undeserved level and in the process downplay the real and serious threat of “glorified gangs and criminals”.
If we took the advice of the author and other neocon thinkers, we would be expending all of our law enforcement resources looking under every stone for a Muslim while organized crime moves unrestrained and unopposed into our hometowns.
Jun 16, 2009 - 8:08 am 9. Michael:The ATF and FBI were tasked with investigating terrorist activities. They found it too. I know it is frustrating to not be entertained by the details but the idea is to not let potential terrists to know how the previous ones were found out.
Local police are hard at work as always on gangs and drug cartels. Not easy to do with a lackadasical attitude to border enforcement as far as the cartels are concerned.
Jun 16, 2009 - 8:34 am 10. njcommuter:“Homegrown?” A foreign seed taking root in American soil, I think. Does that make it homegrown?
Normally when we say “homegrown terrorists” we think militias, KKK, and other truely native species. But this is an invasive species and not, in my opinion, “homegrown”.
Jun 16, 2009 - 9:34 am 11. Joe Bison:In a multicultural society there is no line
between home/foreign. Adherents of Islam
whether American or foreign born are parts
of the big picture and you cannot isolate
them.
Take a look at the Tamils in Toronto Canada.
They shut down parts of the city for days
recently to protest. Western countries
are havens to promote self interest. This
is true in religion and ethnic concerns.
The US is just behind the Western curve
Jun 16, 2009 - 10:57 am 12. Peter the Bubblehead:on these matters. As a global superpower
with global involvement the risks are greater
as we have more interaction with more groups,
not just Islam, with communities who are or will
live in the US.
5. Erasmus wrote:
So I guess the whole “Freedom of Religion” thing really hasn’t registered with you clowns.
Peter asks: So you’re saying that people can blow up buildings and kill innocent civilians because it’s a pert of their religion under ‘Freedom of Religion’?!?
We have freedom of speech too, but it’s still illegal to yell “Fire!” in a crowded movie theater.
Freedoms only carry so far. When your religion starts killing my family, my freedom to kill you in self defense is overriding.
Jun 16, 2009 - 11:01 am 13. DavidN:5. Erasmus:
So I guess the whole “Freedom of Religion” thing really hasn’t registered with you clowns.
Just one simple question. What happens when someone’s religion requires that everyone else lose their right to, say, free speech, freedom of religion, little technicalities like that? What then?
Jun 16, 2009 - 12:10 pm 14. bubblehead:Don’t forget folks, Islam is NOT A RELIGION! It is a political manifesto camouflaged to look like religion, taught like religion and followed like religion.
But then, so was Nazism.
But then, so was Communism.
But then, so is conservationism.
& etc., & etc., & etc…
Jun 16, 2009 - 2:27 pm 15. Scott:Erasmus is an idiot.
“Freedom of Religion” kinda runs up against a brick wall when it comes to Islam. That is because Islam is not a religion but a geo-political fascist ideology that endorses slavery, murder, rape, genocide, pedophilia, and forced conversion of all those not Muslim.
See being a liberal you probably don’t get that your “freedoms” end where they begin to seriously impinge upon others freedoms.
Jun 16, 2009 - 2:44 pm 16. vivo:10. njcommuter:
“Normally when we say “homegrown terrorists” we think militias, KKK, and other truly native species. But this is an invasive species and not, in my opinion, “homegrown”.”
Exactly my thoughts.
Jun 16, 2009 - 8:33 pm 17. TomF:Of course it is “homegrown”, after all Obama has already informed us recently that 1. America is not a Judeo-Christian nation. & 2. America is one of the largest Muslim nation in the world.
By the way for those who are naive and uninformed, there is a concerted systematic effort for invading America as well as many other countries of the world.
Jun 16, 2009 - 9:59 pm 18. Benson:What is homegrown in the USA? Maybe Native American religion — but certainly not Christianity, which was an alien, early import…
…and became domestic as it grew here, just as Islam will.
Muslims, always highly resistant to assimilation, are literally colonizing the USA. Mosques and secretive rural enclaves are becoming training centers. Eventually the Muslims in the USA will sustain the violent jihad, shelter the fanatics and abet their murders.
Can we defend ourselves as long as we make the naive assumption that all religions are decent options, and must therefore be respected by governments that uphold the liberty of the individual?
We are in another battle in a war that began some fourteen centuries ago, when a genuine villain — a pederast, mass murderer and incestuous egomaniac — perpetrated a preposterous hoax.
Each time the fighting dies down, the West mistakes the lull for the moral evolution of the death cult, and believes peace has arrived. Big mistake.
Islam has noted our post-WWII lack of resolve. We do seem divided, decadent, and ripe for conquest, whether accomplished by violence or by demographic change produced by immigration and differential birth rates.
We even dispute the obvious fact that our enemy intends to permit us to live in peace only when the universal caliphate is in place.
We can win each battle, and never win the war. But if we lose once…there will be no more babble about freedom, choice, and what is home-grown and what is alien. There will just be submission.
Jun 17, 2009 - 11:22 am