“We are here for jihad” - NCCG.ORG Ning Network Archive 2008-10

Five men from Alexandria Virginia were arrested in Pakistan, last week, in one of the latest cases of homegrown terror on U.S. soil. According to an article in the Washington Post, “the men had contacted extremist organizations, including two with links to al-Qaeda, and proudly told their Pakistani interrogators, “We are here for jihad.””

The Post reports that the men had met in a youth group at a small mosque affiliated with ICNA. They had been in touch via e-mail with groups like the Taliban, in their desire to battle American soldiers in Afghanistan, although they were ultimately rebuffed because of concerns by the groups that they were part of a sting operation.

The New York Times reports that they were all relatively young—ranging from their late teens to mid 20s—and that, according to Pakistani police, they were all U.S. citizens.

Some thoughts on this:

One in four young Muslims in America thinks suicide bombings are sometimes justified. Five of them emerging from one small mosque is a huge number. This does not mean the mosque’s imam radicalized these youth. It does not mean ICNA is to blame (although terrorism expert Steven Emerson has raised concerns about the group in testimony before Congress). But something went awry in their friendship that was missed by everyone around them.

At the moment, it appears these men were acting solo, with the internet having played a significant role in their journey. However, online recruitment would probably not have been the primary factor influencing their decision to pursue terrorism. As the Post writes

In most cases, experts said, potential recruits are the ones who reach out to radical Web sites and chat rooms in the hopes of finding someone to introduce them to a militant group. “A recruiter does not radicalize a person from scratch,” said Manuel R. Torres Soriano, a terrorism expert in Spain, where the Internet played a key role in influencing some of the perpetrators of the 2004 Madrid train bombings. “They deal with people who are already ready to die.”

According to U.S. officials, homegrown terrorism is on the rise, with 2009 the most dangerous year since 2001. These young men are far from isolated cases, and, based on recent statistics, for every uncovered plot, there may be thousands of men and women who are sympathetic to the cause.

Traditionally, some of the leading Muslim groups in America have been quick to condemn, but silent when it comes to providing substantive solutions to the problem in our midst. For the sake of our children and our communities, the silence must end, and a substantive solution must be found to this growing problem.

You can read the Washington Post articles here and here.

http://www.radicalislam.org/blog/homegrown-threat/we-are-here-for-j...

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