Homegrown terrorism:The Jihadists Next Door

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The Jihadists Next Door

Homegrown terrorism continues to increase—as we predicted a year ago. (See the Investors Business Daily editorial below).

The next-to-last paragraph is especially worth highlighting:
Muslims see what's going on in their community. So why the conspiracy of silence? Why aren't self-proclaimed "moderate" Muslim groups and mosque leaders standing up and condemning this rampant jihadism in their midst?
The problem is, our government and the media keep going to the wrong leaders and groups, like CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

They should be talking to Muslims like Dr. Tawfik Hamid, whose recent commentary, “A Message to the Muslim World,” is a courageous and candid exhortation to the Muslim World to take a long, hard look at its supremacist ideology.

IBD EDITORIALS

The Jihadists Next Door

Posted 03/15/2010 06:42 PM ET

Security: The arrests of three new homegrown terrorists, including two "Jihad Janes" and an al-Qaida suspect who infiltrated nuclear plants, confirm a rise in homegrown jihadist activity.

Sharif Mobley is one of the latest jihadists next door. Before he was rounded up in a sweep of suspected al-Qaida terrorists in Yemen, Mobley worked at five nuclear plants in New Jersey, Maryland and Pennsylvania. He shot two guards, killing one, before his capture.

Mobley grew up in New Jersey before converting to Islam. His militancy shocked an old high school friend, who ran into him after returning from an Army tour in Iraq. Mobley told him: "Get the hell away from me, you Muslim killer!"

Then there's Colleen LaRose, aka Jihad Jane, who was arrested in Philadelphia for allegedly plotting to kill a Swedish cartoonist who'd "offended" Muslims. Jamie Paulin-Ramirez of Denver was also arrested in connection with the assassination plot.

All three suspects are U.S. citizens from different parts of the country. One is black, one white and one formerly married to a Hispanic immigrant. Two, shockingly, are women. While each suspect has a different background, all three are Muslim converts radicalized over the Internet — a dangerous trend.

American converts are al-Qaida's prime recruits right now, because they have a better chance of slipping through security checkpoints.

Many such as Mobley are flocking to Yemen, where another American turncoat, Anwar Awlaki, recruits Westerners via the Web. Awlaki allegedly recruited the crotch bomber from London, then trained him for his suicide mission in Yemen. He also advised the Fort Hood terrorist online.

LaRose is said to have recruited others online to kill the cartoonist. Her accomplice Paulin-Ramirez married an Algerian whom she met online. A straight-A nursing student, the 31-year-old mother of one spent much of her time surfing jihadist Web sites. Both women said they'd be willing to blow themselves up for Islam.

While the essential ingredient in these cases is militant Islam, we have to wonder if the left isn't making otherwise normal Americans vulnerable to such treasonous seductions. After all, the hate-America lobby — led by the American Civil Liberties Union and often cheered by the media — has comforted even the most guilty in the war on terror, including the 9/11 mastermind and other Gitmo detainees.

Take Omar Hammami. A smart American college kid who grew up Baptist in the Alabama suburbs, he's now an al-Qaida field commander in Somalia wanted by the FBI.

What happened? He became consumed with events in Iraq and Afghanistan and began subscribing to conspiracy theories about 9/11. He learned to hate his country, which he calls a legitimate "target" for attack.

Islamic apologists in academia and the media keep trying to dismiss the radicalization trend, but they're whistling past the graveyard. A new Duke University study claims that "only" 139 Muslim Americans have been involved in terrorism since 9/11 (including 41, or 30%, in 2009 alone).

But the report, which got a big splash in the media, is laughably incomplete. It omits some of the feds' most celebrated terrorist convictions. It also excludes any U.S. Muslims convicted of financing terror. And these are just the homegrown terrorists who got caught. How many others are out there?

New Mexico-born Awlaki has 4,800 Facebook friends. He has thousands of followers in America. At mosques and Islamic bookstores across the country, they buy his sermons extolling jihad and "martyrdom." They're even sold as CD box sets.

Homegrown terror is a signal event threatening homeland security, yet it seems to have caught Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano napping. She still sees white militia groups and anti-government extremists as the top threat. Nothing could be more wrong.

Muslims see what's going on in their community. So why the conspiracy of silence? Why aren't self-proclaimed "moderate" Muslim groups and mosque leaders standing up and condemning this rampant jihadism in their midst?

After five young Virginia jihadists last year were caught training in Pakistan, Muslim leaders promised to speak out in a big way against such radicalization. It's been months. We're still waiting.