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October 12, 2005Islamic Outpost: Coming to your town?I can’t remember where I found this piece, and I apologize for not being able to extend a hat tip: I’ve never heard of Jamaat ul-Fuqra before…but apparently they’re in Virginia. During the Beltway Sniper crisis, back in the fall of 2002, a series of articles in The Washington Times described John Allen Muhammad’s conversion to Islam, and his later break with the Nation of Islam (the articles are no longer available, but extracts have been preserved here). Apparently the NOI was not militant enough for Mr. Muhammad, and he left it to become involved with a group called Jamaat ul-Fuqra (Arabic for “community of the impoverished”), a terrorist organization founded by a notorious Pakistani cleric, Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani. What drew my eye in the article was the mention of a Jamaat ul-Fuqra compound in Red House, Virginia. Red House?! I know Red House — a small village in rural Charlotte County. …some background on Jamaat ul-Fuqra. The group was founded in New York by Sheikh Gilani in New York in 1980. Its current headquarters is in Hancock, New York, and it has various compounds, or Jamaats, scattered throughout the United States and Canada, notably in Colorado, New York, Tennessee, Georgia, and Virginia. Most of the adherents are reported to be American-born Black Muslims who follow a strict Islamist ideology. Sheikh Gilani, you may remember, is the cleric with whom Daniel Pearl had arranged an interview back in January of 2002. Unfortunately, Mr. Pearl was betrayed by his sources, and then abducted and beheaded. Sheikh Gilani was arrested later that month and languishes in Pakistani custody. Read the whole thing. You know…part of me really, really wants to believe that this is just an enclave of simple people keeping to a simple life…like the Amish or the Chabad Jews. But…BUT…it’s difficult, very difficult. It bothers me that I have to WORK to think well of these Islamists. But you know, it’s their own fault that I do. I like to think the best of everyone, but when I see that most terrorism in the world has an Islamic face, and I see no moderates standing up and denouncing that terrorism…well…I can’t help being distrustful. I read about how some Islamists insist on taking the joy out of soccer, SOCCER, fer cryin’ out loud - because it is from the infidels, and I am distrustful. Mark is wondering why in the face of the terrible images of the Pakistan/Islamabad earthquakes the response seems so very quiet. I think some of it is crisis-fatigue. But I am betting that some of the disinterest is because America ran to help Islamists after a Tsunami - sending its aircraft carriers and its helicopters and millions of dollars in aid beyond the nearly a billion dollars contributed by individual Americans to the relief effort…and she saw her aid accepted begrudgingly by people wearing Osama bin Laden tee shirts, and disparaged as “stingy” by the rest of the world. It may be petty and it may be wrong. And the wisdom of God says there should be no limits to love. But I know I’m only a human, and no one’s idea of a saint, and I need to see a few followers of Islam open up their mouths and decry the things that are being done in the name of their creed and their prophet, or I’m just going to have a hard time being anything but suspicious and - I hate to say it - somewhat unmoved. Last night I looked at images of terrified children enduring an awful catastrophe, and my heart broke for them. Then I saw images of women keeping their faces covered and men sitting around a fire glaring at relief workers…and I’ll admit it…I turned off the TV. God help me. God help us all. http://theanchoressonline.com/2005/10/12/islamic-outpost-coming-to-your-town/trackback/ 13 Responses to “Islamic Outpost: Coming to your town?” |
October 12th, 2005 at 2:57 pm
Here’s where I really put the final nail in my coffin.
I’m not moved at all. I wasn’t moved when the earthquake killed a hundred-thousand or so people in and around Bam, Iran not that long ago either.
I’m not moved because we in the US practically begged the people of those nations and their governments to get into the 21st Century, adopt some policies that will let their people get some actual wealth and freedom, and build some buildings that don’t instantly collapse when the earth shakes. They’ve done not a single thing. They’re still living in the same shabby buildings their governments allow them to live in and they don’t seem to care all that much themselves.
I don’t even feel a twinge of conscience. I’m sure that makes me a horrible, horrible person. All I think when I see those stories is “we’ve tried to help them for years. Oh well. maybe now they’ll get the message”.
October 12th, 2005 at 4:26 pm
Not to mention all that Tsunami Aid that would up in Al-Qaeda’s hands in Indonesia and other places. Probably paid for those Bali bombs too.
But credit where credit’s due, US aid–thousands of metric tonnes of it, arrived on site within 48-hours of the quake, along with US troops and aid workers. The US, Australia, and Japan had a three-week monopoly on actually delivering aid during the tsunami aftermath. UN officials were booking 5-star hotels for their planning sessions and moaning that our people weren’t wearing UN “blue.” If we only had some way to deliver news to people?
October 12th, 2005 at 4:35 pm
A Hasidic Jew might ARGUE you to death.
An Amish farmer might OUT PLOW or OUT BAKE you to death.
It is Radical Muslims that will blow you up- as others dance and celebrate the deed.
October 12th, 2005 at 4:51 pm
Everyone knows that soccer originated in what is now Afghanistan –only using human heads. They also “invented’ polo–again with the human heads. See Kipling’s “The Man who Would be King.” I apologize to those from the Steppes of Russia who want to lay claim to these sports. Using heads, of course.
I believe they only object to today’s balls. Sort of like some in baseball…
October 12th, 2005 at 4:55 pm
I have to agree with Jimmie. I am no longer moved by ’suffering’ in Muslim countries. They tend to be ungrateful swine. Same goes for the European Community.
I hate what they have done to my heart.
October 12th, 2005 at 7:26 pm
Amba on Ambivablog would call this *shadenfreude* *snadenfraude*. crude, I can hardly say it, how could i spell it?
%
I’m sorry guys, I can’t do the word justice, but please be careful because in translation, it sounds an awful lot like the hardening of hearts.
October 12th, 2005 at 9:29 pm
Darrell said,” If we only had some way to deliver news to people?
Darrell, that is an insult to FOX News.
October 12th, 2005 at 11:22 pm
A friend admonished me the other day for making a slighting comment about Islam.
“Come on,” she said. “We both know Muslims we think the world of. What about Dr. H., Omar A.,…,” and she rattled off about 6 names.
And I do like the people she named. They’re good-hearted, pleasant folks - who are thoroughly secular and Westernized. Not one is a practicing Muslim. I suspect that if they were, they wouldn’t want to be friends with me.
And that’s rather sad. I can think of no other religion where the secularists and the lukewarm believers actually seem to me to be better and kinder people than the devout.
October 13th, 2005 at 12:05 am
I don’t get cable. Remember, Lyle? The stuff I do get–broadcast and print–all seems to be some Socialist/Dem propaganda. But then you believe there is balance, don’t you? I guess Fox provides that in your book. Must be why you guys are always trying to think up way to get Fox off the “air.” Witness Fox-cable filters. And attempts to get Fox banned from Armed Services TV.
October 13th, 2005 at 6:45 am
Darrell, you evidently don’t look in the right place. Here is a website you can go to get your conservative slant.
.http://www.theconservativevoice.com/
I don’t know why you would think I am one of those who wants FOX off the air when I would ban ALL television if I could. You ask, if I believe there is balance?? Absolutely. MSM is a myth. As I have said many times before, conservatism in the media is well represented and easily accessed.
October 13th, 2005 at 11:34 am
The truth should be everywhere, Lyle, impossible to miss. Every broadcast outlet, every cable channel, every newspaper. Period.
Maybe we should just rebroadcast FoxCable News on PBS. Then we will have two outlets presenting something closer to reality. Now you can return to the DU and Kos and escape reality before you comment again.
October 14th, 2005 at 6:34 am
The truth is everywhere Darrell. you just won’t find it listening to Rush or reading Ann Coulter or watching Bill O’Rielly. By the way, I have never heard of KOS and DU.
October 14th, 2005 at 7:43 am
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