The Islamic enemy within

By Glenn Greenwald in Salon.com:

Pew released a new poll today [22 May 2007] regarding the political beliefs and attitudes of American Muslims and -- needless to say -- our right-wing warriors, within hours of its release, have exploded in shrieking alarm. These revelations about American Muslims are "hair raising!," and the warrior-pundits are working in unison to milk every ounce of anti-Muslim fear-mongering that can be squeezed from this new poll.

Read the whole article here.

Large number of Americans favor violent attacks against civilians

By Glenn Greenwald in Salon.com:

The hysteria over the Pew poll about American Muslims continues unabated, with the focus now on the finding that while 80% of American Muslims oppose attacks on civilians in all cases, 13% said they could be justified in some circumstances. The "discussion" illustrates some standard failings of our political discourse.

Read the rest here.

Most U.S. Muslims Reject Suicide Bombings

Most U.S. Muslims Reject Suicide Bombings

Updated 10:45 AM ET May 22, 2007

By ALAN FRAM

WASHINGTON (AP) - One in four younger U.S. Muslims say suicide bombings to defend their religion are acceptable at least in some circumstances, though most Muslim Americans overwhelmingly reject the tactic and are critical of Islamic extremism and al-Qaida, a poll says.

The survey by the Pew Research Center, one of the most exhaustive ever of the country's Muslims, revealed a community that in many ways blends comfortably into society. Its largely mainstream members express nearly as much happiness with their lives and communities as the general public does, show a broad willingness to adopt American customs, and have income and education levels similar to others in the U.S.

Even so, the survey revealed noteworthy pockets of discontent.

While nearly 80 percent of U.S. Muslims say suicide bombings of civilians to defend Islam can not be justified, 13 percent say they can be, at least rarely.

That sentiment is strongest among those younger than 30. Two percent of them say it can often be justified, 13 percent say sometimes and 11 percent say rarely.
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"It is a hair-raising number," said Radwan Masmoudi, president of the Washington-based Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy, which promotes the compatibility of Islam with democracy.

He said most supporters of the attacks likely assumed the context was a fight against occupation _ a term Muslims often use to describe the conflict with Israel.

U.S. Muslims have growing Internet and television access to extreme ideologies, he said, adding: "People, especially younger people, are susceptible to these ideas."

Federal officials have warned that the U.S. must be on guard against homegrown terrorism, as the British suffered with the London transit bombings of 2005.

Even so, U.S. Muslims are far less accepting of suicide attacks than Muslims in many other nations. In surveys Pew conducted last year, support in some Muslim countries exceeded 50 percent, while it was considered justifiable by about one in four Muslims in Britain and Spain, and one in three in France.

"We have crazies just like other faiths have them," said Eide Alawan, who directs interfaith outreach at the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn, Mich., one of the nation's largest mosques. He said killing innocent people contradicts Islam.

Andrew Kohut, Pew director, called support for the attacks "one of the few trouble spots" in the survey.

The question did not specify where a suicide attack might occur, who might carry it out or what was meant by using a bombing to "defend Islam."

In other findings:

_Only 5 percent of U.S. Muslims expressed favorable views of the terrorist group al-Qaida, though about a fourth did not express an opinion.

_Six in 10 said they are concerned about a rise in Islamic extremism in the U.S., while three in four expressed similar worries about extremism around the world.

_Yet only one in four consider the U.S. war on terrorism a sincere attempt to curtail international terror. Only 40 percent said they believe Arab men carried out the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

_By six to one, they say the U.S. was wrong to invade Iraq, while a third say the same about Afghanistan _ far deeper than the opposition expressed by the general U.S. public.

_Just over half said it has been harder being a U.S. Muslim since the 9/11 attacks, especially the better educated, higher income, more religious and young. Nearly a third of those who flew in the past year say they underwent extra screening because they are Muslim.

The survey estimates there are roughly 2.35 million Muslim Americans. It found that among adults, two-thirds are from abroad while a fifth are U.S.-born blacks.

By law, the Census Bureau does not ask about peoples' religions.

Telephone interviews were conducted with 1,050 Muslim adults from January through April, including some in Arabic, Urdu and Farsi. Subjects were chosen at random, from a separate list of households including some with Muslim-sounding names, and from Muslim households that had participated in previous surveys.

The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 5 percentage points.

___

On the Net:

http://www.pewresearch.org

She Carries Weapons; They Are Called Words

She Carries Weapons; They Are Called Words
By NEIL MACFARQUHAR
Published: May 12, 2007
The New York Times

Mohja Kahf, a poet and professor, walks the tightrope between her Arab American worlds.

Complete article here.

A Father’s Pain and an Empty Pizzeria

A Father’s Pain and an Empty Pizzeria
By RICHARD G. JONES
The New York Times
Published: May 12, 2007

The father of one of the Fort Dix terror plot suspects says he has received daily death threats and lost customers.

Complete story: here.

Relatives Noticed Changes in Accused Plotters

Relatives Noticed Changes in Accused Plotters
By ETHAN WILENSKY-LANFORD and DAVID ROHDE
Published: May 11, 2007
The New York Times

Members of the New York metropolitan region’s Albanian-American community are struggling to understand the motivations of the suspects accused of planning an attack on Fort Dix.

Complete article here.

Religion Guided 3 Held in Fort Dix Plot

By KAREEM FAHIM and ANDREA ELLIOTT
Published: May 10, 2007
The New York Times

PHILADELPHIA, May 9 — The three Duka brothers — Eljvir, Shain and Dritan — not only prayed here at the Al Aqsa Islamic Center, but also recently began repairing its roof.

The work came naturally to them, as members of a large family of ethnic Albanian immigrants who own more than a dozen roofing companies in New York and New Jersey. They fixed the roof free of charge, encouraged by their imam to do good deeds. One congregant said the men were storing up credit for “the afterlife.”

But the job remains half finished after the brothers and three other Muslim men were taken into custody this week, charged with plotting a terrorist attack against soldiers at the Fort Dix military reservation. Their arrests reverberated through the extended Duka dynasty, from southern New Jersey to the village of Debar, in Macedonia, the family’s ancestral home.

COMPLETE ARTICLE: here.

Florida Reporter's New Job Raises Questions About Past Articles

Michael Fechter, a reporter the Tampa Tribune, quit his job Monday (7 May 2007) to do writing and editing work focusing on Islamic extremists for Steven Emerson, director of the Investigative Project on Terrorism, according to the newspaper. Now critics are claiming that Fechter's work at the paper was tainted by his relationship to Emerson and his project.

Fechter has for a decade claimed in his writing for the newspaper that Sami Al-Arian, a University of South Florida professor, was linked to the Palestinian terrorist group Islamic Jihad. He never named Emerson as a source of the information, but Emerson used the information from Fechter's articles in his own writing about the subject.

From Editor & Publisher