RUTHFULLY YOURS

Elaph Columnist: Most Muslims in the U.S. Harbor Hostility Towards It and Feel No Loyalty To It
Khudayr Taher, an Iraqi columnist who lives in the U.S. and posts regularly on the liberal website www.elaph.com, posted on this website an especially harsh reaction:

“In democratic countries that respect the law and human rights, these wonderful virtues become a risk, and a loophole through which terrorists infiltrate [the country] to perpetrate their crimes. The attempted car bombing in New York exposed a problem, [namely] that the Muslim diaspora in the U.S. is not carefully monitored, due to the laws [protecting] human rights. The Pakistani terrorist was able to act freely in forming contacts inside and outside the country and in preparing his criminal plans. Even though he comes from a country that is considered to be one of the strongholds of terrorism, [the American authorities] did not keep an eye on him. 

“In the past, this happened with others, who were similarly left [to their own devices], e.g., the Yemeni terrorist [Anwar] l-Awlaqi, who served as Imam in an American mosque. He was a member of Al-Qaeda, and was visited by the depraved [Al-Qaeda] operatives who [later] perpetrated the 9/11 [attacks]. After this, he was lightly interrogated and then left alone, and he traveled freely to Yemen. Eventually he emerged as one of Al-Qaeda’s devils and started to operate in the open. Thanks to the American laws that prohibit arresting people or torturing them without evidence, he escaped without punishment, when [in fact] he could have easily been exposed and made to confess.

“America is home to about seven million Muslims. Most of them, even if they are not terrorists, do harbor hostility towards the U.S. and feel no loyalty to it. As an Arab and Muslim, [I tell you] that it is difficult to find a Muslim who loves America; those [who do] constitute a tiny minority among all those millions.     

“The rationale and need to defend American security and protect [American] lives make it necessary to make sacrifices and infringe on the [existing] laws and charters of human rights. The Muslims must be subjected to the principle of collective suspicion. Individuals whose presence [in the country] causes concern or who have a potential to cause problems must be monitored, pursued and placed in preventive detention, which is not subject to time restrictions or require [the presentation of] evidence. They must [even] be stripped of their citizenship and deported.

“The collective deportation of all suspicious Muslims, and all those convicted of misdemeanors, is the best way to pressure [potential offenders], in order to deter them, threaten their personal interests, and cause them to follow the rules and inform on the terrorists among them. The U.S. and the European countries must first of all think of defending themselves against the threat of terrorism, [even if it means] sacrificing democracy, law, and the human rights charters – for this is a matter of life and death.”[3]