Panic Room: Muslim Terrorism in the USA was almost nil in 2012
IT’S not always Muslims. Charles Kurzman looks at Muslim-American terrorism. Spencer Ackerman notes:
Try as al-Qaida might to encourage them, American Muslims still aren’t committing acts of terrorism. Only 14 people out of a population of millions were indicted for their involvement in violent terrorist plots in 2012, a decline from 2011′s 21. The plots themselves hit the single digits last year…
Since 9/11, Kurzman and his team tallies, 33 Americans have died as a result of terrorism launched by their Muslim neighbors. During that period, 180,000 Americans were murdered for reasons unrelated to terrorism. In just the past year, the mass shootings that have captivated America’s attention killed 66 Americans, “twice as many fatalities as from Muslim-American terrorism in all 11 years since 9/11,” notes Kurzman’s team.
What else?
All of the year’s other alleged plots by Muslim Americans were discovered and disrupted at an early stage. This is a shift from the previous three years, in which several plots came to the attention of law enforcement authorities at a later stage, after weapons or explosives had already been gathered. The most dramatic plot involved Amine ElKhalifi, an illegal resident from Morocco who pled guilty to plotting to bomb the U.S.Capitol in Washington, D.C. According to the criminal complaint filed by the FBI, El-Khalifi met with an informant in January 2011 and indicated that he was “ready for war.” In December 2011, El-Khalifi confirmed as part of his guilty plea, that he met with an informant and an undercover agent posing as members of alQaeda. Over the following two months, he shifted his proposed targets from a military office to a restaurant to the U.S. Capitol. The FBI employees encouraged the plot and provided El-Khalifi with a jacket containing mock explosives. In February 2012, he was arrested at a parking garage in Washington, D.C., after he had put on the jacket and started walking toward the Capitol.
Informants and undercover agents were involved in almost all of the Muslim-American terrorism plots uncovered in 2012…
How it goes down:
In one unusual case, a suspect asked an undercover employee of the FBI furnish spiritual guidance for a terrorist plot. The FBI’s criminal complaint against Adel Daoud described the episode: “Daoud had been debating the topic of jihad with someone at his mosque. Someone overheard the conversation and reported it to his sheikh [religious leader], who called Daoud and [another individual, who soon backed out of the plot] to a meeting and ‘yelled’ at them. Daoud’s father was informed of the incident too and told Daoud to stop talking about these topics. Finally, another sheikh became involved and tried to convince Daoud that engaging in violent jihad was wrong. Because of the arguments offered by this second sheikh, Daoud asked the UCE [undercover employee] if the UCE’s sheikh had a similar background and could issue ‘the real fatwah’ justifying attacks on Americans.” The following week, the FBI’s undercover employee reported to Daoud that the FBI’s fictional sheikh “wants to make sure that he, the sheikh is not pressuring you, that I’m not pressuring you. ‘Cuz you know in Islam you can’t force anybody. … This has to be in your heart, especially jihad. You know it’s in your heart. It’s something you believe in. It’s something you either believe in or you don’t.” Daoud responded, “I’m convinced … I mean rest assured I was raising jihad before I knew you or your sheikh.”
What about support?
And in Europe?
The number of Muslim terrorism suspects and perpetrators has been declining in Europe as well as in the United States. According to Europol, the European law enforcement agency, the number of terrorism-related arrests of Muslims in Europe fell from more than 400 in 2006 to under 300 per year in 2009-2011, though the decline was partially reversed in 2010 and 2011.
The number of terrorism-related convictions dropped even more dramatically, from 137 in 2007 to 45 in 2011. There were no terrorist attacks by Muslims in Europe in 2011, compared with 1.2 attacks per year since 2006. These terrorism suspects “largely continue to exhibit poor skills and professional tradecraft,” Europol reported.
Poor skills is a s result of poor training. Looks like an enemy is being defeated.
Posted: 4th, February 2013 | In: Reviews Comment (1) | TrackBack | Permalink
