Just as Jihad Watch predicted yesterday, Massachusetts Governor Mitch Romney”s comments concerning homeland security and American law enforcement’s inability to penetrate mosques have stirred up the usual vacuous condemnations from Muslim-American interest groups and their sympathizers in the press. The quote that has raised their ire is as follows:
”How many individuals are coming to our state and going to those institutions who have come from terrorist-sponsored states?” he said, referring to foreign students who attend universities in Massachusetts. ”Do we know where they are? Are we tracking them? ‘How about people who are in settings — mosques, for instance — that may be teaching doctrines of hate and terror. Are we monitoring that? Are we wiretapping? Are we following what’s going on?”
To most Americans, such rhetorical questions from a possible Presidential candidate would be considered sensible. After all, mosques have long been recognized as hubs for jihadist recruitment and the propagation of extremist ideology. Alas, the Muslim American Society, never a fan of sensible discussion, authored this missive in response:
On September 14th Governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney suggested the need to wiretap and monitor Islamic Centers as well as follow foreign students attending Massachusetts Universities. Governor Romney’s comments suggesting that any of these centers are engaged in teaching doctrines of hate and terror, is not only a lie, but unacceptable and does nothing more but create the same hate and fear against the Muslim Community that Governor Romney is suggesting the Muslim Community harbors.
Note that MAS is against even the “suggestion” that mosques or universities with large foreign populations could have anything to do with terrorism (I suppose Al-Farooq in Brooklyn, which was sending money to Al-Qaeda, or the Lackawanna, New York mosque where a Saudi recruiter got six young American Muslims to join the jihad against America don’t count). The Boston Globe joins the moronic response to Romney”s quotes with an editorial entitled “Romney”s Slip” (thanks to MB):
Romney said he concluded this kind of intelligence gathering is a federal responsibility. In the absence of evidence that mosques are terrorist havens in the United States, government officials need to avoid suggesting these revered institutions are targets of surveillance. And federal agents should not wiretap any one without a court order based on strong suspicion of wrongdoing.
Romney also mentioned his fears about foreign students in the 120 colleges and universities of Massachusetts who come from terrorist-sponsoring states. ”Are we tracking them?” he asked. Again he concluded that this is a federal responsibility. Few students come from those few nations clearly linked to terrorists. Students from friendly nations such as Saudi Arabia, with influential extremist elements, need to be treated as potential allies and intelligence sources unless they show themselves to be adversaries.
And how would the wise men at the Globe editorial board suggest discerning whether such visiting students are “adversaries” absent a mechanism to observe them? Ask them?