In Human Events this morning I discuss how the North Carolina Jihad plot has put the Islamic Center of Raleigh on the spot — with predictable results:
The Islamic Center of Raleigh, N.C., is on the spot now that seven Tarheel Muslims, led by an American convert to Islam, have been arrested and charged with “conspiring to provide material support to terrorists and conspiring to murder, kidnap, maim and injure persons abroad.”
Several of the accused were members of the Islamic Center. A local Muslim who knew several of the suspects charges that he heard two of them, Mohammad Omar Aly Hassan and Ziyad Yaghi, speaking favorably of suicide bombings — and was “not surprised they were arrested.” He has said that he reported them to the Center leaders but that the leaders did nothing.
However, Imran Aukhil of the Islamic Center says that the mosque leadership actually did go to the FBI: “The IAR,” he explained, “does have an open relationship with the FBI,” and added vaguely: “We were notified of a person’s behavior, violent threatening action that we considered to be dangerous and we did report them to the FBI.” He emphasized the IAR”s policy of cooperation with the FBI: “We make sure that we are in constant communication with them. We answer any questions that they have as necessary. We provide them with any information they request.”
Reflecting on the arrests, Aukhil saw in them an opportunity: “It definitely makes things difficult, but we look at the bright side. It gives us an opportunity to speak up more with the media and bring more attention to Muslims and their struggles as a minority.” In other words, Aukhil sees in the arrests of Boyd and his henchmen a new opportunity to claim victim status for Muslims in the United States — even as a plot by Muslims in his community to kill non-Muslims has been uncovered. Now that’s chutzpah, but of course with the mainstream media focus on “backlash” against the Muslim community after every arrest of Islamic jihad plotters since September 11, Aukhil is hardly a trail blazer…..