This is, of course, settled policy: manifest Islamic jihad activity is classified as something else, and the larger connections and implications ignored or denied outright. The most common explanation for why authorities do this is that they fear a backlash against innocent Muslims if the jihad angle of these cases were to be highlighted, and that the perpetrators are twisting and hijacking the Religion of Peaceâ„¢. But in reality, there has never been any backlash, and the jihadists claim Islamic authenticity by pointing to Islamic texts and teachings to justify their actions and make recruits among peaceful Muslims.
“Feds nix ‘temple plot’ terror,” from AP, May 29 (thanks to Pamela Geller):
The case against four men accused of plotting to bomb New York synagogues and shoot down military planes will not focus on whether they were members of a terrorist group, a federal prosecutor said yesterday.
That appeared to sit well with the judge, who said she had been referring to the case privately as “the un-terrorist case.”
The trial is “going to be about whether these guys were going to blow something up,” Assistant US Attorney David Raskin said at a pretrial hearing, and a fellow prosecutor said the government will not present any evidence of membership in terrorist groups.
“It’s not going to be about foreign terrorist organizations,” Raskin said.