These grants are a total waste of money in the first place, as they’re given to organizations that run programs such as youth basketball and job training, on the mistaken assumption that this will persuade young Muslims not to join jihad terror groups and become jihad terror groups.
Anyway, the Islamic groups that were taking this federal money were, by accepting it, tacitly accepting that there was a problem with “extremism” among Muslims. Otherwise, why wasn’t it all given to evangelical and fundamentalist Christian groups to aid them in dealing with “right-wing extremists”? But if President Trump moves to state explicitly that he is fighting against Islamic jihad terror, then suddenly these Muslim groups don’t want the money. They will take money to fight “extremism” within their communities as long as everyone concerned tiptoes around the problem and doesn’t call it by name.
These groups are also trying to buttress the Leftist claim that Trump’s approach will “alienate” Muslims who would otherwise be on our side. In reality, if these Muslim groups really reject and abhor jihad terrorism, they will do everything they possibly can to eradicate it, and be among the first to name it honestly.
“Fourth Muslim group rejects federal grant to fight extremism,” by Tami Abdollah, Associated Press, February 10, 2017:
A California Islamic school wanted to keep an open mind before Donald Trump took office. But less than a month into Trump’s presidency, the school rejected $800,000 in federal funds aimed at combatting violent extremism.
The decision made late Friday night by the Bayan Claremont graduate school’s board to turn down the money — an amount that would cover more than half its yearly budget — capped weeks of sleepless nights and debate. Many there felt Trump’s rhetoric singling out Islamic extremism and his travel ban affecting predominantly Muslim countries had gone too far.
It also marked the fourth organization nationwide under the Trump administration to reject the money for a program created under President Barack Obama known as countering violent extremism, or CVE, which officials say aims to thwart extremist groups’ abilities to recruit would-be terrorists.
Bayan Claremont had received the second-largest grant, among the first 31 federal grants for CVE awarded to organizations, schools and municipalities in the dwindling days of the Obama administration. The school had hoped to use the money to help create a new generation of Muslim community leaders, with $250,000 earmarked for more than a dozen local nonprofits doing social justice work.
But the fledgling school’s founding president, Jihad Turk, said officials ultimately felt accepting the money would do more harm than good.
It’s “a heck of a lot of money, (but) our mission and our vision is to serve the community and to bring our community to a position of excellence,” Turk said. “And if we’re compromised, even if only by perception in terms of our standing in the community, we ultimately can’t achieve that goal,” he said, adding that accepting the funds would be short-sighted.
The school’s internal debate is also emblematic of handwringing among grassroots and nonprofit organizations involved in the program in the last couple weeks.
At Unity Productions Foundation of Potomac Falls, Virginia, officials said they would decline a grant of $396,585 to produce educational films challenging narratives supporting extremist ideologies and violent extremism “due to the changes brought by the new administration,” according to a private message to donors reviewed by The Associated Press.
And in Dearborn, Michigan, Leaders Advancing and Helping Communities said last week it was turning down $500,000 for youth-development and public-health programs because of the “current political climate.” Ka Joog, a leading Somali nonprofit organization in Minneapolis, also turned down $500,000 for its youth programs.
The Homeland Security Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.
A U.S. official said the Trump administration has been discussing changing the Obama administration program’s name, established as a presidential strategy in 2011, to an iteration of “countering Islamic extremism.” The official, who has knowledge of the discussions, was not authorized to speak publicly about the proposal and spoke on condition of anonymity.
All told, more than 20 percent of the roughly $10 million awarded by the Homeland Security Department has been rejected. And other groups have signaled they may follow suit, should the name change….