Terrorism: Engagement: A key to anti-terror success

Working together

The clear difference of the British Government’s success in catching the London subway bombing terror suspects over America’s lack of success in catching homegrown terror suspects is its open and active engagement of its own local Muslim communities.

In the hysteria immediately following 9/11, U.S. authorities, led by then-Attorney General John Ashcroft, went on a mass roundup of mostly south Asian immigrants from Pakistan and Afghanistan, the “obvious” targets in the war on terrorism. While the government has officially reported more than 6,400 individuals arrested or detained in this large net, nearly all were for minor immigration violations — technicalities — holding many for months in solitude and denied contact with relatives or legal representation.

Records also show the FBI conducted “interviews” on more than 27,000 individuals related to 9/11. In addition, the INS instigated a program which registered, interviewed, fingerprinted and photographed 144,000 green card holders from so-called “Muslim” countries. These were people who lived here for years, paid taxes, worked hard to make a living and educate their children with, oh-by-the-way, zero ties to terrorism. Undeniably, a few had criminal records, yet of those held on actual terror charges, most of those accusations have been dropped due to lack of evidence.

The American Muslim community, numbering close to six million, quickly and loudly condemned the devastating attacks on our country. Many organizations, like the Muslim Public Affairs Council, offered their help in any way, from their grassroots anti-terrorism campaigns to youth outreach efforts. After all, Islamic teachings abhor violence. But instead of engaging the American Muslim community for their assistance in the war on terrorism, government agencies tragically spied upon, bullied and intimidated thousands while stating publicly that retribution against the Muslim community would not be tolerated. A mixed message at best.

Apparently, the British authorities have learned from our government’s mistakes, actively engaging the local Muslim community in a determined, focused effort to find the criminals. This has resulted in the arrests of a cadre of individuals directly responsible for terror activities and, as a consequence, created a more trusting relationship between British law enforcement, local Muslims and the general public at-large.

While terrorism is still a very real threat both here and abroad, it’s encouraging to see a very public government engagement of reaching out to a community for help in stopping the scourge of hatred and destruction by a few misguided yet zealous individuals.

It’s a shame — almost a sham — that the recent “fatwa” issued by the Fiqh Council of North America, appears to be the only one of the multiple statements made by American Muslims against terrorism over the years that has been recognized by the media, finally acknowledging our contribution to this cause for our country. Such sensational media events do little to solve anything in reality and are as newsworthy as high-speed car chases and water-skiing squirrels.

As fellow patriots, American Muslims have done much to be part of the solution. To win the war on terrorism, however, government agencies need to openly and actively engage local Muslims in this fight.

Tarik Trad is a volunteer with the Muslim Public Affairs Council.