Not an unalloyed success:
A decision to enlist a Queens imam in an effort to develop information about the man at the center of a long-running cross-country terrorism investigation backfired earlier this month.
In fact, federal prosecutors have now charged the imam, a onetime source of information for the New York Police Department, contending that he betrayed the police by warning the suspect and then lied about it, and maybe even coached him on what to say if he was questioned.
Several law enforcement officials have said the imam’s disclosures went a long way toward forcing their hand in an extremely sensitive investigation of a possible Qaeda plot. The situation left them scrambling to conduct raids and arrest the suspect sooner than they might have otherwise, a development that they said could make it harder to identify others involved and develop evidence against them.
I guess I thought we had hoped and changed our way out of this sort of thing.
Perhaps if we apologized more vigorously?
Sorry to mention the obvious and risk being labeled some kind of racist or religious warrior, but why do we assume Muslim imams are sympathetic to our non religious causes? Why do we trust the words of a person whose job it is to spread the words of the Koran and al Hadiths around, which support the position that Americans deserve discriminatory violence and death soley based on the fact that the vast majority of us are NOT Muslim? (Not that we don’t believe in God, but that we don’t believe in their one true God) Why does the FBI assume any Muslim is on our side when religion quite clearly is the yardstick the Islamists use to judge our worthiness of existence?
This is a rhetorical question as I know that without good Muslims who disagree with the Saudi fundamentalist Wahabbi version of Islam, we would have almost no translators, intelligence specialists, and friends who believe in treating ALL human beings with dignity and respect, and would be unable to fight this war. Despite the need for them, can we not at least be suspect of their intentions until proven otherwise? Can we simply agree not to trust Muslims until they demonstrate effectively their willingness to let us live in peace? Leave us alone or else?
I know there is no answer, Lex. Just wishful thinking.
Subsunk
+1.
+3
Any Imam has the authority, IAW the laws of the “peace-loving” Muslim Religion, to approve/authorize/condone any “believer” to commit an act of terrorism, and help that same “believer” with funding. The Muslim community, virtually without exception, are rather passive about taking action against the Islamic Extremists.
I’m in with not trusting Muslims, especially Arab Muslims, until they prove that they deserve to be trusted.
+2
Sub – until we get mainstream coverage of the real teachings of Islam we will continue to suffer from HISS (head in sand syndrome).
G-Man/
I would amend that to the more all-inclusive: HISS/WPG (whistling past graveyard) syndrome.
Maybe another memo, explaining how it’s the religion of peace and they are misinterpreting, would help…
We just need another apology. He broke the Guinness Book of Records at the UN today.
On the road near Pisa, Toscana. I used to preach on this theme until I realized I was preaching largely to the choir. Ron Snyder has it right. None can be trusted, not a one, and we are morally and intellectually deficient idiots for ever thinking otherwise.
ZANE/
You are SO right. I remember reading somewhere a while back the experience of one of our troops over in Iraq who had this Iraqui Army Officer translator/liason type attached who was otherwise well educated, worldly, sensible, kind, possessed of keen sense of humor, loyal to the US command, etc., who, when asked about Jews, turned into a stark raving mad-man who would kill them all man woman and child if given the chance.
Why are these people even in this country?