It has been condemned by its critics as “profiling”, but after Orlando, where yet another Muslim terrorist yelling “Allahu Akhbar” killed innocent Americans, perhaps we should just call the monitoring of mosques, such as used to go on in New York, searching for radicalized individuals a “description of the suspects”.

As reported by WPTV in West Palm Beach, Florida, Omar Mateen is the second Islamic terrorist involved in a terror attack with ties to the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce in Florida:

An Imam at the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce, Dr. Syed Rahman, confirms that Mateen did worship at his Mosque, located on Midway Rd. in Fort Pierce…

This is the second time in nearly two years that Rahman has learned someone who worshiped at the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce had committed an act of terrorism.

Moner-Muhammed Abu Salha was a suicide bomber in Syria in 2014. He lived in Vero Beach and Fort Pierce.

He was considered one of the first Americans to carry out a suicide bombing in that area overseas.

During the campaign, GOP presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz took the politically incorrect position that law enforcement should always deploy their resources in area where crimes occur or where they are likely to be planned and instigated: As CNN reported the interplay with Anderson Cooper during its debate:

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz defended Tuesday his desire to have law enforcement patrol Muslim neighborhoods to prevent terrorist attacks.

"There's a difference between Islam and Islamism," he told Anderson Cooper at CNN's Republican Town Hall. "Islamism is a political and theoretical philosophy that commands its adherents to wage violent jihad to murder or forcibly convert all infidels. And by infidels, they mean every one of the rest of us."…

"In New York, this was a successful program. It was set up under Mayor Michael Bloomberg to monitor and to work cooperatively with the Muslim community to prevent radicalization and to stop radical Islamic terrorist plots before it occurs," he said…

"When Mayor Bill de Blasio got elected, he gave into political correctness and he shut it down," Cruz said. "If you want to stop radical Islamic terrorism, the answer isn't to go hang out in random neighborhoods, it is instead to focus on communities where radicalization is at risk."

As Investor’s Business Daily pointed out in a January 8, 2015 editorial, agreeing with Cruz was none other than Rudy Giuliani, the mayor of New York during 9/11 and its aftermath, who noted that Bill de Blasio’s cancellation of mosque monitoring was a mistake in view of a history of terrorist attacks linked to radicalization at mosques:

In the wake of the Islamist terrorist attack in Paris, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani argues to reinstate a policy cancelled by Mayor Bill de Blasio, who has arguably left the city as exposed as it was on Sept. 10, 2001.

Although the Paris terrorist attack by Islamists has not been linked to any mosque, the historical record is dotted with similar attacks that have such links, including the Nov. 5, 2009, rampage at the Army base in Killeen, Texas, by Maj. Nidal Hasan that killed 13 and wounded 31 as the self-proclaimed “Soldier of Allah” shouted “Allahu Akhbar” (God is great) in a manner similar to the Paris attackers.

Hasan’s nearly two dozen messages to al-Qaida terrorist leader Anwar al-Awlaki, once a spiritual leader at a mosque in suburban Virginia where Hasan worshipped, put Hasan on the radar of authorities who, tragically, did not heed the warning signs.

Thinking of mosques as potential hotbeds of the Islamist fanaticism that can fuel terrorist attacks isn’t politically correct, yet it’s happened.

As we have noted, the Saudi Embassy-funded and Muslim Brotherhood-owned Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Northern Virginia, where Hasan worshipped and al-Awlaki preached, was also where the 9/11 hijackers who led the Pentagon attack got help with housing and IDs.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, appearing Wednesday on Fox News’ “O’Reilly Factor,” said that in the light of the historical record, including the fact that the first World Trade Center attack in 1993 was hatched primarily in three New Jersey mosques, and that after the Paris attacks, it might be wise for de Blasio to reverse his decision to suspend the mosque monitoring unit, a case IBD has made many times…

If authorities had monitored mosques in the Boston area, they might have been alerted to the increasing radicalization of Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who, with his brother Dzhokhar, attended the Islamic Society mosque in Cambridge, Mass., where he frequently engaged in vocal outbursts expressing his radicalism.

In a Sept. 7 2014 article in the New York Post, Paul Sperry, a Hoover Institution media fellow, noted that sx other people with terrorist ties attended the same mosque as the Tsarnaev brothers, including its founder and a prominent member of the Islamic State:

As it turns out, worshippers at the Islamic Society have included:

Abdurahman Alamoudi, the mosque’s founder and first president, who in 2004 was sentenced to 23 years in prison for plotting terrorism. In 2005, the Treasury Department issued a statement saying Alamoudi raised money for al Qaeda in the US.

Aafia Siddiqui, an MIT scientist-turned-al Qaeda agent, who in 2010 was sentenced to 86 years in prison for planning a New York chemical attack. Known as “Lady al Qaeda,” she is related to 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed. ISIS has tried to trade her release for journalist hostages.

Tarek Mehanna, who in 2012 got 17 years in prison for conspiring to use automatic weapons to murder shoppers in a suburban Boston mall.

Yusuf al-Qaradawi, a mosque trustee and Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood leader banned from the US after issuing a fatwa that called for the killing of US soldiers.

Jamal Badawi, another former trustee who in 2007 was named an unindicted co-conspirator in a plan to funnel more than $12 million to Palestinian suicide bombers.

Now it can be revealed that another regular worshipper at the Islamic Society mosque was Ahmad Abousamra, who is now the top propagandist for ISIS.

Not all Muslims are terrorists, but most terrorists have been Muslims, most linked to mosques that have been hotbeds of radicalization with links to some of the world’s worst terrorists. Maybe, just maybe, after Boston, Ft. Hood, San Bernadino, and now Orlando, it’s time to abandon political correctness and not let terrorists hide behind a mosque.

Daniel John Sobieski is a freelance writer whose pieces have appeared in Investor’s Business Daily, Human Events, Reason Magazine and the Chicago Sun-Times among other publications.