PrintAugust 18, 2007
Report: Don't Neglect Homegrown Jihadists
A report issued by the New York police highlights the possibility that homegrown, unassimilated Muslims are vulnerable to the siren call of terrorism:
Understanding how seemingly ordinary people become radicalized and hatch homegrown terror plots is essential for law enforcement officials in the United States and abroad to stay one step ahead, a study released yesterday by the New York Police Department concluded.Not suprisingly CAIR and their allies were upset that the report singled out Muslims as the most likely group to radicalize adherents and turn them into terrorists:
The study found that unassimilated Muslims in the United States are vulnerable to extremism, but less so than their European counterparts.
The report’s findings were immediately hailed by proponents of law enforcement and some politicians, while harshly criticized by civil libertarians and advocates for Arab-Americans.
“The report is at odds with federal law enforcement findings, including those of the recently released National Intelligence Estimate, and uses unfortunate stereotyping of entire communities,” Kareem W. Shora, the national executive director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, said in a statement.The report identified four stages of radicalization; pre-radicalization, self-identification, indoctrination and jihadization. It found that the process was less likely to happen here than in Britain, Spain, and other European countries where homegrown terrorists have already struck.
The “sweeping generalizations” of the report may serve to cast a pall of suspicion over the entire American Muslim population, the Council on American-Islamic Relations said yesterday.
