Citizens for National Security and Rep. Allen West Bring Islamophobia to Congress

by Sheila Musaji

Rep. Allen West (R-FL) sponsored an event in the Rayburn House Office Building titled “Homegrown Jihad in the USA: Culmination of the Muslim Brotherhood’s 50-year History of Infiltrating America,” presented by Peter Leitner of Citizens for National Security (CFNS), located in Boca Raton, Florida.

Before any information was available, my stomach churned, as Allen West and Islamophobia are firmly connected from past experience.  Our TAM collection of alarming statements by elected representatives featured a number of Rep. West’s statements:

Rep. Allen West, (R-FL) said “We are in a war against a political, theocratic, authoritarian ideology and it is called Islam!” 
— West also said that the Bible proves that the Arabs are “wild” and “against everyman” quoting Gen 16:11-12.  West won in a campaign that included frequent “history lessons,” teaching, among other things, that “Islam is a totalitarian theocratic political ideology. It is not a religion.” 
— West said that people who display the popular “Coexist” bumper stickers, which use various religious symbols as font, are those who would “give away our country” and “our rights and freedoms and liberties because they are afraid to stand up and confront that which is the antithesis, anathema of who we are.  ...  that Islam is a “very vile and very vicious enemy that we have allowed to come in this country because we ride around with bumper stickers that say ‘coexist.’” 
— He said “We already have a 5th column that is already infiltrating into our colleges, into our universities, into our high schools, into our religious aspect, our cultural aspect, our financial, our political systems in this country. And that enemy represents something called Islam and Islam is a totalitarian theocratic political ideology, it is not a religion. It has not been a religion since 622 AD, and we need to have individuals that stand up and say that.” 
— He said I think one of the critical things that we must come together is that there is an infiltration of the Sharia practice into all of our operating systems in our country as well as across Western civilization. So we must be willing to recognize that enemy. 
— West also criticized Muslim Rep. Keith Ellison saying “really does represent the antithesis of the principles upon which this country was established.”  More here
— West met with Brigitte Gabriel head of anti-Muslim group ACT! for America
—West an event in the Rayburn House Office Building titled “Homegrown Jihad in the USA: Culmination of the Muslim Brotherhood’s 50-year History of Infiltrating America,” presented by Peter Leitner of Citizens for National Security (CFNS).  They have a very Islamophobic outlook.  **  8/11
Rep. Ernest Wooton (R-LA) promotes anti-Sharia legislation in Louisiana.
— West hosted a Congressional Screening of an Anti-Islam 9/11 NYC Mosque Film
— Allen West says to President Obama, ‘Get the Hell Out of the US,’ Then Denies He Said It

Eli Clifton has pointed out that CFNS also has a questionable history

While the CFNS’ prejudice against American Muslims is barely hidden, the group’s cofounder Peter Leitner, who will appear at the July 25 Capitol Hill event, also founded The Higgins CounterTerrorism Research Center, which offers counterterrorism training to first responders. A document hosted on their website offers what could only be described as extremely prejudiced, if not outright racist, profiles of Arab psychology. It reads [DOC]:  …[The] Western concept of cause and effect is rarely accepted by Arabs who may not necessarily see a unifying link between events. They do, however, maintain a long-term memory over actions and events. It is important to point out that it is memory, not necessarily history that is important.

Media Matters reported that According to its press release, CFNS’ briefing, titled “Homegrown Jihad in the USA: Culmination of the Muslim Brotherhood’s 50-year History of Infiltrating America,” will present “an unprecedented list of individual members of the Muslim Brotherhood in the U.S., and the people and organizations with which they are associated.” The report was compiled by the organization’s “volunteer members”. They noted that CFNS gives no indication as to the qualifications of those members or how the list was compiled.

Here is a passage from the press release that truly made me fearful:  “It details exactly how the Muslim Brotherhood’s deliberate, premeditated plan is now reaching maturity in this country in the form of homegrown Jihad,” explained Dr. Saxton, CFNS Chairman.    A highlight of the briefing will be an announcement by Dr. Leitner of CFNS’s development of an unprecedented list of individual members of the Muslim Brotherhood in the U.S., and the people and organizations with which they are associated.    “Thus far, this database contains thousands of names and hundreds of organizations, and is growing each day as the CFNS research project expands. It will soon be made available to the public,” noted Leitner.

Justin Elliott checked out the groups website and found that

One section describes the group’s “task forces,” which “focus on, or support, the academic community, Congress, the media, and other establishments and professionals where intelligence and national security issues are in play.” Some of the six are devoted to tracking what the group calls the “Muslim Brotherhood in North America.” And then there’s this:  TASK FORCE 4. Identify “Islamic” businesses, social and religious organizations, schools, etc. throughout North America.    Note that’s not qualified as “extremist” or “terrorist”—just “Islamic,” with inexplicable scare quotes. Can this be described as anything other than outright bigotry?

So, an anti-Muslim Congressperson plans an event in which a relatively unknown organization will present its findings collected by volunteers to prove that American Muslims are dangerous.  This group is collecting the names of individuals they believe are dangerous - 6,000 so far, but more being added each day, and they will make these names available to the public.

West opened the meeting with this statement:  “This is about the protection of each and every American citizen who ever resides within our borders” 

This provided a momentary hope that West had come to a realization that all Americans are deserving of the protection of the Constitution,  but sadly, that was not the case and true to form this was just another Islamophobic event.

Philip Weiss wrote an article Same Islamophobic Bloggers And Pundits That Influenced Norway Killer Also Influence Congress discussing this event and its implications.  Read the full article, but here are a few key passages:

What’s particularly frightening about all of this—the event, Daniel Pipes, Breivik’s manifesto—is not that right-wing radicals exist. That’s not news to any of us. But we should take note of the political influence these lunatics somehow manage to have, and the fact that our nation’s Congresspeople support events like “Homegrown Jihad in the USA.” Ignoring these trends would be dangerous.

The goal of the CFNS event was to present an “in-depth, 18-month long research project” revealing the Muslim Brotherhood’s influence in America. The presentation’s first slide, “THE WAR IS REAL,” introduced the “one-sided war” the Brotherhood has waged against America and the West for the last 50-years. Graphic representations of intricate networks of Muslim Brotherhood “affiliates”—a cast of super-nefarious organizations like the Muslim Students Association, the Muslim American Society, and the North American Islamic Trust—allegedly show the extent to which the Muslim Brotherhood has not only infiltrated America but has transformed every Muslim-American into a raging terrorist, intent on waging “jihad” (a term undefined by the speaker of course) against the West, threatening the “inherently secular” nature of the American political climate (this statement was then contradicted, or perhaps unintentionally retracted, by the speaker after I posed a quite simple question regarding his opinion on the potential threat of other groups that conflate religion and politics, like Evangelical Christians or even lobbying organizations like AIPAC).

Even more bizarre than the “in-depth” research project is the absolute absence of citations or statistics in the pamphlet distributed at the briefing. The only citation is from the Center on Law and Security at NYU which offers graphical representation of prosecutions of “homegrown terrorists.” The goal was to show a linkage between “homegrown terrorists” and “Islam,” clearly to vilify Islam to such an extent that CFNS’s hideous conflation of Muslim and Terrorist would seem somehow grounded in scholarship or reality. In this clear misappropriation of important academic data, CFNS used a statistic about prosecution of terrorist activity to implicate the Muslim Brotherhood and Muslim-Americans in general.

And what are we to make of the database of 6,000 names generated by CFNS’s “in-depth research?” When asked whether or not the names on said database were based on action or association, the speaker paused, and then confirmed that all individuals (and organizations, for that matter) marked as linked to the Muslim Brotherhood (and identified as alleged threats) were listed solely based on (unproved) “affiliation” rather than “terrorist activity.” The prospect of Congress having access to a database of 6,000 names of allegedly dangerous individuals is alarming and should serve as a red-flag for the possibility of violence against the American-Muslim community. If this isn’t McCarthyite, I’m not sure what is.

CFNS’s rhetoric should not be taken lightly. Although many of the attendees at the conference only came to witness its absurdity and get a free lunch, some took heed to the ludicrous message CFNS was trying to convey. The presence of Islamophobia in America and on a global scale is certainly alarming. The identification and data-basing of Muslim students should be a warning sign. This is not benign hatred. When an American politician sponsors an event clearly grounded in racism, anti-Muslim rhetoric and fear-mongering, conscientious individuals and organizations aimed at fostering understanding at peace should take action.

Tim Murphy of Mother Jones wrote Rep. Allen West’s (Very, Very) Stealth Jihad in which he said:

The Brotherhood’s membership, was not, Leitner took pains to note, drawn simply from vulnerable immigrant groups like the Somalis of east Minneapolis. “They’re drawn from very smart classes: teachers and lawyers and medical professionals,” he said. “These are not simple people.”

It was a tangled web—Leitner conceded that his diagrams are “kind of like looking at a plate of spaghetii”—but that was precisely the point: According to Leitner, the Muslim Brotherhood made the plot so vast and multifaceted as part of a campaign of “intentional denial and deception through intentional complexity.” In other words, the conspirators made their conspiracy so big and so omnipresent that the public lost its ability to see the forest for the treason. But don’t call Leitner a black-helicopter type: “You don’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to understand there really are conspiracies in the world,” he said.

Citizens for National Security’s report was preceeded by a big announcement that the group would be releasing the names of 6,000 active members of the Muslim Brotherhood. But when the big day came, the group stated that the names would actually be kept under wraps and only released to select “responsible parties.” In a response to a query from Wired’s Spencer Ackerman, Leitner conceded that the people on his list had not necessarily been charged with any crimes. Instead, they were just people who are involved with organizations he had connected to the Muslim Brotherhood—like the Muslim Students Association.

...  Folks like West and the CFNS want to have it both ways. They cast as wide a net as possible and call for the Muslim Students Association to be classified as a terrorist group. But then they tell the handful of MSA members who attended Monday’s presentation that no one is calling them terrorists. Islam isn’t the enemy—except for when it is. Large groups aren’t responsible for the actions of a few fringe members—except for when they are.

If the Muslim Brotherhood seriously intends to implement Shariah law over the United States, the group faces long odds. Ninety-eight percent of Americans are not Muslim. Of the remaining sliver, the overwhelming majority seem pretty satisfied with our current system of constitutionally protected religious freedom. For a conspiracy that’s been operative since 1962, things sure are moving slowly. But there was one gaping omission from Leitner’s report that might have redeemed the whole thing.

Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy* alleged last summer that Americans for Tax Reform founder Grove Norquist was secretly an agent of the Muslim Brotherhood. And it’s Norquist, along with a host of influential conservative leaders like RedState’s Erick Erickson, who are leading the charge against any sort of reasonable deal on the debt ceiling—sending the federal government careening toward a default, which would crush the economy and cause tens of millions of Americans to lose whatever remaining faith they had in the nation’s core political institutions. And then, boom—Shariah. It’s almost too perfect.

I believe that if CFNS has actually collected information backed by evidence that there are 6,000 plus American Muslims who are a threat, then that information along with the evidence should be immediately turned over, not to the general public (unless they are hoping for lynch mobs to begin attacking anyone on their list) but to law enforcement authorities.  If they don’t know how to contact those authorities, I am certain that the Muslim Public Affairs Council, or other Muslim organizations actively working to counter radicalization can provide them with contact information.

If there is even one scrap of actual evidence other than the fact that these people are Muslims (and that is proof enough of guilt) then for all our safety, that evidence should be turned over to law enforcement immediately.

Rep. West said about this presentation: “This is about the protection of each and every American citizen who ever resides within our borders”  As one of those American citizens, I would like to know how it is possible that an elected representative of the U.S. government could have been provided evidence about individuals who threaten all citizens, and not have already reported that information to law enforcement. 

If Rep. West has not already reported and provided that information to the authorities, then he should be the subject of a Congressional investigation.

If Rep. West has allowed such claims to be made within the Rayburn Congressional building without any evidence, then he should be the subject of a Congressional investigation.

Either way, he is endangering the safety of American citizens.  Citizens he has taken an oath to represent and protect.

SEE ALSO:

At Allen West-Sponsored Event, Group Paints Thousands Of Muslims As Terrorists, Ryan J. Reilly http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/07/at_allen_west-sponsored_event_group_paints_thousands_of_muslims_as_terrorists.php

GOP congressman teams up with anti-Muslim group, Justin Elliott http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/07/07/allen_west_terrorism/index.html

I Have… In My Pocket… A List of Members of the Muslim Brotherhood…, Spencer Ackerman http://spencerackerman.typepad.com/attackerman/2011/07/i-have-in-my-pocket-a-list-of-members-of-the-muslim-brotherhood.html

Muslim Students Challenge Allen West’s Anti-Islamic Speaker on Capitol Hill http://thinkprogress.org/security/2011/07/26/278407/muslim-students-challenge-anti-islamic-speaker/