Some thoughts on the foiled plot to bomb synagogues in the Bronx:

The perpetrators were muslim. They were also black, and converted to Islam in prison. I hear Rod’s complaint but I think he’s being a bit politically correct in his own fashion in acknowledging only half of the racial and religious identity here.

It’s good for the muslim community to repeat the fact that these idiots were muslim, loudly. Islam is among the fastest, if not the fastest, growing religion in the United States. That means that Islam’s share of criminals, racists, supremacists, and idiots will also grow. Not every crime by a muslim is part of a jihad, unless we have now redefined jihad as “violent action by a muslim” which is essentially a useless definition. If Rod is asserting that the muslim faith is relevant to the crime, then he is making a leap.

That said, the problem of domestic terrorism is not to be underestimated. However, America has largely avoided this as a problem, though minor hate crimes are a serious probem – and the religion and targets of the perpetrators is a lot more varied than you’d think by hearing people complain about PC omissions. Mosques get targeted just as synagogues do, and these are essentially identical hate crimes (which is why I argue that the ADL and CAIR should make common cause in compiling a database of these incidents). The solution to the problem of domestic terrorism is straightforward: investigations and law-enforcement by the FBI and local police, and the religion of the perpetrators is utterly irrelevant.

As I said above, America has largely avoided serious terrorist attacks from domestic muslims. The 9-11 attacks were carried out by foreigners; the last domestic terrorist attack on US soil was by Timothy McVeigh in Oklahoma City. The reason that the muslim community in the US remains resistant to jihadist ideology is because of the vigilance and cooperation of the muslim american community with the FBI – the investigation of these brox idiots began with a tip from an informant, it should be pointed out. Recent calls from some muslim-american organizations to sever ties with the FBI 1. prove that these ties exist and 2. were disputed and critiqued by the broader muslim american community anyway.

This recent incident proves that these ties have value and that the muslim american community is doing its civic duty to help keep America safe. Not that you’d know it from the silence libel or Islamophobic films such as The Third Jihad or Obsession… but we as a community will continue to do what we feel is right, and suffer the slings and arrows accordingly. This arrest is a great victory, and vindication.