U.S.: Sitting on the river-bank and talking the river bad

WASHINGTON The FBI long has contended that not one al-Qaida operative in the United States collaborated with the 19 hijackers in the Sept. 11 attacks. Yet the commission investigating the attacks has identified two Muslim men who might have had advance knowledge of the plot.

The commission found that two hijackers got substantial help from Mohdar Abdullah and Anwar Aulaqi after settling in California in 2000. The bipartisan panel created by Congress said it could not discount the possibility the men knew the hijackers' plans.

Abdullah, who recently was deported to Yemen, helped the hijackers get driver's licenses. He bragged, while in U.S. custody after the hijackings, that he had known the attacks were coming.

Aulaqi, a cleric who left the United States shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, introduced the two hijackers, Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar, to other people who helped provide living arrangements in this country.

The previously undisclosed information about Abdullah and Aulaqi was contained in one of the commission reports released this month.

The FBI is seeking to find and interview Aulaqi about his contacts with al-Hazmi and al-Mihdhar. It is unclear if U.S. officials know where Aulaqi is.

We have a proverb in TT, 'don't sit down on the river-bank and talk the river bad.' In a nutshell, observe the rules of courtesy and be a good guest to anyone's who's hosting you.

For the most part, and that qualifier is with slavery past in mind, the U.S. has been a good host to peoples of many nations. Those who have sought refuge or relocation here have an obligation to contribute to the body politic and not rend its fabric. If the U.S. is so repugnant a host country, then the people in question have the choice of remaining in their home country or relocating elsewhere. Coming to this country with intent to destroy bespeaks a lack of integrity and a vicious hatred of the host and its inhabitants. Those who come with such intent have no assimilationist goals in mind; instead, their purpose is conquest, not by judicial means, but by brute force advanced through the judiciary, if necessary.

The beauty of the U.S. is that the Constitution grants the right of protest and address of grievance to all, citizen and non-citizen alike. Those who have a complaint have legal channels for such. However, when the complainant has only hatred and the desire for conquest, legal avenues are disregarded until there is a need for them to advance the agenda. Thus, there is simultaenously contempt for the law and an amoral abuse of the law as a tool of destruction. This latter is the one right that the Constitution does not grant; however, the successful manipulaton of the law can further the goal of destruction of the society.

So, we have a fifth column in this country, immigrants whose intent is not benevolent but destructive for the sake of conquest, ultimately. How many Abdullahs and Aulaqis there are in this country, nobody knows. However, the sub-host Muslim community do know and are silent. The legal maxim is 'silence betokens consent.' In the wake of the beheading of Paul M. Johnson, there may have been a rise in anti-Muslim activity; however, that is questionable because, upon investigation, many such incidents have been found to be bogus or contrived by Muslims for the sake of a financial payout, or to gain sympathy, or for some such reason. See here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Muslims in America would do well to internalize that TT proverb, 'don't sit down on the river-bank and talk the river bad,' or return to their point of origin.