ACLU Vs. U.S. (Cont'd)

From IBD:
Posted 5/17/2006

Homeland Security: The U.S. government can't prevent domestic terrorism with its hands tied. But when it comes to monitoring possible al-Qaida allies living in America, that's exactly what the ACLU is trying to do.

The American Civil Liberties Union this week filed a Freedom of Information Act request on behalf of Islamic groups for any and all surveillance since the 9-11 attacks by the FBI of Muslims and mosques in Southern California under the expanded powers granted by the Patriot Act.

Shakeel Syed, executive director of Anaheim's Islamic Shura Council, complained that "People should not be afraid that practicing their religion or even visiting a mosque will make them a suspect of the government."
But the idea of "homeland security" would be meaningless if federal law enforcement shirked at doing its job to find and catch would-be terrorists and their supporters.

If we're treating little old ladies with canes as suspects — singling them out for questioning by Transportation Security Administration personnel — what sense does it make to ignore mosques? And as to Syed waving the First Amendment at us, it isn't bake sales and bingo games the FBI is investigating at Muslim places of worship.

Sheikh Mohammed Hisham Kabbani is a traditional Islamic scholar from Lebanon who heads the moderate Islamic Supreme Council of America, a group that keeps tabs on Muslim extremism in the U.S. He famously warned America during a State Department forum in 1999 that "more than 80%" of the 3,000-plus mosques in this country are run by extremists representing the radical, exclusivist Wahhabi brand of Islam prevalent in Saudi Arabia.

"They form small circles in different homes or different basements or in different areas, and they begin to brainwash the people," Kabbani said. "That's why we find this kind of movement is becoming big now, especially when the idea is that we have a struggle between us and the United States."

ACLU attorney Renjana Natarajan grumbles that the FBI has "asked what mosque they attend or what the imam says, where they went on religious pilgrimages and how many stops they made. They're really questions that are at the heart of our religious constitutional freedoms."

But these questions don't prevent religious practice. And they must be asked if we are to track down Islamofascists determined to destroy our constitutional freedoms and murder as many innocent Americans as they can — and the ACLU can stop feigning that it isn't well-aware of that.

The USA PATRIOT Act stands for "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism." But true to its hard-left origins, the ACLU is once again proving it will stop at nothing to divide America and take away the tools needed for defense against our enemies.