It was a sobering thought when I first learned that I and my children were living across from the Polaris Missile Facility in South Carolina. It was equally sobering to realize that we were also housed next to the storage facility for W-80-0 Tomahawk’s, SCLM munitions and nuclear aerial bombs. So when my Mom came to visit that year, and asked me "what’s that fenced area across from housing?" I smiled and said: "officers housing…"
I know the rule of law says innocent until proven guilty, but I couldn’t help the shivers that went up and down my spine when I heard that two men had been stopped near the Naval Weapons Station, Goose Creek, S.C., with explosives. To make the shiver stronger, the two men fit the "model" for suicide bombers: male, middle eastern decent, between 19 and 29, and more recently it seems the model also includes "no known ties to terrorist groups".
The story told by CAIR (the Council on American Islamic Relations) and the families is that these two University of South Florida students were merely on a weekend road trip to North Carolina.
Of course they just so happened to have "fireworks" left over from the fourth of July in the trunk, and just so happened to be toting a laptop (which they tried to quickly stash in the back seat). And they just so happened to have stopped off at the WalMart to buy a few items like potassium chlorate and sugar (which make "instant fire"), some pvc piping, some hobby store brand rocket launchers and fuses. Okay, maybe they were making their own fireworks?
And they just so happened to be speeding (60 in a 45 mph zone) within 8 miles of a Naval Weapons Station. Home of Missile Site, ordinance storage for ships and subs, a brig where enemy combatants have been held, and an open military housing area.
Seems to me the only coincidence here is that they got caught speeding. All the rest seems to fall into the model of "let’s blow up something for Allah." But I could be wrong.
You’ve got to hand it to CAIR though. Within a couple of days they had their Islamophobia speech ready:
"Had these been two good ol’ boys from South Carolina driving through and speeding, and even if they did have some fireworks, nobody would’ve been arrested," says Ahmed Bedier of the Tampa Chapter of CAIR.
Excuse me sir, but you sound like a Redneckaphobic to me! How dare you assume that the people of Goose Creek, including it’s police force, are a bunch of bigots.
Having lived there, I can tell you that old Smokey loves to catch "the bandit", be he redneck, military, and yes, even middle eastern. And, I must add here: if you’re going to act suspiciously and carry questionable materials anywhere near a Military base, you’re pretty much asking for trouble.
Correction. You’re standing up and screaming: COME AND GET ME, I’M STUPID!
Who were these guys anyway?
Yousef Megahed (21) is an undergraduate student from Egypt and a resident of the United States, but not a citizen. Reports from the University of South Florida state that he has been at USF since 2004 and has not yet declared his major, though he was enrolled for three hours for this fall semester.
Ahmed Mohammed (24) is also a student from USF since January and a civil engineering graduate. He is from Kuwait and registered for six hours in summer session.
The FBI is clear to state that thus far the two have no ties to terrorist groups. Maybe not. And I’m not convinced they have to be. Thwarted attempts to commit acts of terror have been inspired merely by the desire to achieve a guaranteed place in Jennet, or Islamic paradise. It would appear that one doesn’t have to be part of a Muslim gang, such as Al-Queda, to want to participate in a personal Jihad.
The University of South Florida has spawned some interesting characters within the past few years as well. Back in 2003 there was Professor Sami Al-Arian and his band of seven- all members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (Al-Arian was the founder of the North American chapter). They were charged with operating a global terrorist organization. He was from Kuwait also (read more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sami_Al-Arian ).
Were these two men, Mohammed and Megahed, related to any such group? We don’t know and may never know. It’s likely they weren’t. What I do know is this:
We live in a time where it’s simply foolhardy for any person of Middle Eastern decent to go around acting weird. By weird I don’t mean the kind of weird that gave the Three Stooges fame.
By "weird" I mean Imams acting in a way so as to spook other travelers on a plane.
By "weird" I mean washing your feet in a sink in the public washroom of a hospital.
By "weird" I mean walking around in an airport, in camouflage pants covered by traditional Muslimah garb, seemingly surveying the area and making crack-pot statements like: "I'm a trained sniper and proud of it."
By the way, this brainy broad also claimed to have "no ties to terrorist groups."
By "weird" I mean speeding through a town, carrying "incendiary devices" in your trunk, trying to ditch your laptop, and doing so near a military facility.
Doing these kinds of things, especially in the wake of recent terrorist attempts here on American soil, isn’t a wise thing to do. And if CAIR wants the rest of us to even remotely think they’re not supportive of terrorism, they’re going to have to stop framing these kinds of behaviors as "innocent" and the people who do them as "victims of Islamophobia."
I don’t expect this to happen though. CAIR doesn’t "CARE" about the importance of Muslims assimilating to the culture in which they live and becoming aware of the need to be self-patrolling. They’re entering into the era of Civil Rights from the Malcolm X side rather than the Martin Luther King side of cultural acceptance and adaptation.