Wow: Rafia Farook, Mother of Terrorist Killer Syed Farook, Is Member of Hardline Islamic Society

I was angered by her lawyers' press conference. One could make two different defenses in the wake of her son's crimes:

1. This is a terrible slaughter, and I hope my son and daughter-in-law had nothing to do with it. I, am, however, completely innocent, in thought and deed.

Or:

2. You have to understand the grievances of the Muslim community before judging this action.

I felt the lawyers' performance was a lot closer to option 2 than one -- yet another instance of Islamic spokesmen lecturing the rest of America what American needs to do to accommodate Islamic habits, on the heels of a slaughter perpetrated by Muslims.

I don't want or need Muslims to be put through the ordeal of Denouncement Theater, in which people demand they condemn actions they had nothing to do with.

On the other hand, I am tired of terrorist slaughters being used as PR opportunities on behalf of more radical interpretations of Islam, too.

And this cycle of slaughter followed by bitter attacks by Islamic spokesmen on the country being attacked by Islam is unseemly, and we would not put up with this shit were it to come from anyone else.

If -- if; we have no evidence either part of this hypothetical is true -- the so-called Planned Parenthood shooter was confirmed to be attempting to terrorize PP into shutting its doors, and then pro-life Christians went on TV to make demands upon the rest of America to quell this terrorist urge -- then I imagine we'd see quite an angry reaction from the dominant (progressive, coastal, urban) caste in this country than we do in the case of similar behavior from Islamic spokesmen.

Anyway, given the lawyers' performance, I found myself wondering: Why not simply declare innocence? Why, instead of declaring the mother's innocence, make this argument that maybe America just needs to understand the context of the actions Syed took?

Well, Enter Facts.

Rafia Farook may well be innocent of any deed, but her active participation in a hardline group seems worth looking into.

Rafia Farook, the mother of San Bernardino terrorist Syed Rizwan Farook, is an active member of the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), a Muslim organization that promotes the establishment of a caliphate and has ties to a radical Pakistani political group called Jamaat-e-Islami.

Farook’s affiliation with ICNA was revealed on Friday when MSNBC and other new outlets scoured the Farooks’ apartment in Redlands, Cal. An MSNBC reporter found a certificate of appreciation presented to Safia Farook last summer by ICNA's sisters' wing.

The Daily Caller notes that the ICNA is not the subject of any federal investigations. But the group is a hardline one, and members associated with it have been charged with terrorism.

Also hit the first link (at Hot Air) for another link, which reports that Loretta Lynch agrees (probably reluctantly) that the FBI should be looking at the mother.

It's important to note that a mere belief is not the same as an action or a crime -- our entire American civilization is built on the premise that one is free to think, argue, and believe (and worship) as one likes, and that this cannot be criminalized. Given that the left seems very hot to criminalize the things we think and believe, the right has done a lot of vigorous arguing for the obviously-true proposition that thoughts cannot be criminal lately.

So I don't want to suggest that Rafia Farook committed a "mindcrime" here.

However, we are well past the point at which we can continue ignoring the obvious role that hardline Islamic Supremacist ideology plays in terrorism. We need to take steps to stop this -- and that includes, as the most minimal of minima, asking would-be immigrants what they believe, ideologically and religiously, rather than taking the position that it's "unfair" to ask them that.

No, it would be unfair to impose consequences on an American for what he believes or thinks.

It is not, however, to ask a non-American what he thinks or believes. They do not have the right to be here, as an American does; it does not "go against our values," as the Endless Drone of Obama would have it, to deny the privilege of visiting, or settling in, America, to those whose values are not only incompatible with American civilization, but any kind of real civilization at all.

We cannot punish American citizens simply for believing in an evil and violent ideology in which all individuality and freedom is stamped out in favor of the dictates of an alien god and council of ugly-minded clerics.

We can, however, stop importing their reinforcements from foreign lands.

FBI Press Conference on Now: Livestream link. The terrorist couple had nineteen pipe bombs.

As you may have heard, they planned follow-up attacks to this one. And if you remember, one of the places the cops went to after the shooting (before the terrorists were killed) was a local mall. (That's not part of the press conference, just mentioning this.)

Who Are the ICNA? A backgrounder from the Center for Security Policy.

posted by Ace at 02:53 PM

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