A version of this story appeared in the daily Threat Status newsletter from The Washington Times. Click here to receive Threat Status delivered directly to your inbox each weekday.
OPINION:
Maybe you were surprised to learn that the New Year’s morning Islamic terrorist massacre in New Orleans was committed by a Texas-born U.S. Army veteran who embraced ISIS ideology. You shouldn’t be.
You probably don’t even know that a Cape Cod man died after setting himself on fire near the Israeli consulate in Boston this past Sept. 11, having released a video saying, “We are slaves to capitalism … Free Palestine.” But that shouldn’t surprise you either. These are not random events. They are the result of a long-running Islamist campaign to radicalize Americans and undermine our country.
One under-acknowledged avenue through which Islamists in America invite an evil anti-West ideology is by establishing sham organizations that masquerade as humanitarian entities but are institutional fronts for terrorist groups.
Democrats opened the immigration floodgates to foreigners who, far from not sharing American values, seek to dismantle and destroy our Judeo-Christian way of life. Now safely ensconced within our borders, they’re capitalizing on liberal ignorance and establishing organizational mechanisms to import their hatred from abroad.
Democrats are refusing to penalize Islamist groups for peddling agendas rooted in Islamic radicalization and an anti-Western ethos. Liberal lawmakers may not have George Soros’s money, but they’re willing to use their legislative heft to protect groups that propagandize against America.
Late last year, the overwhelming majority of Democrats declined to vote in favor of a resolution that would grant the IRS greater authority to strip the tax-exempt status for non-profit groups that support terrorism.
With only 15 Democrats backing the measure that also alters the tax code so that American hostages returning home don’t incur financial penalties, The Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act passed the House in a 219-184 vote on the strength of Republican votes.
Instead of demonstrating distance with unsavory groups, such as the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), whose national chapter was named as an unindicted co-conspirator of Hamas in a 2009 terrorism financing case, liberal politicians have created conditions for normalizing extremism within the national public discourse.
CAIR’s Executive Director, Jordanian-born Nihad Awad, who moved to the U.S. as a university student, expressed his joy following Hamas’s barbaric Oct. 7 attacks against Israel.
And while CAIR was designated a terrorist organization by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2014, the Biden administration originally included the institution as a consultant in its 2023 National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism because, after all, what better way to combat antisemitism than to partner with a Jew-hating organization.
The fomenting of an Islamist ideology was initially brought here from abroad. Those importing such beliefs have grown creative and are now promoting hatred of our country by setting up terror shops that are cloaked in progressive dogma, preying on impressionable students, and exploiting vulnerable Americans.
According to the non-profit watchdog group NGO Monitor, Arizona-based Alliance for Global Justice (AFGJ), which publicly backs and supports convicted terrorists, serves as an umbrella establishment and fiscal sponsor to a host of radical NGOs, including the internationally recognized terror group Samidoun.
With Democrats raising the threshold for what constitutes anti-American institutional activity, new groups are emerging, which make groups like CAIR look like child’s play.
A pan-Islamist political organization that is transparent about its aim to establish an Islamic caliphate, Hizb ut-Tahrir America (HTA), held its annual Khilafah Conference in Illinois last March.
While banned in Britain, Egypt, Germany, and other countries, Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT) repeatedly boasts about its pan-Islamic objectives, with the group’s foreign-born cadre of Muslim leaders showing no qualms about slandering American ideals and values and calling for the eradication of Israel.
A glimpse into the rhetoric espoused by the cohort of Muslim radicals running HT includes the founder of the institution’s Chicago chapter, Dr. Mohammed Malkawi, declaring in 2013, “Let Britain, America, and the entire West go to hell because the Caliphate is coming, Allah willing.”
Democrats’ commitment to upholding a dangerous experiment in multiculturalism is motivating a new generation of Islamic activists to capitalize on our cultural moment and grow their terror network through NGOs and terror-aligned groups.
Preserving America as the providential land of liberty requires keeping Jihadists out. Once inside, they have proven shrewd and cunning enemies willing and able to establish a confluence of organizational structures to achieve their nefarious objectives. We must act decisively to prevent them from grooming the next generation of anti-American terrorists determined to undermine our country.
• Irit Tratt is a writer and was Co-chair of the Trump 47 National Women’s Leadership Coalition. Follow her on X @Irit_Tratt.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.