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Jewish Community News
February 2004
Terrorism expert warns of local terrorist cells
Steven
Emerson awed the crowd of 175 at the Jewish Federation of Silicon Valley's Annual Event dinner Jan. 10 honoring contributors at or above
$1,800 to the annual campaign. Emerson is an internationally recognized
expert on terrorism and national security, a correspondent, and a prolific
author.
Emerson acknowledged that this is a very scary time for Americans and Jews. According to Emerson, Santa Clara County is one of the hotbed areas for Islamic Fundamentalism and terrorist cells that operate across the United States from Boston to San Diego.
These terrorist networks with connections to Osama bin Laden, Hamas and Hizzbollah meet locally to discuss Jihad, killing Jews and undermining Western civilization.
Mainly these groups meet under the guise of religious or ethnic gatherings, protecting them from government scrutiny under the constitutional guarantee of freedom of religion.
These types of meetings, Emerson explained, have long gone unnoticed or monitored by the FBI. Additionally, until the Patriot Act, law enforcement was unable to pursue this information. Emerson expressed concern about the development of terrorist cells not only in Afghanistan, in the Middle East and in the Philippines, but also here in the United States. As a litmus test for Muslims, he suggested asking their position on Jihad and Israel's right to exist. If the answer was anything but a complete denunciation, then they are sympathizers at best and possibly even radicals, he said. Additionally, as a solution, he believes that reformation is the key to this cycle of Jihad and acceptable violence. Further, he suggested that the only way we would know that reformation was successful would be the emergence of Muslim comics. He also expressed the opinion that there are moderate Muslims whose agendas are positive and accepting of different cultures, but that they did not have a power base or mass appeal.
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