Speak the truth

U2 performs in Paris, Dec. 6 2015

On Sunday, December 6, the Irish band U2 rocked a capacity crowd in the AccorHotels Arena in Paris. Bono’s vocals soared and the Edge’s distinctive guitar rang out. Over 20,000 people waved and cheered and clapped, offering a big poke in the eye to ISIS. And then Bono sang U2’s anthem, “In the Name of Love,” and brought down the house. This was powerful stuff and showed human love and compassion in sharp contrast to the evil of terrorism.

This celebration of Liberté, Equalité, Fraternité occurred just four days after the vicious ISIS-inspired attack in San Bernardino. Radical Islamic terrorism had, once again, visited our shores. Our President sprang into action. Jumping right to the central point, he profoundly observed that “we have a pattern now of mass shootings in this country,” and called for more and stricter gun laws.

While millions of ordinary Americans scratched their heads over this, the President went on to scold us. “We cannot turn against one another by letting this fight be defined as a war between America and Islam.”

This is a habit Mr. Obama has long possessed. A Google search for the phrase “Obama scolds” returns over 150,000 hits.

Here is a telegram Mr. President. The American people are a good people. We are reasonably smart. We are kind, generous, and welcoming. We have Muslim friends, neighbors, and colleagues. It is very clear to us that they are good people and not radical jihadists. It is condescending of you to point this out as if you were privy to some great insight. We get it.

And to claim that this terrorism is completely divorced from Islam is an insult to our intelligence as well. Maajid Nawaz, a former jihadist who has deradicalized himself and written about it, defines it succinctly. Writing in the Wall Street Journal on December 12, Nawaz says:

“Islam is a religion, and like any other faith, it is internally diverse. Islamism, by contrast, is the desire to impose a single version of Islam on an entire society. Islamism is not Islam, but it is an offshoot of Islam. It is Muslim theocracy.”

“In much the same way, jihad is a traditional Muslim idea connoting struggle—sometimes a personal spiritual struggle, sometimes a struggle against an external enemy. Jihadism, however, is something else entirely: It is the doctrine of using force to spread Islamism.”

That the President and his supporters can’t mouth these terms is demeaning. We really do get the distinction.

And it goes on. In a major policy speech on December 6, the President demanded that “Congress should act to make sure no one on a no-fly list is able to buy a gun. What could possibly be the argument for allowing a terrorist suspect to buy a semiautomatic weapon?”

Here is what possibly could be the argument. It’s surprising that a constitutional scholar needs to have it pointed out.

In 2005, Rahinah Ibrahim, a doctoral candidate at Stanford University, tried to board a flight to Hawaii from San Francisco International Airport. While trying to check in, her name flashed up on the no-fly list and she ended up being taken away in handcuffs. A long, ultimately unsuccessful attempt to get herself off the list followed. So she sued in Federal court.

The issue was the opaque nature of the process. According to the Stanford Alumni Magazine, “The U.S. government has given her no opportunity to hear the evidence against her, let alone challenge it, say her lawyers.”  Rahinah ultimately prevailed, and in 2014 (yes, nine years later), won her case. But only Rahinah was removed from the list – nothing else changed. The system is still broken.

Many others have found themselves improperly on this list. Ted Kennedy, United States Senator. Daniel Brown, United States Marine returning from Iraq. John Lewis, U.S. Representative from Georgia. And many, many more.

In proposing that everyone on the no-fly list should lose their Second Amendment rights, the president is compounding an already constitutionally challenged program. Let’s fix that first by providing transparency, notification, and due process for anyone placed on the list. Then, and only then, add the no-gun provision.

Here’s the bottom line. We are in a war not of our asking. We must prosecute it, but to truly change this jihadist meme will require generations. It will require solidarity with our Muslim brethren. We will have further attacks, further losses. Perfect safety is not possible. But emotional demands to reduce the strength of the American people will make us even less safe. Calm, cold-eyed reason must prevail. And truth. Quit the scolding, trust us, and speak the truth.

Oceans offer no solace in the digital age

There is a theory that our universe consists of nothing but energy and information.

This is rather startling, for our own eyes tell us that a plethora of things exist, from trees and puppy dogs to the Milky Way and Taylor Swift. But upon closer inspection, we see patterns everywhere. Taylor Swift is composed of human cells which are organized in a predictable fashion to form bones and muscle and nerves. Her brain is wired into patterns of neurons which enable her to create patterns of sounds with which to entertain us.

Patterns are created by information which imposes regularity, repeatability, predictability. Waves on the ocean, the facets of a diamond, and Taylor’s DNA are all examples of patterns, hinting at the hierarchical structures underneath. Energy, coalesced into matter, organized by patterns on top of patterns. An entire universe could conceivably be computed if one’s computer were only powerful enough.

Consider “Minions,” “Despicable Me,” and Warcraft – movies and video games representing entire worlds, entertaining and engrossing, but in fact existing only as strings of ones and zeroes arranged in clever patterns within a computer.

 Here are some other examples of information. The Constitution of the United States. The Ten Commandments. The Koran. Not just the paper and words, but the thoughts and beliefs represented by these documents – all information.

 We humans are respectable computers – information processors – in our own right. This has always been true, but what is new is the digital age. The ease with which ideas can flow, be shared, discussed, embraced or rejected is enormous. The digital age has really just begun, but it has already profoundly affected the ways in which we interact. Social memes ebb and flow across the internet, tweeted and posted and shared with the click of a button or a swipe of your phone.

This virtual world is becoming more and more real, and as more of us participate, with increasing facility and ease, physical borders and impediments dwindle to insignificance. Mountain ranges have long since ceased to be barriers. Rivers are instantly crossed by crackling electrons carrying our tweets through the ether. Oceans shrink, deserts are conquered. Information binds us, aligns us, encouraging alliances, creating schisms, and flows with the speed of light, imposing patterns upon mankind.

Such as the recent successes of ISIS. Nothing but a credo, a belief system, ISIS is reaching out to disaffected millions with their message of empowerment. Join us, and be strong. Support us, and be someone. Come to Western Asia and Africa and help us to build the caliphate. Stay at home and attack from within. Professional YouTube videos present targets and means and tactics. The draw is magnetic, the FBI is concerned.

The recent attack on our military in Chattanooga is an example. The perpetrator, a young male, was stirred to action, exactly how we will never know. But his actions are consistent with ISIS directives. We can expect more such attacks.

Attempts to minimize, to label this a “lone wolf” or “lone gunman,” to deny the link to terrorism, are blatantly political.

There is nothing at all “lone” about it. Mohammod Abdulazeez was one of an army of recruits, potentially millions strong, who are formed and trained and inspired every day by a sophisticated social media program. This threat must be recognized and confronted.

While the Administration and  Department of Defense dawdle, several states are moving rapidly. Florida, Indiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Texas and Wisconsin have all taken various steps to arm their National Guard members on base and in recruitment centers. More states are reviewing security measures and, one can hope, we will see additional measures adopted.

During the first battle for Fallujah, in the halcyon days when all the fighting was “over there,” a captioned photo of combat Marines was circulating around the internet bearing this legend: "America is not at war, the Marine Corps is at war. America is at the mall."

Those days are gone. ISIS is bringing it. We must recognize the threat and prepare to defend ourselves.

Like it or not, America is at war, and broad oceans offer little solace.

Reflections on the Boston Marathon Bombings

Dr. Richard Falk, B.S., L.L.B., S.J.D., a Princeton professor and special envoy to the United Nations, has thought deeply about America’s place in the world.  And he has come to the conclusion that the Boston Marathon bombings are our own fault. Dr. Falk thinks that America is involved in a “global domination project” and we are reaping the anger that we deserve. Of course, Dr. Falk also believes that 9/11 was a conspiracy perpetrated by the Bush administration, a view shared by other such intellectuals as Zubeidat Tsarnaev (the bombers’ mother) and TV host/comedian Rosy O’Donnell.   

The truth, as is often the case, is far simpler: violent Islamic jihadists are at war with us. Disturbingly, a growing number of plots and attacks are originating from “homegrown,” or domestic, sources.

According to a Congressional Research Service report published on January 23, 2013, there had been sixty three violent jihadist plots since September 11, 2001, four of them successful. (We know those numbers now to be sixty four and five, respectively). The CRS study did include plots hatched on foreign soil if the conspirators were American citizens or legal immigrants. It did not include those planned or attempted by foreign nationals, whether on U.S. soil or not (such as British “shoe bomber” Richard Reid).

The study included another finding of note – that the pace of these plots and attacks has increased since 2009.

What are we to make of this? What shall we do?

First and foremost, we must be honest with ourselves and recognize our adversary. The administration, in a Harry Potter-like dodge of “he-who-must-not-be-named,” refuses to acknowledge that the enemy is violent Islamic jihadism.  Case in point – the Army has classified the murder of 13 American troops and the wounding of 32 more by Nidal Malik Hasan at Fort Hood as “workplace violence.” Politically correct contortions such as these strain our credulity, causing our government to lose credibility and, thereby, our trust. 

Next, it goes without saying that Muslims at large are not the enemy. There are only a small proportion of Muslims who believe in the validity of violent jihad. And even these zealots are within their rights to hold this belief. It is the even tinier fraction of fighters who have crossed the line from thought to action, who are willing to visit unspeakable evil on innocents in the pursuit of their goals. These are the enemy, and we must name them and confront them.

Finally, we must not misjudge the threat of homegrown Islamic terrorism. It is no less real than that emanating from foreign soil. The wonder of the Internet and social media has a dark side, and that is in the ease with which ideas can be communicated and reinforced. Hasan, the afore-mentioned Fort Hood attacker, traded many emails with his mentor, Imam Anwar al-Awlaki. In one exchange, he asked al-Awalki “when [is] jihad appropriate, and [whether] is it permissible if innocents are killed in a suicide attack?” Hasan added, “I can’t wait to join you in the afterlife.”

Violent Islamic jihadism is like a virus – it jumps from mind to mind and is either embraced, amplified, or is rejected. It doesn’t infect all whom it encounters. An even smaller number of these, severely infected, are moved to action. To fight this epidemic, our best hopes lie in close relationships and cooperation with the Muslim community. They do not want to see the name of their great religion besmirched. Interfaith services and activities should be encouraged. Community policing, with proper sensitivity, is a must.

A final, important thought. While we must recognize that the inhuman evil perpetrated by the Tsarnaev brothers was a successful bombing attack, it was an abject failure as an act of terror. The people of Boston were not terrorized. Their shock and disbelief quickly morphed into cold, resolute anger: this shall not stand. It did not. And it will not.