Is
Jihad Outdated? How Islamists Work the System

A briefing by Steven Emerson
June 4,
2009

http://www.meforum.org/2173/islamists-work-the-system
(includes
an audio recording of this talk)

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Steven Emerson is a leading authority on
Islamic extremist networks and their activities, from violent jihad to
stealth jihad. The founder and executive director of the Investigative
Project on Terrorism, Emerson has testified before Congress on numerous
occasions and regularly assists government agencies with combating
radical Islam. On June 4, 2009, he spoke to the Middle East Forum in New
York City about the future of jihad.

Steven Emerson began his talk by evaluating the
potential impact of Barack Obama's address in Cairo, which was delivered
earlier that day. He disputed the notion that the speech would alter
either perceptions of America in the Middle East or the broader fight
against Islamic radicalism, asserting that it is "not going to change the
war on terror."

However, Emerson argued that Islamist
organizations in the U.S. will rejoice at the president's statements,
particularly his call to relax scrutiny of the kind of Islamic charities
that are sometimes used to fund terrorism. Emerson believes that such
overtures will convince Islamist lobby groups like the Council on
American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) that their stigma is being erased and
that they are about to be welcomed back into the mainstream.

Emerson noted that Obama's downplaying of the
Islamist threat exemplifies the "unraveling of the consensus that started
to develop about the dangers of radical Islam" after 9/11. This threat
goes well beyond terrorism, extending to a nonviolent, stealth jihad of
"infiltrating or subverting or intimidating … or changing the American
system by affecting our values, such as freedom of the press and freedom
of speech."

In his view, stealth jihad is just as dangerous
as violent jihad, if not more so, because it is mostly legal and operates
below the radar. Emerson lamented that "Americans don't seem threatened by
anything less than the act of violence," even though prominent Islamists
like cleric Yusuf al-Qaradawi speak of conquering America and Europe via
proselytizing, conversion, immigration, and ultimately the ballot box.

Emerson argued that terrorist attacks on the
scale of 9/11 are "counterproductive" for Islamists, as they bring
unwanted attention to their agenda and disrupt the more promising strategy
of stealth jihad. However, he maintained that intermittent acts of
violence, such as the fatwa against Salman Rushdie and the murder of Theo
van Gogh, help Islamists get their way by promoting fear among
Westerners.

Unfortunately, the elites do little to
illuminate the true perils of Islamism. The media continue to facilitate
Islamists by whitewashing their aims and legitimizing radical groups that
pretend to be moderate. He also noted that while the FBI deserves credit
for finally cutting ties with CAIR, the government is ever more reluctant
to use the term "Islamic terrorism." As Emerson explained, "If you can't
identify the enemy by who he is, you can't expect to defeat him."

Emerson concluded by emphasizing that the
threat from both violent and stealth jihad is real and shows no signs of
abatement, pointing to a Muslim Brotherhood memo from nearly twenty years
ago that outlines plans for "destroying the Western civilization from
within." "Unless we act and recognize this danger immediately," Emerson
warned, "the future is bleak."

Summary account by David Rusin.

Related
Topics: Radical Islam Steven Emerson

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