There is a lot more to the story of alleged would-be presidential assassin Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, who was described yesterday as “a former Virginia high school valedictorian.” Rusty Shackleford e-mails to point out that the “high school” from which Ali graduated was the Islamic Saudi Academy, a Wahhabi school backed by the Saudi government. A rather significant omission by the AP, to say the least.
This news immediately sent me to Counterterrorism Blog, to see what Steve Emerson, who has been tracking these schools for more than a decade, had to say. Unfortunately, he has yet to post on the topic but his colleagues have. Andrew Cochran explores Ali’s relationship with the “Virginia jihad network.” Michael Cutler uses the occasion to highlight the problems with the Visa Waiver program.
Athena of Terrorism Unveiled has a roundup of press reactions.
Meanwhile, Rep. Charlie Rangel explains to us why we shouldn’t call Islamic terrorism “Islamic terrorism.”
Top House Democrat Charlie Rangel said Tuesday that it was an act of discrimination to label groups like Hezbollah “Islamic terrorists.” Asked about the refusal by some European governments to declare Hezbollah an Islamic terror group, Rangel told WWRL’s Steve Malzberg and Karen Hunter, “To call it Islamic terror is discriminating, it’s bigoted, it is not the right thing to say.”
Rangel even questioned whether, in fact, a worldwide Islamic terrorist movement even existed, saying, “We just take for granted that there is an Islamic terror movement because we do have some fanatic people who come from Islamic countries.” The Harlem Democrat complained: “When we had the Ku Klux Klan we didn’t call them Baptist terrorists. When Hitler was killing Jews, we didn’t call it Christian terrorists.”
Riiight.
