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Wahhabism and the First Amendment


(Commentary) Michael W. Schwartz - For nearly 30 years, the U.S. government has turned a blind and even benign eye on the creation within the U.S. of a network of Wahhabist mosques and related Wahhabist entities paid for and frequently staffed by the Saudi establishment - a network now bearing bitter fruit. The total number of Wahhabi-funded mosques in the U.S. is huge: Hussain Haqqani, Pakistan's ambassador to the U.S., estimates that Wahhabis with pro-Saudi leanings dominate 800 of the estimated 1,200 mosques in this country. Even non-Saudi-financed mosques often employ Saudi or other Arab imams who have been sent here by the World Muslim League, a vehicle created and financed by Saudis for spreading Wahhabism around the world. This Wahhabi network has now been linked to incidents of "home-grown terrorism." The Fort Hood murderer, Major Nidal Hasan, was a congregant of the Dar al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Va. Dar al-Hijrah's membership includes a rogues' gallery of terrorist sympathizers and participants, at least two now serving long prison sentences, another deported, a third an unindicted co-conspirator in the first World Trade Center case, and two of the 9/11 perpetrators. The assumption that American law cannot distinguish between Saudi mosques and American mosques is baseless. There is no case holding that a foreign religious establishment is entitled to claim the protections of the First Amendment.
2010-01-15 08:29:47
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