Average Mohamed Tries to Thwart Islamic State
This article is from earlier in the week, published the same day that the video showing the murder of the Jordanian pilot, Muath al-Kasasbeh, was released by the Daesh thugs. I’m posting it here because it needs more exposure—something it’s highly unlikely to receive.
The next time someone tells you that Muslims don’t speak out against terrorism or aren’t doing whatever they can to combat the problem of radicalization here at home, please point them to this page.
You might also want to ask them this: If the U.S. government, with its vast resources—not to mention other countries who face terrorism every day, like Israel & many others in the Mideast—can’t figure out how to control these things, then how in the hell is the “Average Mohamed” expected to stop it? If they can come up with an answer that doesn’t involve ethnic cleansing, genocide, or the craven stripping of Muslims’ civil rights & liberties, then I’m sure many world leaders would gladly lend an ear.
There are two interviews with Mr. Ahmed after the except—the first is from USA Today and was included with the article; the second is from the AP.
This is the real counter-jihad, unlike the thinly disguised hate & bigotry peddled by extremists on both the right & left, which only exacerbates the problem by promoting mutual fear and suspicion.
MINNEAPOLIS — Mohamed Ahmed, a gas station manager who moonlights as an anti-terror propagandist, is ready to launch another strike against Islamic State terrorists.
He’s just waiting for his tax refund to do it.
Frustrated by a slick social media campaign on the Internet by the Islamic State that authorities say has helped lure dozens of young Muslim Americans to the fight in Iraq and Syria, Ahmed has already poured thousands of dollars of his own money over the last six months into producing a series of animated cartoon messages to rebut the extremist group’s messaging.
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The growing push to address radicalization comes as the White House has tapped the Twin Cities along with Boston and Los Angeles to take part in a pilot program centered on preventing young Muslim Americans from being radicalized.
Communities aren’t waiting for direction from Washington.
In Minneapolis, imams from the city’s mosques have been holding regular dinner meetings with Andy Luger, the U.S. attorney for Minnesota, over the last several months to plot the way forward for the emerging pilot program.
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