The Obama administration has been holding meetings with prominent Muslims and Muslim associations on counter-terrorism, security, foreign policy, and unrelated domestic policies. Muslims are gaining the satisfaction of being consulted. They persuaded the government to admit onto our shores Muslims whom the Bush administration had barred, such as Tariq Ramadan and Adam Habib. They influenced the switch to a new airport screening procedure that replaces ethnic profiling with individual risk profiling. The U.S. claims that the new procedure is more effective.
Critics accuse the Administration of making Muslims tied to foreign terrorists or with an Islamist agenda seem legitimate. Example: senior White House adviser Jarrett, who gave the keynote address at the annual conference of the Islamic Society for North America, an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holyland charity case, its leaders having been convicted of conveying money to terrorists. Example: political appointment if several Muslims, including Rashad Hussain as ambassador to the Organization of the Islamic Conference, though in 2004 he had criticized anti-terrorism prosecutions as political (Andrea Elliott, NY Times, 4/19, A1).
There seems to be much interlocking connections between Muslims who purport to be democratic and tolerant and organizations that advocate and finance terrorism. Does the U.S. government realize this?
