I've managed to surface long enough to notice that Abdulrahman Alamoudi was arrested yesterday. Interesting details here and here and, of course, here.
If you have access to a recording of Steven Emerson's incredible 1994 documentary "Jihad in America," that includes the Charlie Rose roundtable follow-up, it's a great opportunity to see Mr. Alamoudi in action. As one of Rose's "moderate Muslim" guests, his bombastic and deprecating remarks about Mr. Emerson's work take on a new aroma in light of the indictment against him. My own videotape is worn pretty thin, but that comes through just fine.
A fascinating commentary on Mr. Alamoudi and his performance in that particular forum can be found here:
This mind-set, so incomprehensible to Westerners, was on full display on a special segment of the "Charlie Rose" program immediately following the PBS airing of "Jihad in America" in 1995. The documentary included shocking footage of Islamic radical groups in America. Abdul Zindani of Hamas in Brooklyn was seen calling for "killing and finishing off" the "idol worshippers." Muslim radicals were shown meeting in Kansas City, Missouri, and a dozen other Middle American cities, spewing hatred of America and praising murder and terrorist acts.
One videotape of a meeting in New Jersey in 1993 showed Muslims chanting "we want the blood of Jews." In videos of Muslim summer camps in the U.S., young kids were saying "butcher the Jews." A man named Abdulla Azzam was shown speaking in Oklahoma City, Brooklyn, Atlanta, and Lawrence, Kansas, urging holy war against the West.
Instead of denouncing these barbaric calls to violence by American Muslims, the respectable "moderates" on the Charlie Rose panel – Clinton ally Abdurahman Alamoudi among them – all denounced the documentary for provoking anti-Muslim feeling. Alamoudi insisted that Hamas is not a terrorist group. Most amazingly, he and his fellow "moderates" said that Americans should not feel threatened by extremist leaders addressing large Muslim audiences in this country calling for "Jihad of the sword" and chanting "Kill the Jews, kill the Christians."
