Witchhunt for terrorist
Reader comment on item: Converts to Terrorism

Submitted by Bilal (United States), Jun 14, 2006 at 23:10

My opinion is that history repeats itself. During the spread of communism - the conservatives went on the rampage to identify any potential communist in their ranks and isolate them. This was driven by sense of insecurity and other motivations - greed being one of them. The Iran-Contra affair can be one example of how the common people are looted.

Historically the witch-hunts, the Spanish inquisition (against Jews and Muslims) are parallel examples. Today spectre of radical Islam has created this crisis. It is interesting that the Atlantic (June 2006) ran an article by Milton Viorst "The Education of Ali Al-Timimi" - interesting read about a Muslim American Scientist charged perhaps wrongly with terrorism. Mr Al-Timimi noted in his claim to innocense that "is not because of any inherent misunderstanding on my part as to the nature of the crimes for which I was convicted. Nor is it because my Muslim belief recognizes sharia law rather than secular laws, as somebody might argue. It is merely because I am innocent .... To accept these charges, we must believe that a solitary man who would spend his days working full-time at one of Fortune magazine's 100 best companies and then spend his evening and weekends engaged in cancer research for a doctorate in computational biology, an individual who has never owned or used a gun, never traveled to a military camp, never set foot in a country in which a war was taking place, never raised money for any vilent organization, would be - could be - the author of so much harm...

Someone who did not observe the proceeding might justifiably ask, "How then was he convicted?" The answer , of course, was "Simply out of fear"....In the end, Your Honor, I too, like Socrates, am accused and found guilty of nothing more than corrupting the youth and practicing a different religion than that of the majority. Socrates was mercifully given a cup of hemlock. I was handed a life sentence."

No wonder the noteworthy magazine on page 105 has an ad running "It's Time - the case ofr impeachment - againt George W Bush " for lying and inducing Congress and the American people into an unjust war; allowing people close to him to profit from the war in Irag; authorizing torture and rendition of prisoners of war and suspected terrorists; stripping Americans of their constitutional rights; failing to defend the homeland and our borders and illegal wiretapping.

This witch hunt of finding terrorist among our midst is sending too many innocent people to the gallows - like the zeal of the French Revolution few centuries back sent any one and everyone connected to the aristocracy to the gallows. History repeats itself.

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