June 2, 2006:
A primary breeding ground for Islamic terrorism is the 1,359 mosques that Saudi Arabia has established, at an average cost of $160,000 each, throughout the world over the past few decades. In the West, where costs are higher, millions of dollars were spent on individual "Islamic Centers." Since the 1970s, Saudi Arabia has spent billions of dollars to spread their form of conservative Islam (Wahabbism). Most of this effort was directed as countries that already had a majority Moslem population. There, the Wahabbi clerics often ran into problems with other Islamic sects, which Wahabbis consider, to various degrees, heretical. That, of course, was nothing compared to the Wahabbi attitude towards non-Moslems (infidels). One thing the Saudis learned early on was to not say the same things to infidels that they said to fellow Moslems. Thus English language messages from Wahabbis, about what they are doing with all this missionary work, stress the need to unify the Islamic community, and improve religious education. But the messages to the people using all those mosques are very different. Here there is much talk of hatred for the infidels, and the need to fight, and destroy these enemies of Islam. With this in mind, it's less surprising that so many Islamic terrorists have some connection with these mosques.
Naturally, since September 11, 2001, the Wahabbi mosques in Western nations have come under greater scrutiny. Many actual, and potential, terrorists have been caught as a result. In most cases, the people running the Wahabbi mosques are not involved, although the sermons preached at these centers are full of religious and racial hatred. The clerics quote the Koran to defend themselves against charges of incitement to violence. These mosques serve as natural gathering places for those inclined to Islamic terrorism. Time and again, arrested terrorists are found to have networked at these mosques. The Saudi subsidized clerics at these mosques denounce Islamic terrorism to the police and the media, but display a more favorable attitude from the pulpit.
Over the last few years, especially since al Qaeda began setting off bombs in Saudi Arabia, the Saudis, and the Islamic Charities they work with, have urged the clerics in the subsidized mosques to cool it with the pro- terrorist talk. Saudi Arabia refuses to cut off the financial support, insisting, with some degree of accuracy, that most of what the mosques do is positive. Most of the mosques also provide social services to immigrants. But some of those migrants are enthusiastic supporters of Islamic terrorism. The local police make the most of the situation, and plant informers inside. Increasingly, these informants are Moslem migrants themselves, turned off by the continued Islamic terrorism, and the growing tendency to target Moslems as well as infidels. Iraq is often mentioned, and the endless terrorist attacks against fellow Moslems there.
Meanwhile, there have been few successful Islamic terror attacks in Europe. There aren't many arrests of terrorists planning attacks either. The idea that battle hardened Islamic terrorists are coming back from Iraq is another myth. Few European Moslems have gone off to be holy warriors in Iraq, and most who did, died there. Most of those who returned, came back disillusioned. As a practical matter, the Islamic terrorists are getting their technical information off the Internet, and from other wannbes they meet at the local, Saudi sponsored, Wahabbi run mosque.
