US Islamophobe Debbie Schlussel is really targeting UK Muslims when she calls for the end of the Visa Waiver program.
Abdulmutallab–from a prominent, wealthy, religious Muslim Nigerian family–was recruited to become a jihadist, not in his native Nigeria, but in Great Britain, where he spent three years as a student at University College London.
It’s yet another reason why the Visa Waiver program (granting certain designated Western countries an exemption from the usually more stringent visa process to travel to the U.S.) is a huge mistake. We know Muslims come to the U.S. from various assorted Western Visa Waiver countries, and even though Abdulmutallab did not, he was recruited and radicalized in a Visa Waiver Country, Britain, where British nationals are also recruited for Islamic terrorism.
plimfix 2:16 am on December 28, 2009 Permalink |
What makes it possible for ders like Schlussel to spout this kind of schlerp is that Britain, and by that I mean a series of British governments, were only too willing to offer sanctuary to a motley collection of Muslim nutters for decades (see e.g. Nafeez Ahmed for a discussion of this), some of whom were instrumental in radicalizing UK jihadis. Our government allowed this to happen, not because of some misplaced commitment to multiculturalism and human rights (don’t make me larf), but because these people were seen as useful adjuncts to Britain’s grandiose foreign policy strategies. So if Debbie wants to blame Britain for terrorism, she really ought to point her poisonous little finger at the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and a string of Foreign Secretaries. Funnily enough, at Westminster, the FCO and FS have both plummetted in status during the noughties, and the FCO has undergone significant reform. The Tory Party are proposing further reforms if they get elected. And even funnier, neither Tory or Labour will tell you WHY the reform was necessary. They are quite happy to hint that the likes of Looney Schlussel and Mad Mel have the truth of it, rather than Nafeez Ahmed.