Editor's Letter
Understanding Jihad
T
he perseverance of terrorists and American com-
placency toward terrorism keep one of the fore-
most experts on radical Islam awake at night.
We Americans ignore these twin threats at our peril,
insists Yehudit Barsky, director of the Division on Middle
East and International Terrorism for the New York-based
American Jewish Committee (AJC).
The last 18 months have been
a watershed in terms of increas-
ing risk for Americans and all
Westerners. Islamists have made
terror a global phenomenon with
Jews and Jewish institutions prime
targets.
Muslim terrorists are a hardy
bunch; an unsuccessful attempt is
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no reason for them to quit. We don't
Robert Sklar
seem fazed by that, however. The
Editor
danger meter will rise relentlessly if
we don't change how we respond to
terror.
"Although -we as a country and as a Jewish community
have experienced 9-11, to a great extent we've gotten back
into a pre-9-11 mindset, where a lot of things are not really
taken seriously:' Barsky said in an exclusive interview with
the JN on May 14.
Kari Alterman, the AJC's Metro Detroit director,
arranged the eye-opening get-together. The night before,
Barsky served on a panel hosted by the United Against
Terrorism Task Force at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield.
A New Model
Word Power
What about a spoken threat? Don't take it lightly.
Barsky described the case of Mansor Mohammad Asad,
the Toledo, Ohio, man who became disruptive and shouted
that he "wanted to kill all the Jews" while aboard a Miami-to-
Detroit flight on Jan. 6. It's dangerous to think anti-Semitic, or
anti-West, rants could never be acted on.
Barsky starkly illustrated that. The 1994 Brooklyn Bridge
shooting of Chabad-Lubavitch students (one student died)
and the 2002 shooting at the El-Al counter at Los Angeles
International Airport (two Israelis died) showed that anti-
Semitism is a motivating factor. "We need to sensitize people
to that:' Barsky said.
We sure do. Anti-Semitism isn't necessarily being condoned
in the larger community, but there's definitely less of a push to
mobilize and condemn it. Whether because of the Middle East
turmoil, our economic worries or family demands, America
seems desensitized to the growing legions of Jew-haters and
their deviant behavior.
"People of good will may very well say, `This guy is just
being stupid when he says something against Jews: We don't
have the larger, moral reaction of the community anymore
Barsky said. nd I'm not sure exactly why that is."
Fighting Back
To restore the outrage to anti-Semitism in all its ugly shades,
the Jewish community must take the lead and teach Jews as
well as our interfaith partners why an ideology of hatred was
wrong 20 years ago and why it remains so today — and why
denouncing it is so important. Groups can't function indepen-
dently in a world where joining forces improves
the chance of repelling ethnic discrimination.
Barsky took heart in some law enforcement
understanding of the sounding alarms. She singled
out the New York Police Department. After the 2008
Mumbai attacks by Pakistani terrorists who left 166
people dead, the NYPD began to train hotel staff in
how to detect and respond to suspicious activity.
"I think a lot of people would like to forget that
although the Mumbai attacks were in India, the
methodology that was used could be used any-
where Barsky said.
The FBI is in the best position to engage many
more law enforcement agencies in terrorist train-
ing to strengthen our national shield.
Make no mistake about it: Our country is under assault by
jihadists — some homegrown. To not be on guard as a matter
of practice is foolhardy.
Barsky eloquently explained why: "The terrorists are think-
ing out of the box. Through the Internet, they're posting
jihadi videos and extremist sermons that foment hate and
encourage not only individual radicalization, but also going to
Pakistan to train and join in jihad with others.
"I don't know whether we're tired, but the other side isn't
tired. The other side is very excited:'
The danger
meter will rise
relentlessly if
we don't change
how we respond
to terror.
As we talked over coffee in Bloomfield
Hills, Barsky implored the Jewish com-
munity to be a catalyst for changing the
lens through which Americans view ter-
ror. She argued that terror in America
too often is relegated to local news. It
doesn't attract national coverage because
Americans don't see terrorism having
worldwide tentacles.
Barsky cited the botched attempt by
Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to
blow up an Amsterdam-to-Detroit flight
on Christmas Day and the botched attempt by Pakistani
American Faisal Shahzad to blow up a car in Times Square
on May 1. National interest in both incidents evaporated
quickly despite the potential for disaster. Barsky's point:
Lack of sustained curiosity nationwide gives terrorists the
edge to try again.
The inspiration for domestic terror was the 1993 World
Trade Center bombing masterminded by Pakistani Ramzi
Yousef; the attack killed six people. After his 1995 arrest,
the FBI gave Yousef a helicopter ride over New York City.
Above the Twin Towers, he told agents that he could have
toppled the towers with more explosives. Other buildings,
he said, would have followed. "And we didn't take him
seriously:' Barsky said. "We were kind of laughing at him
because he didn't succeed the first time:'
It proved no laughing matter. Khalid Sheik Muhammad,
Yousef's uncle, conceived the 9-11 attacks using a plan
originally conceived by Yousef.
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May 27 @ 2010
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