Jihad in our midst

The presence of jihadists in Minnesota has been noted for some time, but the area around  Washington, DC seems to be a hotbed of activity as well:

recent report issued by the Northern Virginia Regional Intelligence Center aims to instruct federal and local law enforcement officers how to spot Islamic State operatives who have otherwise blended into society and become difficult to detect.

In the report are nine arrests since 2014 of Northern Virginia residents charged with aiding ISIS through distributing propaganda, communications, traveling to Syria, and preparing for jihad, as The Washington Times report.

As is noted, Minnesota is the typical focal point as the terrorist hotbed in the United States. Many Somalis living there have been arrested by the FBI for making travel plans to join ISIS in Syria. However, it’s the ISIS sympathizers living near Washington D.C., as it turns out, who are prone to carrying out attacks on American soil.

The intelligence report revealed that the threat is among us and will be barely noticeable because of how “normal” they will appear:

Of the nine Northern Virginians who were arrested, all but one were in their teens and early 20s. They included a police officer, a Starbucks barista, Army soldiers, bankers and a cabdriver. Four of the nine graduated from Northern Virginia high schools, one with honors. Two attended Northern Virginia Community College.

In other words, all of them appeared to have opportunities via public education to become successful Americans but instead were charged with what amounted to a devotion to violent jihad.

Couple this with the fact that law enforcement has to walk on eggshells to avoid accusations of racial profiling and one can see the scope of the problem. Northern Virginia resident Robert Maginnis is a retired Army officer and researcher who has noted this particular difficulty:

“Local police are in a particularly difficult situation. They face a severe challenge by Islamists operating in the shadows of our open society. These mostly young male Muslims become radicalized either by Islamist imams at some of the thousands of mosques across America, at school, or over the ever-present internet sites that spew anti-West, anti-Christian hatred.”

“Given our open society, detached parents and politically correct schools, local police in Northern Virginia understandably hesitate to rigorously pursue young Islamist wannabes," Maginnis added.

And that’s exactly how Islamic radicals want us to be: unsuspecting, sitting ducks.

The linked article lists profiles of the arrested nine.