The FBI, the Muslims and the double-cross

By Brian E. MuhammadM
-Guest Columnist- | Last updated: Apr 22, 2009 - 11:38:29 AM

(FinalCall.com) - As President Barack Obama was offering the olive branch of peace to the Arab and Muslim world, recently published articles revealed that the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) has infiltrated Muslim organizations, Islamic Centers and mosques.

Graphic: Harold Muhammad/MGN Online

In response to the revelation, ten Muslim organizations announced that they will sever all ties with the FBI. The groups have been participating in dialogue sessions and outreach with the domestic spy agency since the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks that killed over 3,000 people on September 11, 2001.

However, in light of the FBI's own criminal history, what compelled these Muslims to enter into such a relationship in the first place?

It is interesting that the groups who entered into “dialogue” with the FBI under these circumstances were Muslim immigrants who became the “profiled” group in the aftermath of the attacks.

It is also interesting that many of these same immigrant Muslims worked hard to establish their own place in the American landscape. They hoped to assimilate and be accepted as Americans. They desperately yearned for their desire to be reciprocated by fellow Americans, preferably the White Americans, and often times, this resulted in rejection of Blacks, even those Blacks who practice of the same faith, Islam.

The truth is many came to establish an economic base and a better quality of life for their families. Others came seeking educational opportunities to better serve their home countries by attending some of the best colleges and universities in America.

According to a poll from the Council of American and Islamic Relations (CAIR), about 50 percent of U.S. Muslim voters are professionals and 62 percent have obtained a bachelor's degree or higher. This is double the comparable national figure of 30 percent for registered voters.

The CAIR poll also showed that immigrant Muslims have thoroughly become integrated into America's way of life. According to the poll, 86 percent said they celebrate the Independence Day on July 4th and 64 percent said they fly the “Stars and Stripes” of the U.S. flag on occasion.

But striving to blend into America's cultural fabric has come at what cost? Many immigrants have cowered and compromised on their own family given Muslim names in order to be favored by the group they are seeking to attach themselves to, using such aliases as “Mike” or “Moe” for Mohammad or “Robert” for Rahman and “Albert” for Abdullah.

Some Muslim families have compromised the Islamic identity of their own daughters, by discouraging them from wearing the hijab—the female Islamic headdress—which is a religious duty. This has been discouraged even in cases where the daughter actually desired to be covered, wear the hijab, and live a virtuous life.

Worse than these insults to self- respect, since the September 11 attacks, fear has become their constant companion determining how they navigate their particular “American” experience.

This fear has entered many Mosques and Islamic Centers, causing watered down, milquetoast khutbahs (sermons) from some Imams who are afraid to use the guide of the Holy Qur'an to challenge the society and heal the sin-sick conditions existing within America. Ironically the same book instructs Muslims, to “enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong” and to “fear none but Allah (God).”

I believe the immigrant Muslim leaders in the U.S. meant well and really trusted that “dialogue” with the FBI would have its benefits, however the trust was not mutual. While the Muslims talked and were exchanging niceties, the FBI was gathering intelligence and planting stool pigeons and agent provocateurs.

While these Muslim leaders assumed they were turning a historical page with their adopted country, it appears as if they were actually being turned by the dirty trick bag of the U.S. government.

Perhaps if the organizations dominated by immigrant Muslims had invested less time trying to get in with the “old boys” club and spent more time communicating with their Black brothers in Islam, they could have been schooled about the ways of the FBI.

They would have heard about 400 plus years of racial profiling and the proper response to that problem. They would have understood (before now) that collaboration with the FBI in this political climate is like a partnership between the foxes and the hens in a day of hunger.

They would have learned about the contemptible J. Edgar Hoover who orchestrated the FBI's Counter-Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) to destroy Black organizations and leadership.

The Black Muslim would have informed them of the wicked ways of their “beloved” America where disregard for civil liberties and human rights began long before the Arab and Muslim witch hunt which arrived post 9-11. They would have been made aware of the valuable lessons of history which demonstrated how the FBI falsely accused and arrested “Americans” and immigrants for their political views in the past.

The Black brother would have shown them that before the detention camps at Guantanamo Bay, there were U.S. internment camps for Japanese-Americans during World War II. Furthermore, they would have been exposed to the long list of U.S. political prisoners starting from the Honorable Marcus Garvey and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad to Imam Jamil Al-Amin (H. Rap Brown) and Mumia Abu-Jamal.

What's more, spying is the American way, and the U.S. Government is an “international snooper” that “loves meddling in other people's affairs” as the Honorable Elijah Muhammad said in his book Message to the Blackman. Throughout the history of the N.O.I., it was infiltrated and “honeycombed” with undercover agents of the U.S. government.

If the immigrant Muslims had consulted with their Black brothers who have experienced American persecution firsthand, they would have been familiar with the dynamics of the “Judas-factor” when brothers turn against brothers at the instigation of an enemy well schooled in the art of “dropping seeds,” causing confusion, exploiting disunity, and causing suspicion, then redirecting of the ideals and focus of an organization, end even causing them to fight, and kill one another.

At the end of the day, the ten organizations who signed on to resist the devil and cut their ties with the FBI should be commended, however these ties should never have existed in the first place, and the embarrassment would have been avoided if the effort was made to dialogue with authentic Muslim leaders within the Black community such as the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, Imam Siraj Wahhaj and others who can testify about the sordid history of the notorious FBI.

(Brian Muhammad is a talk show host, and commentator on African affairs. More of his writings can be found on his blog at http://globalpeeks.blogspot.com.)

Related links:

Cointelpro 2009: FBI up to old dirty tricks? (FCN, 04-18-2009)

The Final Call