Unbelievable isn’t it. Not really according to a report in the Sunday edition of the Dallas Morning News.
The U.S. Army, following the Fort Hood, Texas, shooting, is rethinking what constitutes moderate Islam, officials say.
Army and security personnel failed to “connect the dots,” they admit, missing Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan’s links to radical Islamists, the paper reported.
At another Texas base, Ft. Bliss, military trainer Louay Safi was teaching soldiers about his Muslim faith and was later accused of having ties to terrorism suspects, the newspaper said. The Syrian native is a military subcontractor who has lectured on Islam for the Army since 2005 and has been suspended from working at the base pending an inquiry, the Army says.
The Safi matter reveals deep divisions within the U.S. government on how to deal with the Muslim community as it tries to combat terrorism, the Morning News said.
Some want to engage with North America’s close-knit Muslim circles for insight into Islamist thinking. Others say such engagement should be limited to avoid legitimizing radicals or embarrassing the government.
Safi said legal assaults on him and other Muslims, even as Washington sought their advice, showed the government’s divided approach to Islam.
“There are those who are prejudiced and would like to deny Muslims their rightful place in this country,” Safi said, “and there are people who are more open-minded. It’s as simple as that.”
Here is the link to the full story.