FBI Meet Houston Community Leaders

Advising to Lookout for Radicalization

FBI Agents to Visit Muslim Community Members in Houston to Avoid What Has Happened Elsewhere

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Special Agents from Houston Office Steve Beining, Brad Deardorff, Garry Thomas and Raymond Mori, in a hurriedly called meeting by Ghulam Mohammad Bombaywala,  met with about Thirty Muslim Community Scholars, Leaders, and Media Persons at Shahnai Restaurant for a luncheon meeting on Tuesday, May 18, 2010, to discuss about various needed responses to the fanatic incidents like the recent one in New York involving an American Citizen Faisal Shahzad.

Emphasized by Agent Steve Beining, one of the responses will be that FBI will be calling upon various members of the Muslim Community in Houston, trying to gain more information, as to what is going on in the community and if they have noticed any increase in radicalization among any member(s) of the community. As such Muslim Community members in Houston should expect visits in the very near future from FBI Officers, who according to Mr. Beining will conduct this effort in a gracious manner, with the intension of making Houston and USA secure.

Supervisory Special Agent (SSA) Brad Deardorff in an extensive presentation cited examples of Carlos Bledsoe (Little Rock, AR Drive-By Shooting of Military recruiters); Najibullah Zazi (Denver, CO plot to attack New York City’s Mass Transit System); Colleen LaRose, A.K.A. “Jihad Jane” and Jamie Paulin Ramirez (Philadelphia, PA & Denver. CO – Conspiracy to kill a Swedish Artist, who drew a picture of Prophet Mohammed); Nidal Hasan (Fort Hood, TX Mass Murder); and now Faisal Shahzad (Bridgeport, Conn – Attempt to Set Off a car-Bomb in New York City).

Mr. Deardorff said that these examples show that the American Society is not immune from Radicalization and that all these people have come amidst Americans. In the past we have seen people of other religious backgrounds resorting to extremism and it is the job of FBI to stop and evade any untoward incident. As such we need to look out for such people and if we feel someone is taking extreme positions as well as trying to enforce a limited understanding of religion on a majority. Mr. Deardorff gave an example saying if someone with in the Muslim community not only forcibly ask ladies to wear Hijab, but also to wear Veil and try to become an enforcer, then that would mean the person has got radicalized and need to be somehow reported for observation, since timely disruption of imminent threat is part of addressing terrorism.

Mr. Deardorff said that work will be done at political and other foreign policy related fronts to resolve issues related to extremism, but the job of FBI is to use Intelligence to provide safety and security to all Americans and that is why what comes under FBI domain is to disturb any looming risk; disrupt support; and interrupt in these cases the resonance of “Islam Vs the State” Philosophy. American Muslims can help federal law enforcement agencies, as FBI is friends and well-wishers of all communities including the Muslim so that we can make America a safer and healthier place to live.

SSA Brad Deardorff further talked about the phases to reach radicalizations and said based on studies from Madrid, Amsterdam, London, Australia, Lackawana, NY; Portland, Oregon; and so on; the process consists of Pre-Radicalization; Self-Identification; Indoctrination; and Jihadization:

Pre-Radicalization trends and trajectories show 15-to-35 years male; 2nd to 3rd generation middle-class immigrant; recent coverts to Islam are particularly susceptible if they start to listen to fiery religious-political speeches; unremarkable; etc.

During Self-Identification Phase: They must have faced social discrimination & alienation at sometime, lost economic opportunities, get affected too much by international conflicts, lost a loved one, and stay up late at night to check unavoidable extremist rhetoric.

Indoctrination – Indications of this is that they adopt “Jihadi” Philosophy: Later on in Q-&-A session, Mr. Deardorff admitted there may be a better word than Jihadi, but what it means is someone supporting and encouraging use of violence against anything they feel is Un-Islamic and as such all those things become personal cause; they become isolated attending functions where progressively radical agenda is being discussed; whenever comes to Masjid disrupts the proceedings in trying to forcibly enforce own interpretation of Islam; and visits often extremist website on the internet & then clear history of websites visited; and Last stage is Jihadization, where he gets tactical ideas and targets from extremist websites; and try to travel abroad to get training to commit such acts.

Earlier Ghulam Bombaywala, Former President of Pakistani-American Association of Greater Houston (PAGH); welcomed everybody and said today we are gathered to make a firm resolve, so as to make our country USA a more remarkable place for our coming generations.

Present on the occasion were Hafiz Mohammad Iqbal of Madrasae Islamiah; Allama Qamar-ul-Hassan Bastawi of AL-Noor Society of Greater Houston; Dr. Aziz A Siddiqi President of Islamic Society of Greater Houston (ISGH); Farooq Malik Vice-President of ISGH; Hafiz Tauqer Shah of Islam-On-Air & Huffaz Association; Hafiz Nisar-ul-Haq of A.S.I.A. Center Webster; Administration of Mecca Masjid; Atif Fattah of Radio Sirat-e-Mustaqeem; Mustafa Ebrahim of Islamic Education Center (IEC) at South Voss; Eesa Galloway of Interfaith Ministries (IM); Sheikh Sayeed Imam of ISGH Synott Road Sugar Land Masjid; Sheikh Mohammad Sayeed Imam of ISGH Brand Lane Stafford Masjid; Irfan Ibrahim Associate Director Synott SW; Manzoor Ali Associate Director HWY 3 Southeast ISGH; Khalid Khan PAGH; Muhammad Saad Ansari of Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA); and many other.

If someone needs more information about this meeting and these initiatives of FBI to eradicate terrorism, they can call: Ghulam Bombayawala 281-684-4231; FBI Special Agent Steve Beining 281-204-7267 / 713-936-9870; FBI Special Agent Raymond Mori 713-693-5000.

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