Thursday, September 15, 2005
On the front page of the Boston Globe today:
Wiretap mosques, Romney suggests
In remarks that caused alarm among civil libertarians and advocates for immigrants rights, Romney said in a speech to the Heritage Foundation that the United States needs to radically rethink how it guards itself against terrorism.
''How many individuals are coming to our state and going to those institutions who have come from terrorist-sponsored states?" he said, referring to foreign students who attend universities in Massachusetts. ''Do we know where they are? Are we tracking them?"
''How about people who are in settings -- mosques, for instance -- that may be teaching doctrines of hate and terror," Romney continued. ''Are we monitoring that? Are we wiretapping? Are we following what's going on?"...
Sounds pretty common-sense to me. We ought to be concerned about such suggestions, but we ought not to dismiss them out of hand. Our own Islamic Society of Boston was caught removing endorsements by Yusef al Qaradawi from its English language literature, but keeping them in the Arabic version. Extremists like Siraj Wahaj and Mahdi Bray are frequent guests at area Islamic events. Bray has moderated his rhetoric since 9/11 for the most part, but has he moderated what he says when he thinks he's before a friendly audience? Reports of speeches of a different color made for "internal" consumption are nothing unusual. It would be irresponsible of the FBI not to take an interest.
You'll excuse me, but some statements do not seem to require a multi-paragraph response:
''It's something that shouldn't happen," Yaich said. ''If they're going to do surveillance, why not do it for synagogues and churches, too?"...
Umm...duh.
