Islamofascism Alive and Well in America

There's a troubling report on FoxNews.com, North Carolina Web Site Said to Be 'Gateway Drug' To Terror, that tells the tale of a 22 year old American who promotes al Qaeda and its ideology on an English language website targeting a receptive audience in the United States. His site was originally based in the United States, but has changed IP providers and is now currently hosted from Amman, Jordan:

When former Guantanamo inmate Abdullah Saleh al-Ajmi blew up an Iraqi police station — and himself — in April, a U.S.-based Web site was quick to post a reaction.

"This is what you call a success story," Revolution.Muslimpad said of the homicide attack, which killed six. It described al-Ajmi as a hero, a "martyrdom bomber" who sacrificed "his life for the sake of Islam."

The site is believed to be the brainchild of a 22-year-old American Samir Khan of Charlotte, N.C.

The story also includes a link to this particularly vile website. I won't bother, for obvious reasons.

Things like this immediately make me think of two things. First, it's an unfortunate fact that Islamofascism does appeal to certain types of individuals in the United States. Second, we don't have to like it, but we have to tolerate the existence of sites like this if we want to continue to live in a free society. A Republican Congressman being interviewed for this story sums up the issue that this site raises:

"You have to protect the right to free speech," said Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., who learned of the blog in a congressional briefing in 2007, when Khan warned of a "special gift" to be given to Manhattan on the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

The article also points out that there are other U.S. based radical Muslim bloggers, including one who goes by the name of Yousef al-Khattab blogging from Queens, New York. Al-Khattab's original name was Joseph Cohen. That bring up another point - that potential Islamofascist terrorists or those behind Islamofascist terrorists in the United States will probably not look Middle Eastern.

Having already pontificated on my belief in free speech, I would hope that the authorities are doing everything in their power to track this site, monitor its posts, and find out who is using it. If other private individuals try to bring the site down, that's fine as well. But the government shouldn't be the ones doing it.

That changes, of course, if the site moves from idolizing Islamofascism and terror to actually directing it, via instructions either overt or hidden. It's at that point that my appreciation of free speech evaporates, as would the people behind the site - hopefully.