Kamran Memon and Parvez Ahmed Special to Hernando<\/p>\n
Today<\/p>\n
Published: Jun 26, 2003<\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.hernandotoday.com\/MGA3VZX0EHD.html<\/p>\n
Robert Jay Goldstein is not a “Jewish terrorist.”<\/p>\n
After all, neither God nor his prophets ever condoned<\/p>\n
the murder of innocent human beings. If a Jew engages<\/p>\n
in terrorism, the blame falls on him, not on his<\/p>\n
religion. That much we can all agree on. But that is<\/p>\n
where our paths diverge.<\/p>\n
In August 2002 ,Goldstein was arrested near his home<\/p>\n
in St. Petersburg, Florida. In his possession were 40<\/p>\n
weapons, 30 explosive devices, a list of 50 mosques<\/p>\n
and a detailed plan to bomb an Islamic school.<\/p>\n
Contrary to the suggestion from defense lawyers that<\/p>\n
Goldstein is mentally ill, sheriff’s Detective Cal<\/p>\n
Dennie characterized him as “a smart guy” who “knew<\/p>\n
his stuff.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Clearly Goldstein, a terrorist, was capable of<\/p>\n
inflicting unimaginable harm. In chilling details, his<\/p>\n
mission plan stated his desire to “open fire on all<\/p>\n
‘rags’ and then bolt out and let the devices do the<\/p>\n
rest.”<\/p>\n
His motive was to “to do something for ‘his’ people,”<\/p>\n
in retaliation for 9\/11 and the ongoing Israeli-Arab<\/p>\n
conflict. His goal was to “kill all rags” with “zero<\/p>\n
residual presence.”<\/p>\n
Despite Goldstein’s impressive arsenal and obvious<\/p>\n
intent, federal prosecutors say he is no terrorist, as<\/p>\n
his actions were not aimed at altering government<\/p>\n
policy.<\/p>\n
But the U.S. Patriot Act defines domestic terrorism as<\/p>\n
“acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of<\/p>\n
the criminal laws of the United States or of any<\/p>\n
State; and appear to be intended to intimidate or<\/p>\n
coerce a civilian population, influence the policy of<\/p>\n
a government by intimidation or coercion, or affect<\/p>\n
the conduct of a government by mass destruction,<\/p>\n
assassination, or kidnapping; and occur primarily<\/p>\n
within the territorial jurisdiction of the United<\/p>\n
States.”<\/p>\n
Intent to alter government policy is only one part of<\/p>\n
a fairly broad definition of domestic “terrorism.”<\/p>\n
Federal prosecutors ultimately charged Goldstein with<\/p>\n
lesser offenses of violating civil rights, attempting<\/p>\n
to damage religious property, obstructing people in<\/p>\n
the free exercise of religious beliefs and possessing<\/p>\n
unregistered firearms. Based on the evidence, there is<\/p>\n
no doubt that Goldstein would have received life in<\/p>\n
prison had he been charged as a terrorist.<\/p>\n
Goldstein will not spend his life in prison and that<\/p>\n
worries many Muslim Americans. When he is released,<\/p>\n
after serving his sentence of 12-and-a-half years, he<\/p>\n
will be only 50 years old, still capable of inflicting<\/p>\n
potential harm.<\/p>\n
The Goldstein terror plot remains perplexing for many<\/p>\n
other reasons. After his arrest, there was little<\/p>\n
information available about accomplices who were at<\/p>\n
large and remained a mortal threat to peace. The<\/p>\n
Muslim community naturally wanted to take appropriate<\/p>\n
measures to secure their mosques from being targeted<\/p>\n
by any of Goldstein’s accomplices. Several pleas were<\/p>\n
made to law enforcement authorities for full<\/p>\n
disclosure of all mosques on Goldstein’s target list.<\/p>\n
Federal and state authorities declined to honor these<\/p>\n
requests.<\/p>\n
American-Muslims, the targeted victims of this plot,<\/p>\n
were never asked by the prosecution to testify, a<\/p>\n
practice routine in criminal cases. In a surprising<\/p>\n
move, prosecutors argued that community members should<\/p>\n
not be allowed to speak in court. Only with the good<\/p>\n
graces of sentencing Judges Moody and Kovachevich were<\/p>\n
testimonies from the Muslim community made part of the<\/p>\n
official record.<\/p>\n
Contrast Goldstein to the case of another terrorist,<\/p>\n
who happened to be Muslim, who also pled guilty for<\/p>\n
plotting to blow up Florida Power & Light substations<\/p>\n
and a National Guard Armory. His planning was not as<\/p>\n
extensive as Goldstein’s, but federal prosecutors<\/p>\n
charged the Muslim as a “terrorist.”<\/p>\n
Do not get us wrong. We are not pleading for leniency<\/p>\n
for terrorists who happen to be Muslims. We’re all<\/p>\n
safer when they’re locked up. Such terrorists have no<\/p>\n
hesitation to kill innocent human beings, Muslim or<\/p>\n
non-Muslims, as they did on September 11, 2001.<\/p>\n
What we are arguing is that non-Muslims should also be<\/p>\n
punished as terrorists if they engage or conspire to<\/p>\n
engage in terrorism. Such crimes should be taken just<\/p>\n
as seriously, even when the intended victims are<\/p>\n
“only” American Muslims.<\/p>\n
After all, the life of a Muslim child is worth no less<\/p>\n
than the life of a Jewish or Christian child. I hope<\/p>\n
that’s something we can all agree on.<\/p>\n
Kamran Memon is a Chicago civil rights attorney.<\/p>\n
Parvez Ahmed, Ph.D., is Chairman of Board for the<\/p>\n
Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic<\/p>\n
Relations (CAIR-FL).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kamran Memon and Parvez Ahmed Special to Hernando Today Published: Jun 26, 2003 http:\/\/www.hernandotoday.com\/MGA3VZX0EHD.html Robert Jay Goldstein is not a “Jewish terrorist.” After all, neither God nor his prophets ever condoned the murder of...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,48],"tags":[274,105,95],"class_list":["post-850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-islamophobia","category-questions-and-answers","tag-islamophobia","tag-terrorism","tag-terrorists"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=850"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":852,"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850\/revisions\/852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investigate-islam.com\/web\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}