“What we are witnessing here is a brand new form of terrorism. These home grown terrorists can prove to be as dangerous as any known group, if not more so.”

– FBI Special Agent Jody Weis

 

On May 31, 2014 Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was freed after five years of captivity by the Taliban in Afghanistan. In exchange, the Obama Administration released to the Qatar government, five Taliban prisoners (the Taliban 5) from the United States prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Qatar promised to detain them for a year before allowing them to return to their homeland. The reality of that promise remains to be seen; most Americans are skeptical. The Taliban 5 are high ranking military leaders who are considered to be some of the worst threats to America and her allies, in the war on terror. Their release will replenish the Afghanistan Taliban with seasoned commanders.

 

In the days and weeks that followed the prisoner exchange a divided Congress either praised the decision or promised to investigate whether President Obama violated a long standing policy that America does not negotiate with terrorists. The media focused mostly on fears and speculation about what might happen in Pakistan, Afghanistan and around the world once Qatar released the Taliban 5. Sgt. Bergdahl’s family and friends were simply relieved he was finally set free.

 

Curiously, in all of the political debates, special reports and breaking news there was little, if any, concern or discussion regarding the terrorist threat from dozens of Islamic military warfare camps, already in operation, preparing its soldiers for jihad on American soil.

 

That’s right. According to a documentary, “Homegrown Jihad: The Terrorist Training Camps Around the U.S.,” There are at least 36 Islamic terrorist enclaves and a network of 22 villages across the nation, linked to a Pakistani militant group called Jamaat ul-Fuqua, known in the United States as “Muslims of the Americas”. The documentary states, “The Muslims of the Americas has thousands of devoted followers who are being groomed for homegrown jihad.” Its goal is to infiltrate America, increase in number and ultimately link the United States to a worldwide caliphate under Sharia law.

 

What is the Muslims of the Americas?

The Muslims of the Americas (MOA) is an anti-Semitic, anti-Christian and anti-American Islamic terrorist group founded in the 1980s and led by the Pakistani cleric Sheikh Sayed Mubarik Ali Hasini Shah Gilani, commonly known as Sheikh Gilani. The MOA mandates its followers to pursue jihad, or holy war, against individuals or entities it considers enemies of Islam. The United States is enemy number one.

 

In a recruitment video, Gilani boasts, “We are fighting to destroy the enemy. We are dealing with evil at its roots, and its roots are America.” The video instructs how to kidnap and kill Americans and conduct sabotage and subversive operations. It demonstrates hand-to-hand combat techniques and the operation of AK-47 rifles, rocket launchers, machine guns and C4 explosives.

 

Although Sheikh Gilani is barred from entering the United States he operates an American headquarters in Hancock, New York, on a seventy- acre commune called “Islamberg”. There, recruits are instructed and later sent to Pakistan for more rigorous jihadist paramilitary training. In 2002, the Wall Street journalist, Daniel Pearl, was on his way to interview Gilani in Pakistan when he was kidnapped and later beheaded.

 

The MOA is linked to multiple murders and bombings throughout the United States and Canada. In 2003, a member of both ul-Fuqra and Al Qaeda, was convicted in federal court of a plot to blow up the Brooklyn Bridge. According to a 2006 Department of Justice report, the MOA has one goal: the purification of Islam through violence.[iv]

 

Where is the MOA?

The MOA has purchased or leased hundreds of acres from New York to California, for Islamic compounds. The camps are in remote areas with few neighbors, and are closed to visitors and non-Muslims. They are self-sufficient, with their own water and food supply. The training facilities and communes are located in New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, South Carolina, Colorado, California, Washington, Oklahoma, Michigan, Georgia, Alabama, and Texas.

 

At first, the residents promote Islam as a peaceful religion. Once established and expanded, any non-Muslim living in the area is forced to conform to Muslim ideology. Signs appear and warn, “You are entering a Sharia controlled zone, Islamic rules enforced.”

 

In his book, Twilight in America: The Untold Story of Islamic Terrorist Training Camps Inside America, Martin Mawyer explains that the MOA plans eventually to expand from the secretive training camps to “no-go zones”. These are neighborhoods or commercial areas where the MOA appears to blend into the local culture and society. In actuality, the MOA intends a multi-phased societal infiltration and invasion in order to set up autonomous Islamic territories where American constitutional law is not recognized.

 

America’s “No-Go Zones”

One of the nation’s first “no-go zones” is Dearborn, Michigan where 30-40% of the population is Muslim. In June 2012, individuals carrying placards and wearing T-shirts with Christian statements walked peacefully on public streets and other public areas at the annual Dearborn Arab Festival. Arab Muslim attendees chanting “Allahu Akbar” became verbally abusive and physically assaulted the Christians. Out of fear of reprisal, local law enforcement officers sworn to uphold American law, stood by and refused to protect the Christians from their attackers.

 

Another “no-go zone” is a 36-acre commune in York, South Carolina, named “Islamville”. It is also home to the first Islamic shrine in the United States. Since 2009, neighbors of Islamville have reported seeing its residents carrying AK-47s and M-16s and hearing gunfire and explosives coming from the woods.

 

“Mahmoudberg”, another well-documented “no-go zone”, is a wooded 25-acre communal living enclave, about three hours from Austin, in Brazoria County, Texas, along Route 3, near Sweeny. It dates back to the late 1980s. It reportedly was discovered by the FBI due to a tip from an informant in New York.

 

Worldwide “No-Go Zones”

Islamic “no-go zones” have been established for several years in Europe and are now widespread in Belgium, France, Netherlands, Germany, Britain, Italy and Sweden. “Shariah Zone” stickers on utility poles and lamp posts warn the public that specified areas are off limits to non-Muslims, and the laws of the host country do not apply. These sovereign nations have relinquished control of their legal systems to Sharia law.

 

In France, at last count, there were over 750 zones with an estimated five million Muslims living in them, in areas of Paris, Marseilles, Strasbourg, Lille and Amiens. The French police avoid these neighborhoods because of the violence they face from Muslim residents.

 

In the Netherlands, the government issued a list of at least forty “no-go zones” including a 1.4 square mile where Sharia rules in The Hague. Ironically, The Hague, known as “the city of peace” has become an orthodox Muslim territory where Sharia police dictate and enforce, the strict Islamic dress codes and behavior as in Iran and Afghanistan.

 

These Islamic “no-go zones” or “mini caliphates” provide an expansion point as more Muslims populate the settlements and neighborhoods, eventually establishing their own courts, government and justice and punishment system. Ultimately, the plan is to connect these mini- caliphates throughout every host nation and become a worldwide caliphate under Sharia law.

 

Why is MOA Allowed to Operate in America?

The FBI has identified MOA as a terrorist organization. The organization is believed to be responsible for nearly 50 attacks on American soil. The MOA supports various terrorist groups, and Gilani is linked directly to Hamas and Hezbollah. A 2007 FBI file documents that MOA members have been involved in at least ten murders, one disappearance, three fire bombings, two explosive bombings and one attempted bombing. It states, “The MOA is now an autonomous organization which possesses an infrastructure capable of planning and mounting terrorist campaigns overseas and within the United States.”

 

Even so, the MOA exists and operates with impunity inside the United States on American soil. WHY? Although the State Department has recognized MOA’s terrorist agenda, the Obama administration refuses to designate MOA as a foreign terrorist group. Until that happens, the MOA is permitted to operate in the United States. To add insult to an already repulsive situation, MOA is a 501(c) 3 organization, entitling it to operate as a tax-exempt entity.

 

An Islamic Caliphate Born

All of this is especially relevant and disturbing, in light of the recent developments involving the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS). ISIS is a Sunni militant group that was formed in April 2013, as an offshoot of al-Qaeda in Iraq. The jihadist group is led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, a battlefield commander and tactician. ISIS claims to have militants from the United Kingdom, Germany, France, the Arab nations and the United States. In February 2014, after an eight-month power struggle, al-Qaeda cut all ties with ISIS, reportedly, due to its “wanton brutality”.

 

Recently, ISIS captured the world’s attention as it successfully invaded city after city in Iraq, and took control over numerous oil and gas fields and a military and army base in Syria. These victories provide ISIS with the funding it needs to operate independently from al-Qaeda, as it expands in the Middle East.

 

On June 29, 2014 the group shortened its name to simply “Islamic State”, declared itself the Islamic Caliphate, and proclaimed al-Baghdadi as Caliph, head of the state and leader of all Muslims everywhere. The Islamic State seeks to recreate a medieval-style Caliphate from the Mediterranean to the Gulf and nullify all emirates, groups, states and organizations.

 

In an official document released in English and several other languages, the Shura (council) of the Islamic State urged Muslims to “gather around your Caliph so that you may return as you once were for ages, kings of the earth and knights of war.” It is clear that its ambitions extend beyond Iraq and Syria.

 

There is evidence that ISIS is operating also in the Gaza Strip and is responsible for some of the recent rocket attacks on Israel. In July 2014, the Egyptian newspaper, Al-Masry Al-Youm, reported Egyptian security forces arrested more than a dozen ISIS terrorists trying to enter Sinai from the Gaza Strip. There is growing speculation that ISIS also plans to advance into Saudi Arabia, an American ally and home to Islam’s holiest site, Mecca.

 

Should America be Concerned?

Is ISIS merely a fringe terrorist group that will burn brightly for a season and succumb to the next radical group? Or…is ISIS setting the stage for the final and long-awaited holy jihad with al-Baghdadi at the helm? Will al-Baghdadi call for all Muslims to unite the worldwide “no-go zones” and declare universal Sharia law? Does al-Baghdadi have his sights on America?

 

In 2009, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was released from Camp Bucca, a United States detention center in Iraq. Army Colonel Kenneth King, commanding officer at Camp Bucca, remembers al-Baghdadi’s parting words to his captors: “I’ll see you guys in New York.”

 

Charles Lister, a Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Doha Center, warned of ISIS, “whatever judgments are made in terms of its legitimacy, (the) announcement that it has restored the Caliphate is likely the most significant development in international jihadism since 9/11.”

 

Will jihad occur on American soil?

 

By Linda Sargent