the National Guard will be able to protect us? Fuck no. It’s the enemy within we’ve got to be worried about. Have you ever noticed every computer store and every Radio Shack employee is Middle Eastern?”
“Alex, you’re paranoid and racist.”
“They’re going to bring down the Internet. They’re going to bring down the power grid. Just you wait. They have infiltrated the country.”
“You’re insane!”
“I’m not insane. Saudi Arabia uses their oil money to spread Wahabism , which is a brand of reactionary Islam. They believe in jihad just as much at Al Queda , they just prefer to do it through nonviolent subversion, through education. Did you ever wonder why a small liberal arts college like Canterbury has such a fabulous Middle Eastern studies program? Oil money. Ninety percent of America’s Middle Eastern studies programs are funded by Wahabists . They hire teachers with a fundamentalist world view. They teach the reason for terrorism is bad U.S. foreign policy. Then those graduates get jobs in the State Department and other colleges and the media. That’s how nine-eleven happened, don’t you see? The media, Arab specialists in government, and academic experts all underplayed the force of jihad because that’s what they were taught!”
“I don’t believe it.”
“Why do you think the U.S. government did nothing every time jihadists struck in the nineties? In 1993 jihadists tried to blow up the Twin Towers. In 1994 jihadists blew up a U.S. facility of Khubar in Saudi Arabia. Both times the U.S. failed to crack down on radical Islamists. Osama bin Laden appeared on television in February 1998 declaring war against America, which was dismissed by Washington and barely mentioned by the media. A group of people declare war on us and we do nothing? Was there retaliation for the two U.S. embassy bombings in 1998? Or when the USS Cole was bombed in 2000? No, because Middle East experts advised against creating tensions in the Muslim world! Why? Because everything our fucking experts knew about Islam and the Middle East they learned from teachers intent on spreading Wahabism .”
I thought of Sara Jiluwis’s smooth and ready answers. I wondered if she was a Wahabi . “You know your facts a lot better than I do, but I’m sure you’re exaggerating.”
“Oh yeah? Did you ever wonder why Elliot Gladwell proposed his Cultural Accommodation Policy? Do you know how much money it takes to get something like that through Congress? Who backed him? Wahabi lobby groups, who also contributed to his election campaign. Liberals have been completely bamboozled.”
“ Gladwell wanted to integrate Muslims so there won’t be jihad in the U.S.”
“But that is jihad! Information jihad! Look at our fucking sister. She wants to be an Arab princess!”
“You’re crazy, Alex. I can’t believe you’re my brother.”
“Is that right? Well you’re a fucking idiot.”
#
I was furious with Alex. What a Nazi! But then I began to think about the gorgeous brand new Islamic center at Canterbury College—travertine and stainless steel on the outside, glowing oak floors and exposed beams on the inside—and the many scholarships to Middle Eastern students and paid summer internships in Washington and at television stations across the country. An unusually large department for a college with three thousand students.
Paid for by oil money from Saudi Arabia?
I looked for clues on the Canterbury College website. The chair for Middle Eastern studies was called the Adul Aziz Al Sa’ud Chair for Middle Eastern Studies after a member of the Saudi royal family. The full name of the Islamic Center was the King Fhad Center for Islamic Studies. I paged through the list of major “angel” donors, which included several dozen Arab names. And then I recalled a name I had never thought
“Alex, you’re paranoid and racist.”
“They’re going to bring down the Internet. They’re going to bring down the power grid. Just you wait. They have infiltrated the country.”
“You’re insane!”
“I’m not insane. Saudi Arabia uses their oil money to spread Wahabism , which is a brand of reactionary Islam. They believe in jihad just as much at Al Queda , they just prefer to do it through nonviolent subversion, through education. Did you ever wonder why a small liberal arts college like Canterbury has such a fabulous Middle Eastern studies program? Oil money. Ninety percent of America’s Middle Eastern studies programs are funded by Wahabists . They hire teachers with a fundamentalist world view. They teach the reason for terrorism is bad U.S. foreign policy. Then those graduates get jobs in the State Department and other colleges and the media. That’s how nine-eleven happened, don’t you see? The media, Arab specialists in government, and academic experts all underplayed the force of jihad because that’s what they were taught!”
“I don’t believe it.”
“Why do you think the U.S. government did nothing every time jihadists struck in the nineties? In 1993 jihadists tried to blow up the Twin Towers. In 1994 jihadists blew up a U.S. facility of Khubar in Saudi Arabia. Both times the U.S. failed to crack down on radical Islamists. Osama bin Laden appeared on television in February 1998 declaring war against America, which was dismissed by Washington and barely mentioned by the media. A group of people declare war on us and we do nothing? Was there retaliation for the two U.S. embassy bombings in 1998? Or when the USS Cole was bombed in 2000? No, because Middle East experts advised against creating tensions in the Muslim world! Why? Because everything our fucking experts knew about Islam and the Middle East they learned from teachers intent on spreading Wahabism .”
I thought of Sara Jiluwis’s smooth and ready answers. I wondered if she was a Wahabi . “You know your facts a lot better than I do, but I’m sure you’re exaggerating.”
“Oh yeah? Did you ever wonder why Elliot Gladwell proposed his Cultural Accommodation Policy? Do you know how much money it takes to get something like that through Congress? Who backed him? Wahabi lobby groups, who also contributed to his election campaign. Liberals have been completely bamboozled.”
“ Gladwell wanted to integrate Muslims so there won’t be jihad in the U.S.”
“But that is jihad! Information jihad! Look at our fucking sister. She wants to be an Arab princess!”
“You’re crazy, Alex. I can’t believe you’re my brother.”
“Is that right? Well you’re a fucking idiot.”
#
I was furious with Alex. What a Nazi! But then I began to think about the gorgeous brand new Islamic center at Canterbury College—travertine and stainless steel on the outside, glowing oak floors and exposed beams on the inside—and the many scholarships to Middle Eastern students and paid summer internships in Washington and at television stations across the country. An unusually large department for a college with three thousand students.
Paid for by oil money from Saudi Arabia?
I looked for clues on the Canterbury College website. The chair for Middle Eastern studies was called the Adul Aziz Al Sa’ud Chair for Middle Eastern Studies after a member of the Saudi royal family. The full name of the Islamic Center was the King Fhad Center for Islamic Studies. I paged through the list of major “angel” donors, which included several dozen Arab names. And then I recalled a name I had never thought
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