Muslim Extremism Rising In U.S.

Though it months ago banned the phrase “war on terror,” the Obama Administration reluctantly admits that the threat of deadly Muslim extremism is rising sharply in the United States.

Perhaps, then, the nation is in fact engaged in a war on terror. Regardless of what the president and his politically correct group of czars and advisers label it, Islamic terrorism is stronger than ever on U.S. soil and the administration has concluded that the country faces a growing threat from extremism, especially the homegrown type. 

Anti-terrorism officials say there are clear signs of accelerated radicalization among American Muslims partially fueled by English-language propaganda on the internet, according to a major newspaper report published this week. Some aspiring terrorists have even taken trips to known hotspots such as Pakistan and Somalia, the officials say.

A recent flood of Islamic terrorism incidents on U.S. soil prove that this has been the most precarious year domestically since the savage 2001 attacks in New York and the Pentagon. The FBI has rounded up viable homegrown terrorists in cities across the nation—including Dallas Texas, Detroit Michigan and Raleigh North Carolina—and diffused plots targeting government buildings and military facilities.

Several Americans have also been arrested for plotting with Al Qaeda, including an Afghan American charged with a New York bomb plot described as the most serious threat to the U.S. since September 11. American officials have also tracked terrorists that have joined foreign networks in their quest to attack the United States. 

Even Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, whose biggest concern thus far has been preventing a wave of anti-Muslim sentiment in the United States, recently acknowledged the danger. Like violent extremism abroad, Napolitano admitted, home-based terrorism will be part of the “threat picture that we must now confront.”

This all indicates that there is no end in sight to the war on terror, even if it is a forbidden adage in the administration of change. Shortly after moving into the White House, President Obama proudly announced that he would replace the expression, coined by the George W. Bush Administration with “overseas contingency operations.”