Rejecting Liberal Democracy for Islamist Theology

"We don't know his particular ideology or what his inspiration was or whether he was directed or whether he was inspired."
U.S. law enforcement official

"Man, it was crazy. The only way I could describe it was like a scene in a movie."
"I was just driving along and shots rang out and I didn't know what to do."
Mosetta Noregula, bystander, New York takedown

"The dad and him would always be together at the shack [family takeout chicken restaurant], just them two."
"They never hired people; it was just the father and the son all the time."
Joshua Sanchez, 24, Elizabeth, New Jersey neighbour

Ahmad Khan Rahami arrested after a shootout with police Credit: Ed Murray/Barcroft Images

Father and son, united in their belief that they were discriminated against, as Afghan refugees, living in New Jersey for the past dozen years. Citing having been told by one person that Muslims are trouble-makers in America, that they don't belong in the United States, as proof-positive that they were victims of Islamophobia. Muslims everywhere seem to revel in their status as victims. "Islamophobia" is the social pathology that they claim they suffer under.

And of course that has little to do with the ongoing blight of Islamist terrorism freighting the non-Muslim and Muslim world alike.

Mohammad Rahami (centre) speaks with the FBI outside of his home Credit: Justin Lane/EPA

But it was Mohammad Rahami, the father of Ahmad Khan Rahami who first alerted police back in 2014 that it was his impression that his son was a terrorist, and an FBI investigation that was subsequently conducted, gave the younger man a clean bill of health. The father's warning effectively unheeded. "Two years ago I go to the FBI because my son was doing really bad, OK? But they check almost two months, they say, ‘He’s OK, he’s clean, he’s not a terrorist.’ I say OK. Now they say he is a terrorist. I say OK." 

The family operated a 24-hour fried-chicken shop. Neighbours took to complaining to city authorities about the noisy groups gathering at the shop after midnight, leading the city to pass an ordinance to make it illegal for the restaurant to host a rowdy crowd in the small hours of the morning, disturbing the community, but the family chose to ignore the order, Predictably, this too was viewed by them as harassment occasioned by prejudice against Muslims.

It seemed fairly obvious that the family experienced difficulties in adjusting to a different culture and a new way of life predicated on another society's values, even those as slight as respecting their neighbours' right to object to loud disturbances at night. The complaints continued and the family continued to ignore municipal orders, gaining a reputation within the community as "outcasts" who preferred to maintain a separation between themselves and others -- perfectly within their rights.

And despite which, a generally accepting attitude by other residents appeared to be the norm, with few people interviewed being critical of the family aside from their standoffishness.  But just as others claimed not to have seen it coming when someone familiar suddenly began changing appearance to affect a full beard and traditional Muslim clothing, increasing the tenor of their adherence to the faith, so too on this occasion were expressions of disbelief recounted.

But the shrapnel-packed pressure-cooker bomb that exploded on Saturday night at the Chelsea neighbourhood in Manhattan where 29 people were wounded, spoke volumes of Ahmad Khan Rahami's intention. There does not appear to be any question that this man was responsible for setting that and another bomb a few blocks away that failed to detonate. According to authorities the "suspect" was seen "as clear as day" planting the bombs, on a surveillance video.

He has been charged with attempting to kill five police officers, when he began firing after Capt. James Sarnicki, responding to a report that a man was sleeping at a bar entrance, only to recognize him as the man on a recently-issued wanted poster as a dangerous fugitive. When the Linden Police Department officer ordered Rahami to show his hands, he pulled a handgun and shot the officer, striking him in his bulletproof vest.

After which he fled, shooting all the while at passing vehicles. As other police officers chased the man that reports still speak of as the "suspect", he was shot several times, even as he shot at the police (as a perpetrator of terrorism). Yet another instance where the intake of refugees and immigrants from wartorn countries who have not been adequately screened for potential adaptability to Western mores, has become problematical.

Just as, hard on the heels of the latest reports on this man who preferred jihadist terrorism over living the American way of life, the government of the United States has revealed erroneously granting citizenship to over 800 immigrants from 'countries of concern to national security' with pending deportation orders against them. Homeland Security's Inspector General John Roth's auditors clarified that all the mistakenly granted citizenships went to failed claimants from "special interest countries" presenting a national security concern to the U.S.