The Adopt-a-Mosque Program

Awhile back, I read the book, Terrorist Hunter: The Extraordinary Story of a Woman Who Went Undercover to Infiltrate the Radical Islamic Groups Operating in America, and a particular passage has been gnawing at me. Rita Katz (a Jew working for an NGO intelligence agency) had dressed as a Muslim woman and was registering to attend one of the many talks scheduled at a Muslim convention in Chicago. Under her burka, she had a hidden recording device.

"The clerk at the front desk directed me to the registration table in a far corner of the lobby," Katz wrote. "A queue had already formed there. As I joined it, I began to get jittery. This was an IAP conference. Islamic Association for Palestine. Many of the attendees, therefore, would be Palestinian. Any of them would recognize from my accent that I was an Iraqi. What if they asked me about it? What if they asked me other questions? What if I got tripped up on some detail of my story? The people at the registration table were very suspicious of anyone they didn't recognize or who didn't look Middle Eastern. They grilled several people standing in line. Some of the answers they approved, and those people they signed up. But just ahead of me in line was a guy who didn't look Mediterranean. Nor did he speak Arabic. They asked him a few questions. He tried to explain himself, but the organizers weren't buying his story. They were polite — and very firm that he was not getting in."

There are several points I'd like to make here about this incident, and then I have an idea for a possible action we can take. First off, Rita Katz looked Middle Eastern and she spoke Arabic, so she got in. And they preached firey jihad against the West and promoted sedition and the violent overthrow of the U.S. government. This was taking place in Chicago.

Second, these Muslims were practicing racial profiling. They were guilty of discrimination based on race.

Now, here's my idea. What if we went in groups of five or six (for safety) and brought either a hidden camera, an audio recorder, or a newspaper reporter with us, and tried to get into these conferences? Would they throw us out? If they did, isn't that newsworthy? Are they being racist? What do they have to hide?

What if this happened to mosques and Islamic conferences all over the United States and Europe? One of two things would happen, both of them good for the cause. Either Muslims would be publicly exposed as racist and secretive, or they would let non-Muslims into their conferences and Friday sermons. So either they would get bad press as racist, or non-Muslims would be monitoring what they say inside these normally-Muslim-only communication stations.

This seems like a legitimate and viable form of protest that could be taken without any violence. It would have to be done carefully so anyone trying it would be safe — like going with a group, making sure people knew where you were, keeping your cellphone on you, etc.

I think this idea has some merit. What do you think?