ASRA NOMANI: The well-known ‘Triple D’ strategy of the Islamists follows the terrorist attack on Bourbon Street

When Shamsud Din Jabbar42, rammed his white Ford F-150 pickup into New Year’s Eve revelers on Bourbon Street in New Orleans’ French Quarter, leaders at his neighborhood mosque, Masjid Bilal off Adel Road in Houston, sent the believers a message direct FBI inquiries to a special interest group, Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), and avoid talking to the media.

But they didn’t have to tell me anything. I’ve seen this pattern before, as a former Wall Street Journal reporter who investigated Islamic extremism for 23 years—since the brutal murder of my colleague and friend, journalist Daniel Pearlby Muslim militants in Karachi, for the crime of being an American, a Jew and a grandson of Israel.

SUSPECT IN NEW ORLEANS TRUCK ATTACK INSPIRED BY ISLAMIC STATE TERRORIST GROUP

First, a radicalized Muslim kills in the name of Islam. Then, groups like CAIR employ a strategy I call the “triple D”: denying that the crime has anything to do with Islam, deflecting with excuses, and then demonizing anyone who calls out terrorism as “Islamophobic.”

Indeed, within 36 hours CAIR issued statement, denying the problem of Islamic extremism, claiming that it has been “rejected by the vast majority of the Muslim world”. It then diverted from the killer’s religious radicalization by describing him as “a man with a history of drink driving and marital abuse”.

East of Houston, in Beaumont, Texas, Fahmee Al-Uqdah, Jabbar’s hometown imam, told local TV station, KFDM/Fox 4, that Jabbar’s family asked him to convey the message that “the tragic incident was fueled by hatred and ignorance and that Jabbar’s actions do not reflect the religion of Islam.” Al-Uqdah practice a branch of Islam established by a black American leader, Imam W. Deen Mohammed, son of Elijah Mohammed, the founder Nation of Islamwhich today is led by fierce anti-Semites Louis Farrakhan. It is not yet clear whether Jabbar was a member of the W. Deen Mohammed Islamic School.

Finally, most likely in the coming days, CAIR officials will demonize anyone who focuses on Jabbar’s religious radicalization.

As a Muslim feminist and classical liberal born in India and raised in West Virginia, I co-founded the Muslim Reform Movement in 2015 with brave Muslims like the author Zuhdi Jasser and Raheel Raza, to stand up against this triple D strategy. Later, in 2022, we co-founded the Clarity Coalition with ex-Muslims, like author Yasmina Mohammed, and allies to stand up to extremists and advocate for the Islam of women’s rights, human rights, and mercy.

“The Ummah..is one body”

Although Masjid Bilal mosque officials declined to confirm that Jabbar had prayed there, it is only a seven-minute walk from the trailer home in the 12000 block of Crescent Peak Drive where he lived before the attack. In addition, Jabbar’s half-brother Abdur Jabbar he told The New York Times his sibling may have recently become radicalized.

Groups like CAIR employ a strategy I call the “triple D”: denying the crime has anything to do with Islam, deflecting with excuses, and then demonizing anyone who calls out terrorism as an “Islamophobe.”

Indeed, in his home, Jabbar left the Qur’an open to verse 111 of chapter 9, “Surah at-Tawbah,” which I call the “war verse,” because of its edicts of war and its promise of heaven for Muslims who wage violent jihad. The open page read: “They fight for His cause, kill and be killed; a promise binding,” according to reporting from The Times of London.

The sermons delivered at Masjid Bilal are emblematic of the broader, problematic, insular and rigid interpretation of Islam preached in too many mosques. Browsing through the multitude of sermons posted on Masjid Bilal’s Facebook page, I found a portrait of the strictest interpretation of Islam, a grace scarcely to be found. While it is unclear whether these sermons influenced Jabbar, they reflect a larger pattern that many avoid careful study, leaving critical gaps in understanding.

Imams, or prayer leaders, railed against the LGBTQ community, considered adopted children unworthy of the same status as biological children, forced women into separate balcony space, and he scolded himself “doctors who wear scrubs” because they don’t dress respectfully. Imams preach interpretations of Islam from the strictest schools of law, ie Madhhab.

Most strikingly, imams preached sermons without compassion for the Jews massacred by Hamas terrorists in Israel on October 7, 2023. Instead, there was a relentless focus on the “oppressors” of the Palestinians.

On October 9, 2023, in the first video released after the massacre, the imam sat with his hands folded on his lap and solemnly said: “We pray for our brothers and sisters in Palestine…Give them help and victory, inshallah, “God willing . There was not a word of sympathy for the Jews killed by Hamas.

Four days later, on Oct. 13, I have repeatedly the manipulative belief among ideologues that the “Muslim ummah,” or community of so-called believers, is “one body,” and called for renewed prayer for “our brothers and sisters in Palestine” and called for “an end to their suffering.”

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On October 15, the second imam in the mosque pushed believers to raise their voices for “our brothers and sisters in Palestine” against the “wretched situation of the Palestinians”. Not even a word was offered for the slaughtered Jews. Here he also lashed out at the “LGBTQ” community.

Rejection from October 7th

On May 31, I have another imam spent much of his sermon insulting Israel, saying, “Wherever I go, I can’t give a speech without mentioning Falastin, Gaza and the West Bank,” using the Arabic word for Palestine.

“Every mainstream media channel in this country has accused the whole story that this only started on October 7,” he said. “Hamas attacked [sic] Israel. This is 100 percent not true. This genocide, this aggression has been going on for the last 75 years.” The root cause of October 7 was Israel’s “occupation”, “colonization” and “settlement”.

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“If you see evil, start with your hand…”, he instructed the congregation, repeating the hadith, that is, the saying of Muhammad, the prophet of Islam.

Moreover, Christopher Raia, deputy assistant director of the FBI’s counterterrorism division, said Jabbar joined the Islamic State this summer and drove down Bourbon Street with his hand on the wheel, believing he was in a “war between believers and unbelievers.”

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