Representative Myrick on the House Anti-Terrorism/Jihad Caucus

Representative Sue Myrick, the dynamic former Mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina, who now represents the state's 9th Congressional District and serves as Deputy Republican Whip, has founded the House Anti-Terrorism/Jihad Caucus. She was recently interviewed by Pam Meister of Family Security Matters.

PM: I’m speaking with Representative Sue Myrick from North Carolina. Representative Myrick is the deputy Republican whip, and she has also founded the House Anti-Terrorism/Jihad Caucus. Congresswoman, thank you for joining me.

MYRICK: Sure.

PM: Okay, I have a few questions for you. Please give us the who, what, when, where and why about the Anti-Terrorism/Jihad Caucus. What exactly do you hope to accomplish?

MYRICK: Well, we’ve got 120 members, four co-chairs, two Dems and two Republicans. We really want to accomplish educating the members so they can intelligently talk about the issues when they go home to their districts, and then start a national dialogue. We meet twice a month here on the Hill…and the why, I guess, is really that members, even if you’re on a committee of jurisdiction, sometimes then you don’t really have everything you need to know to make an informed decision. So, we have had excellent response; we’ve had really good people come talk to us, and it’s bipartisan, so it’s been very encouraging to me.

PM: Noted Islamic expert Robert Spencer has called the term war on terror "a misnomer." Would you agree with this assessment? Why or why not?

MYRICK: Well, sure I agree. We aren’t fighting terror, we’re fighting ideology. And, I describe it as Ismamofascism because it’s authoritarian, and it’s a very political ideology, and it considers an individual and other society interests are subordinate to the interests of the state. It really concerns me because, you know, we’ve always lived under freedoms in the Western world, and the ideology they are supporting will take away those freedoms, and that is very scary.

PM: Would you say that the mainstream press reporting accurately on the threat posed by Islamism and Jihad?

MYRICK: Are they even reporting it? (Editor’s note: Rep. Myrick created this bipartisan caucus back in January 2007. The fact that this is only now getting notice does not reflect well on how much attention this topic is receiving in the mainstream press.)

PM: I guess that answers my question! All right, how has political correctness and multiculturalism hampered our efforts in fighting Jihad?

MYRICK: Where do I start? Well first of all, it prevents us from talking about the enemy, and that’s why we use words like “war on terror” because, you know, we aren’t allowed from political correctness to say Islamofascists or radical Islamist Jihadists; those words aren’t supposed to be used. So it’s very frustrating to me because you can’t fight something if you can’t identify it.

PM: Right. Why do you think moderate Muslims in America and elsewhere are not as outspoken against Islamism as they might be, and what can be done to encourage them to speak out?

MYRICK: Well you know, part of the problem is because there are a lot of radical Islamists in this country and around the world, very frankly, that do prevent moderate Muslims from having a voice out of fear. I mean, they literally threaten them like they threaten everybody else, and so that’s one side of it. And then most of the moderate Muslims that I meet with, people…who have organizations, individuals who are concerned about this, they literally don’t have the resources that they need to build their groups. And the third part of this is our government does not seek them out for advice. Now some time ago, [Rep.] Frank Wolf and myself sent a letter over to the State Department, Condoleezza Rice and Karen Hughes, you know, saying “why don’t you meet with moderate leaders, because everybody you’re meeting with is a representative of a radical group.” And so we got a call back saying, “well, we will meet with them,” but to my knowledge it hasn’t happened yet; at least the people I know have not had the opportunity to be involved.

PM: Do you think there is a real danger of Islamist terrorists taking advantage of our broken border security system to sneak into our country?

MYRICK: Oh sure, I mean it’s happening. There was a recent case in Arizona. I’m not sure how you pronounce it, but it’s Fort Huachuca, it’s an intelligence center, and they train military interrogators for Guantanamo Bay and other detention centers that are targeted by the Islamists. And they do get across the border from Mexico, we are told, and so very definitely there’s an effort going on.

PM: How much of a danger is "homegrown Jihad" and what can we do to thwart it?

MYRICK: It’s enormous. It really is one of my biggest concerns. Homegrown Jihad is complicated because potential recruits can self-indoctrinate on the Internet or through videos. You know, some of the people that we have captured with al Qaeda, they live on in infamy in videos and on the Internet because the tapes that they did about how you build bombs and how you fight in the training videos that they did from Pakistan, Afghanistan, wherever, they’re still on the Internet today. So anybody who is interested can very easily train themselves. And so this is really tough to resolve. But it scares me because those are the people I’m afraid of. You know, the homegrown Jihadist is the person who will go out and do something stupid, in effect, where a lot of the organized effort, they don’t want another bombing or something to call attention to themselves because they’re doing such a good job [of] infiltrating us in this country underground that they don’t want any attention [drawn] to them.

PM: This next question will actually segueway nicely from your last question: according to some experts, Saudi Wahhabists are not only funding radical texts in American mosques, but their funding also influences what American schoolchildren from elementary school through college learn about Islam and the Middle East. What can we do to stop this trend?

MYRICK: Well, we’ve got to start by educating the American people that this is happening. It’s our country, and it’s people in the country that need to make the difference, but we’ve got to educate them. It’s scary to me, because yes it is happening. The funding does go into the colleges in particular; they’ve been doing that for at least 20 years, where they fund professors in the schools. And then these schools…the professor starts out with a small amount of money; I’m told by a former professor who actually was part of this, and the point was, they give you, like $25,000 the first year, and no strings attached, and it keeps going up in amounts each year. And by the time they reach about $100,000 then they start to say “why don’t you say this, why don’t you teach this, why don’t you use this book,” etcetera, etcetera. And that’s how they are molding the minds of young people in this country. And then those people are going out and they’re in our military and our justice system and our legal system; they’re in all sections of the government – the State Department – and they’re the ones that are making decisions about how we address and how we deal with this problem, and that’s part of the reason nothing’s getting done.

PM: Sharia law and trends toward dhimmitude are taking hold in many European countries, and there are worries that it might be happening in Canada as well. Do you see signs of it here in the U.S.?

MYRICK: Well there are very subtle signs of it creeping in here, and one of them is Sharia banking agreements, which is just now happening with a couple of our American banks that are entering into Sharia banking agreements to get their hands on Middle Eastern money, very frankly. And it scares me because it’s a slow creep, but it can happen.

PM: The recent Holy Land Foundation trial in Dallas ended in a mistrial. Some experts believe it's because the average person simply doesn't know enough about groups like the Muslim Brotherhood and their ties to terrorism. Would you agree?

MYRICK: Well I don’t think our public jury system is the problem, but I think that these groups are very savvy in how they comply with our laws, U.S. laws, for the most part, and that makes it very difficult for us to prosecute them under our current legal system because they, again, have been educated in this country, they are educated as attorneys, they know how far they can go. And so they know they can go to the point where they don’t actually break a law, which makes it hard to prosecute. And it is a mistrial, so it will be tried again at some point.

PM: Would the threat from Jihad cease if America simply withdrew from affairs in the Middle East?

MYRICK: Of course not. Again, the radical Islamists have a goal, literally, and it’s written down in just about every book you pick up and read. Their intent is to overthrow all the current regimes in the Middle East; re-impose the Islamic Caliphate that ceased after the Ottoman Empire fell apart after World War II; and if we withdraw from Middle East affairs it would be wonderful for them because they’d have less resistance, I guess I should say, to achieve their goals – and you know their goal is first Europe and then America.

PM: Congresswoman, is there anything I haven’t covered that you want our readers to know about?

MYRICK: No; I think that the main thing is we have a book list if anyone is interested, of some books that would be good for them to read to educate themselves on the whole situation. I encourage everybody I know to talk to their friends and neighbors and make them aware that this is a growing problem in our country and we need to be prepared. But we aren’t going to be prepared unless the American people get involved. They can’t depend on government to do it, unfortunately.

PM: The book list that you reference, can that be found online?

MYRICK: Yeah, it’s on SueMyrick.com; that’s the easiest to remember. It’s a recommended reading list, and they’re all books that are [written] by creditable authors and each one of them covers different subjects. I would say that if somebody really wants to learn about what’s happening here in America, one of the books that’s recommended is “Infiltration” by Paul Sperry. And that book is the most concise report, because everything is documented by fact; everything he says in there he documents. And that…really gives a good overview of what we’re facing.

PM: Rep. Myrick, thank you so much for your time.

MYRICK: You’re welcome; have a good day.

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