"Just being on the computer is reason enough for them [NSA/FBI] to tap your lines."

The title of this post is a direct quote from a fairly intelligent person with whom I work with in an effort to get a good man elected to state office. During a discussion while we were waiting for our candidate to show up at a rally event, we got involved in a discussion of Muslims being terrorists, the NSA spying programs, and other things.

It would seem that if you have a bad experience attending a cultural event of another religion or ethnic group--such as a large Muslim wedding in Illinois--then it is absolutely correct to paint all Muslims as haters of "infidels," potential terrorists because they dared to criticize the US government and Christians, and assume that there are literally thousands of terrorists waiting to blow up parts of America.

Admittedly, the events this person and others described to me was a horrid affair. They were invited to a Muslim wedding for a former employee with whom they shared a close relationship for many years. They were rather taken aback by the requirement of separating men and women into separate rooms for separate celebrations. This is a custom shared, to some degree or another, by most semitic peoples. It is a custom that has been incorporated into Islam by virtue of the teachings of Muhammed and the Koran. But that alone is just a matter of culture shock.

However, both the man and woman involved in this scenario were shocked to hear Arabic Muslims from Palestine, Egypt, Gulf Arab States and Saudi Arabia harshly criticize the US government. Strike TWO!

Then, some of the guests got radical in their interpretation of the definition of "infidel" and chose to state that all infidels ought to be killed because the Koran directs Muslims to do so. Truthfully, the Koran does have language to the effect... but it does not define the word "infidel" as including Christians or Jews. In fact, the Koran has specific restrictions upon doing any harm to "the people of the Book" (Christians and Jews), stating that as long as these people do not try to harm or convert Muslims, they are to be treated as god-fearing and welcome within the community. Additionally, the Koran does not specifically define the term "infidel" as someone that has another faith, but as someone that actually tries to harm a Muslim, convert a Muslim, or pervert the word of God (Koran).

However, just as there are Christians that have chosen to interpret and apply the words of the Bible in a particular militant light, and just as there are Jews that do the same, there are Muslims that interpret the Koran in that way. Oddly, most Muslims cannot read the Koran in its native langauge of Arabic. A significant number of Muslims in the Middle East have to realy upon the spoken recitation of the Koran and the interpretation of its meaning by an imam, mullah, ayatollah or other cleric. In places like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, the Philippines, Canada and the United States, Muslims are taught to recite the Koran by rote memorization of the Arabic words without actually undertsanding Arabic.

In the case of the Nation of Islam, the black Muslim movement in the United States, very few of their leaders and members can speak Arabic and rely upon a translation of the Koran by Doud or Ali-Yusef. Doud is a native English-speaking person who learned Arabic in the UK. Ali-Yusef was a Pakistani that was a native speaker of Urdu, having learned Arabic later in his life. Most native Arabic speakers will tell you that both Doud and Ali-Yusef made some errors in their translation, in part due to be non-native speakers, and in part because they did not understand the cultural nuances, symbolism and idiosyncrasies of the particular form of Arabic.

The Koran is written and spoken in a particular form of Arabic that is difficult to read, write and explain, even among Arabic speakers. It is poetry that contains symbolism, allegory and contrasts that come from the cultural that was actively present in the 5th century AD. There are Bedouin Arabs that speak dialects that are closely related to the language used in the 5th century that claim most of the modern clerics get the language fouled up.

Additionally, there is not a consistent scholarly model or discipline given to studying the Koran in the way that the Torah and the Bible are studied. There is a politicization of the schools that offer Koranic studies. Even sha'ria, Islamic law, has different interpretations. While there are four basic schools of thought regarding sha'ria, these schools do not produce scholarly studies, authoritative references, and relay predominantly upon local or regional traditions, or the counsel of a small group (majlis), to provide authoritative opinions... most of the members of a majlis do not have specific training in sha'ria or the Koran.

However, as I tried to persuade these kind people--and they are some of the nicest people I have met--that not all Muslims are militant, terror-minded, Christian-/Jew-hating people waiting to overthrow or terrorize the United States, they would have none of it. The woman of this couple began arguing that the NSA spying program was legitimate because there were so many Muslim terrorists in the US just waiting for an opportunity to do us harm. When I asked why were they waiting to do so, or why they hadn't attacked in the face of disclosures regarding our security vulnerabilities in our ports, along our highways, at our nuclear plants, at our chemical plants, etc., she did not have an answer, but insisted that "they are here and they want to harm us."

But she continued to state that we need to monitor every phone call, every e-mail, every fax, and every form of communication to find them. She did not want to hear about the US Constitution and the Fourth Amemndment, the Fifth Amendment or other discourse on inherent rights. She was afraid and it clear that it was fear that motivated her regard for the efforts to protect us from harm via wirtapping. Even when she was confronted with the fact that none--absolutely none--of these wiretaps produced any useful evidence of terrorists, terrorism or sleeper cells, she didn't blink... She just claimed that's how they will find them.

Both of these people seemed to think that the CIA, NSA and FBI had the capability and resources to monitor every phone call for key words and tag words like "bomb," "Allah," "Al-Qaeda," etc. I tried to point out to them that a smart terroist group would not use those words, but a code system, they did not flinch. When I pointed out that the FBI and CIA have reported major problems with their existing computer systems, and the efforts to upgrade them, and that the Pentagon, White House and Congress have all had "leaky" e-mail servers, routers and security holes, they still didn't blink.

When I mentioned that I had received word that there was an open file at the DOJ concerning my activities, but that no one would tell me why, the woman said to me, ""Just being on the computer is reason enough for them to tap your lines. Just using the computer is reason to suspect you might be a terrorist." When I tried to discuss the Fourth Amendment requirement for "probable cause" as defined by SCOTUS precedent and rulings, she argued that all that was needed was suspiscion...

I planned on reporting each of these people to the local, regional and federal authorities because I suspect they are trying to undermine the US Constitution and that is a terrorist attempt to overthrow the US government, but then I realized I was too late... George W. his White House gang, the Republican-dominated congress, and the public relations spin that perpetually tells people to "BE AFRAID, BE VERY AFRAID!" have already overthrown the government by deliberately and purposefully casting aside the Constitution whenever it seems convenient.

I sign off now. I am going to mourn the fall of a great nation... and contemplate succession from the Union.