Muslim Menace

The lead article in today’s New York Times is titled, “Pakistan Detains Five U.S. Muslims in Raid by Police.” It describes the arrest of five U.S. students, mostly of Pakistani descent, after they suddenly disappeared from their Washington, D.C. homes. They were at the house of one of the students’ fathers who was linked to a militant group.

The students were not accused of any crime, and the Pakistani authorities said they were still gathering information. The F.B.I. had been notified when the students disappeared and coordinated with Pakistan in tracking them down. One of the students had created a “farewell” video, and the article notes that the investigation comes at a time when there is increasing concern about “homegrown” terrorism such as the incident at Fort Hood in Texas.

The students were all acknowledged as religious Muslims; one was studying to be a dentist; and an acquaintance said they probably didn’t even know the price of beer. If these type of people are being attracted to militant Islamic violence, there truly is a reason to be concerned.

I think we’ll have to wait to see whether anything pans out from the detentions. The Bush administration gained a reputation of making a mountain out of a molehill in these type of situations.