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Mosque fight helps al-Qaida, says former FBI interrogator
Ali Soufan, reputed to be the FBI's most skillful terrorist interrogator after the Sept. 11 attacks, asserted Wednesday that opposition to building a mosque near Ground Zero is helping al-Qaida.
"There are many reasons for supporting the Muslim community's right to build a cultural center and mosque on private property, not least of all the First Amendment of the Constitution guaranteeing freedom of religion," wrote Soufan, a supervisory special agent with the bureau from 1997 to 2005, in an essay for Forbes and published online Wednesday.
"But from a national security perspective, our leaders need to understand that no one is likely to be happier with the opposition to building a mosque than Osama Bin Laden. His next video script has just written itself."
Soufan, a Muslim himself who cracked some of al-Qaida's top operatives by rejecting harsh interrogation methods, noted that no American Muslims participated in the Sept. 11 plot.
But the current opposition to the mosque, mixed with "poor (and even harmful) leadership within the American-Muslim community and failed strategies from our government in dealing with the [terrorist] threat," could be undermining young American Muslims' support for their country.
"When demagogues appear to be equating Islam with terrorism, it's making young Muslims unsure about their place in the country," he wrote. "It bolsters the message that radicalizers are selling: That the war is against Islam, and Muslims are not welcome in America."