The Muslim Association of America, designated by the United Arab Emirates as one of 84 terrorist groups with Muslim Brotherhood ties, was caught red-faced after posting a video on Facebook of Muslim children conducting a musical performance in the Philadelphia Islamic center glorifying Islamic jihad, suicide martyrdom, and jihad on Israel.
Martyrdom songs and indoctrination of youth are a hallmark of Islamist organizations. It’s commonplace in Gaza, but shocking when found in the home of the Declaration of Independence. The songs romanticize both martyrdom and the destruction of Israel — classic Muslim Brotherhood Islamists tenets.
Such indoctrination of Muslim children in Islamist ideology leads directly to violence, such as the assault on Israel over the last weekend. More than 700 rockets were fired on sovereign Israeli territory by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad — both extremist Islamist terror groups.
For the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad movements to remain alive, in addition to generous funding from both Iran and Qatar, these Islamist groups require support from youth, including those here in America.
The children in Philadelphia sang songs demonizing Israel while claiming to be the “Army of Allah,” yet disregard that the Quran documents the Israelites as the chosen people to whom God promised the Holy Land. Muslims must accept their legitimacy, their prophets and their Holy Book.
These children in Philadelphia are being indoctrinated in Islamist anti-Semitism — a cosmic, not mortal, form pursued as a divine mission to combat a cosmic, not mortal, enemy. This anti-Semitism is among the most virulent and rapidly growing forms today.
While the Muslim American Society will claim these militant songs were not vetted and that it is now “investigating,” the truth is this Islamic school was not teaching Islam but instead indoctrinating the children in Islamism — a political totalitarianism masquerading as Islam.
The United Arab Emirates in 2014 listed the Muslim American Association as a terrorist group along with 84 others that included the Islamic State and al Qaeda and Boko Haram.
The onus is now on Pennsylvania authorities to investigate the indoctrination of children — who were likely born in America — by some of the most virulent Islamist ideology today.
Pennsylvania’s children, indeed every American child, must be sheltered from such abuse and exploitation. Failing to do so not only jeopardizes American youth but endangers the entire Muslim community in America today.
Qanta A. Ahmed (@MissDiagnosis) is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a member of the Committee on Combating Contemporary Anti-Semitism Through Testimony at the University of Southern California Shoah Foundation.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Caller.
