Although the story wasn't as riveting as Governor Blagojevich's maneuvers, just before Christmas a federal jury convicted five men of conspiring to kill American soldiers at Fort Dix. They face a maximum term of life imprisonment. This appears to be another victory for the Department of Justice, coming as it does shortly after the convictions in the Holy Land Foundation case in Texas.
So how are American Muslims reacting to this decision? Well, it depends on who you ask. If you ask Zuhdi Jasser, his American Islamic Forum for Democracy gave a clear response: it 'hailed the verdicts which brought the criminals to justice and will hopefully deter others like them from ever contemplating similar plots in the future.'
On the other hand, the New Jersey representative of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), as reported in the New York Times, said that the defendants had been egged on by a government informant; while not innocent, they were not so very guilty.
So who speaks for American Muslims? I suspect that American Muslims have a range of views; some feel represented by one organization, some by the other. The problem is that CAIR gets the lion's share of media attention; it's not easy to hear Jasser's voice.
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