The Unsavory Alliance

Much has been made of the links emerging between leftist political elements in western society, and the Islamist fundamentalists who would dearly love to deprive said leftists of every last liberal right and opportunity.

I personally don't believe that there is a default burning desire in the heart of every leftist to see minarets soaring over what was their local nightclub or beatnik cafe joint. I do believe, however, that Muslims are taking the very pragmatic step of seizing the old "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" adage, and using it on gullible (but well meaning) hippy types.

A good example of this phenomena is Chris Fryer. He's an adorable (and slightly eccentric) fellow whose large cojones I have cause to admire. He is currently upset at my attitude over the leftist/Islamist connection, and feels that there is no truth to it. I beg to differ.

As does Joshua Kurlantzick in this wonderfully lucid piece on the subject:

The Manhattan attorney Lynne Stewart has been wedded to activist causes since the 1960’s, defending a long train of leftists who have had run-ins with the law. A grandmotherly woman with a wide, jowly pink face and graying hair in a bowl cut, she has represented antiwar demonstrators, aging yippies, and Black Panthers. In one well known display of her skills, she convinced a jury in the late 1980’s that Larry Davis, a drug dealer who had wounded six policemen in a shootout, was himself the victim of corruption and racism, and won his acquittal.

When Stewart arrived at a federal prison hospital in Minnesota in May 2000, however, she met a client from a very different milieu. In the visiting room, Stewart sat down across from Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, the infamous blind Egyptian cleric imprisoned for life in 1995 for inciting the 1993 World Trade Center attack and plotting to blow up the FBI’s office in Manhattan as well as the United Nations and the Holland and Lincoln tunnels.

Though roughly the same age as Stewart, Abdel Rahman seems to have missed out on many of the famously tolerant ideals associated with her generation of activists. He has called for the slaughter of Jews, and for women to have little public role in society. Yet, with Sheik Omar, Stewart allegedly took a step beyond mere legal advice. Videotapes reportedly show that Stewart loudly spoke nonsense words while her client, under the din, instructed a man traveling with Stewart and posing as a translator to execute a new terrorist plot. For this, Stewart has been charged with providing material support for terrorism, since the dangerous sheik is forbidden from contacting his followers.

At Stewart’s trial this fall, an FBI agent told the court that Sheik Omar later issued a proclamation, found in Stewart’s office, announcing that “Any statement that comes from her . . . should be taken as if I said it.” Also at the trial, an Egyptian reporter for Reuters testified that, at roughly the same time as this proclamation, he had received a call from Stewart relaying a message from Omar to his followers that they should break their cease-fire with another Islamist group.

Revelations of her complicity with known terrorists left Stewart nonplussed. “We hit if off,” she gushed to the Washington Post about her interactions with the sheik. “He’s really an incredible person.”

Not an isolated incident, as Kurlantzick goes on to evidence. If you have time, read the whole thing.