THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 14, 1996 TAG: 9609140224
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BILL SIZEMORE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 89 lines
Within hours after the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building last year, the TV networks were putting terrorism experts on the air to speculate on who might have been responsible.
One of them was Steven Emerson.
It looked to him like the work of Muslim terrorists, he said.
``This was done with the intent to inflict as many casualties as possible,'' Emerson said on CBS. ``That is a Mideastern trait.''
It turned out, of course, to be a more home-grown brand of terror. The defendants in the upcoming Oklahoma City case have been linked to domestic militia groups, not to anything in the Middle East.
Emerson quickly came under fire for his inaccurate speculation. The Council on American-Islamic Relations accused him of helping to foster ``a climate of anti-Muslim, anti-Arab hysteria'' that led to hate crimes such as bomb threats at mosques and an attack on an Oklahoma family after which a woman suffered a miscarriage.
Emerson, however, is unapologetic. He has used books, newspapers, television and lectures to promote his view that Islamic extremism is the No. 1 terrorist threat in the world today.
He will be expounding that view Wednesday in Virginia Beach, where he will be the featured speaker at a luncheon sponsored by the Central Business District Association in cooperation with Tidewater Community College.
Emerson has been a special investigative correspondent for CNN, a senior editor for U.S. News and World Report and a staff member for the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
On Friday Emerson dismissed the attacks on his Oklahoma City speculation as an attempt to discredit him. The Council on American-Islamic Relations, he said, ``is a known front for Hamas'' - a radical Islamic group that has claimed responsibility for a series of deadly suicide bombings in Israel.
``What I said was that it fit the paradigm of bombings carried out in the recent past,'' he said. ``Nine of 11 car bombs worldwide up to that point were carried out by radical Middle Eastern groups. It was the No. 1 assessment of the FBI that these groups were responsible.
``What I said was no different from what virtually any other reporter said. I have been singled out because I'm considered an enemy by these groups. It's an attempt to chill, to intimidate.''
He charged that most of the accounts of anti-Muslim hate crimes that surfaced after the Oklahoma City bombing were ``fabricated or misrepresented.''
What put him on Muslim groups' enemies list, Emerson says, was his 1994 documentary on public television, ``Jihad in America.''
That program, which opened with graphic footage of the aftermath of the World Trade Center bombing in New York City, made a case for a worldwide radical Islamic conspiracy with a significant presence in the United States. It included film of radical Muslim leaders raising funds and recruiting volunteers around the country.
The film included a disclaimer that Islam as a religion does not condone violence and that the vast majority of Muslims are not members of extremist groups.
But that wasn't enough for Ahmed Noor, head of the Hampton branch of the Foundation for Islamic Knowledge.
``His program was not even-handed,'' Noor said. ``We as Muslims feel very offended that we are singled out by attaching the word `Muslim' to the word `extremism.' Nothing in the Koran or the teachings of Mohammed would condone acts of terrorism.''
But Emerson says his documentary was a needed wake-up call for Americans who perceive Islamic extremism as a distant, foreign phenomenon.
True, he said, the World Trade Center bombing is the only act of terrorism on U.S. soil that has been attributed to Islamic radicals. But, he said, U.S. authorities foiled a subsequent plot to blow up a other American landmarks.
In addition, he said, Muslim radicals have targeted Americans abroad - such as the 19 U.S. airmen who died in an explosion at a military barracks in Saudi Arabia in June.
No charges have been brought in that case, but Emerson said ``the increasing evidence points to several radical Islamic groups, probably headquartered in London but which have offices in the United States.''
Why would such groups target America? One obvious reason is this country's longstanding support of their sworn enemy, Israel. But Emerson believes it goes far beyond that.
Islamic radicals hate the United States ``for its secularism, its democratic orientation, its separation of church and state,'' he said. ``They consider the West incompatible with Islam.'' ILLUSTRATION: Controversial commentator Steve Emerson is scheduled
to speak at a luncheon in Virginia Beach next week.
TERRORISM TALK
Steven Emerson will speak at a luncheon Wednesday, 11:30 a.m., at
the Holiday Inn Executive Center, 5655 Greenwich Road, Virginia
Beach. Admission is $18.50 per person. For reservations, call
490-7812. by CNB