Mind Your Language

The situation may sound familiar to many Sikhs. Government forces practiced storming a religious center by creating a mock model. No, I am not talking about the Government of India in 1984 *[see bottom], but rather the American Government in 2008.

Last week, a number of US government agencies ran a drill to practice their emergency preparation. A newspaper reported:

For the purpose of Thursday night’s emergency exercise drill, the Continuing Recovery Center in Irving had become Irving Mosque, the home-base for a radical, heavily armed group with suspected terrorist ties.

There were explosions outside and inside the building. Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm System (ILEAS) special forces stormed the “mosque” from an armored car. [link]

Members of the Muslim community, I believe, rightfully protested the implications:

The use of a fake ‘mosque’ in this type of drill sends the wrong message to law enforcement officials who may now view mainstream institutions, such as Islamic houses of worship, as potential security threats,” said Ahmed Rehab, executive director of CAIR’s Chicago chapter (CAIR-Chicago). “Officials must be trained in dealing with hostage-taking and responding to chemical, biological or bomb attacks. We are only questioning the wisdom of linking the American Muslim community and its institutions to such incidents.” [link]

While I do not have any affiliation with CAIR, I do understand their angst in the government’s usage of words such as ‘mosque.’ Ahmed Rehab was trying to convey that there he has no problem with government agencies preparing themselves for hostage attacks, however, it is problematic to call it a ‘mosque’ and use religious iconography that does not serve to enhance the actual preparation.

Certain reactionary websites have begun their diatribe:

The Council on American Islamic Relations [CAIR, the Saudi funded Hamas mouthpiece and unindicted co-conspirator in the nation’s largest terror prosecution] has predictably taken exception to a realistic security exercise in which officers from the Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm System [ILEAS] stormed the Continuing Recovery Center in Irving which had been transformed into the “Irving Mosque” for purposes of the event. [link]

Well then on this blog, this blogger ALSO takes exception to the exercise (be it predictable or not). This act was wrong and those agencies that could make such a blunder to play with a religious community’s sentiments and breed anti-Islamic sentiments should apologize. I do stand in solidarity with those groups that are stating that the naming and targeting of a particular American community is un-American.

————–

* In retrospect, it appears that the Prime Minister had a premeditated design to apply a military solution instead of a Constitutional solution to the Punjab crisis, but was marking time so that the situation may further deteriorate for justifying that solution. We give below two important observations of the Sunday Times, London in support of our assessment of the situation : “The Indian army drew up its invasion (of Golden Temple) strategy nine months ago. A week ago last Friday, Mrs. Gandhi seized the perfect opportunity to use it.”

Government had repeatedly declared that it would not send police into the Darbar Sahib. But the fact is that the Government had started preparations for the military action months before June, 1984. A large model of the Darbar Sahib Complex had been prepared at a camp of the Special Frontier Force at Chakrata in the foothills of the Himalayas, and commandos were trained for this purpose. A British correspondent of the ‘Sunday Times’, London, noted: “Last week’s assault on the Golden Temple took place after months of preparation of the Indian army, which included advice from British experts in counter-insurgency. Sources in Delhi say that two officers of the Indian secret service, Gary Saxena and R.N. Kao, of the Research and Analysis Wing made several trips to London to seek expertise. The Indian Government then selected 600 men from different units and sent them to rehearse the assault on a life size replica of the Golden Temple, built at a secret training camp in the Chakrata Hills, about 150 miles north of Delhi. The assault troops were alerted to invade the Temple no fewer than five times during the past three months, but each time Mrs. Gandhi vetoed the invasion. ‘A case of nerves’,according to a senior aide.” [link]