An Intelligence Officer's Perspective on Why Obama Is Right About the Ground Zero Mosque

As a former intelligence officer who has worked in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Gulf States, I've been watching the controversy over the Ground Zero Mosque with growing alarm. Al Qaeda's goal for the 9/11 attacks was not only to destroy the American economy, but also to polarize Muslims and non-Muslims. Bin Laden understood that if Americans could be made to fear and despise Arabs, a wave of Muslim-bashing would ensue in this country which would ultimately reinforce Muslims' belief that the "Zionist-Crusader" coalition was accelerating its long-held goal of destroying Islam. This belief would make Muslims set aside what Bin Laden's 1998 Fatwa called "minor differences" among themselves and unite in a holy war against US-Israeli aggression.

My many conversations with Muslims in the Middle East have convinced me that Al Qaeda's 9/11 strategy is working. Even non-violent Muslims, who constitute the vast majority of adherents to the faith, suspect that, at its core, America hates Islam as much as it hates Al Qaeda. The moderate Muslims I know believe that equating Al Qaeda to Islam makes no more sense than equating the Ku Klux Klan with Christianity; yet the majority of Americans persist in lumping the two together. Widespread opposition in America to the Ground Zero mosque simply reinforces the suspicion in the Islamic world that America 's anger at 9/11 extends far beyond the Muslims who carried out the act to Muslims everywhere.

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