PHOENIX (July 8, 2011) – Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, a devout Muslim and the president and founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) issued the following statement regarding the Obama administration’s decision to use civilian courts for Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame case. Warsame is believed to be a senior operational commander in the Somali terrorist organization al-Shabbab and has significant contacts within Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. He was captured in April and held aboard a US warship until he was transferred to New York City for trial this past week:

“The Obama administration’s decision to bring Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame to New York City to be tried in a civilian court defies logic. Warsame is an enemy combatant. He is not a US citizen or even a resident and his illegal activities were perpetrated overseas and were clearly an act of war against the United States. He should not be afforded the legal rights and privileges of citizenship.

While we applaud the decision to fully interrogate Warsame, the Administration’s new cherry picked procedures with captured terrorists abroad is playing a dangerous political game that is unnecessary and belies a total lack of understanding of the war we are in with Islamist radicals. Warsame and all captured terror suspects should be fully interrogated and held for military tribunal at the Guantanamo Bay prison facility.

This administration needs to fully understand that the US is in a state of war with the ideology of militant Islamism. If we have any hope of defeating this insidious and violent ideology we cannot continue to equivocate on how we handle these terrorists. The enemy has no such dilemma on their side. War cannot be conducted with half measures. Warsame needs to be treated in accordance with his actions.”

About the American Islamic Forum for Democracy
The American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) charitable organization. AIFD’s mission advocates for the preservation of the founding principles of the United States Constitution, liberty and freedom, through the separation of mosque and state. For more information on AIFD, please visit our website at http://www.aifdemocracy.org/.

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