Two fathers tread where our leaders fear to go

Dear Leah, As I hinted at in my Jewish Advocate column last week (see below): "Losing our Sons" - www.losingoursons.com - focuses on a jihad-murder in Little Rock, but in fact there are patterns there that can be found in many American cities. 1. The targets of jihadis are Jews and the military; 2. Those who enable Islamic radicals to infiltrate American society are the same in every city: The media, the progressive clergy, the politicians and the mainstream Jewish leaders. The film should be a warning to American society. You can purchase it on the site. We are happy to help with local screenings. (The film has received ovations in every showing so far.) Visit www.losingoursons.com to watch trailers and/or purchase the DVD. In Freedom, Charles Jacobs Two fathers tread where our leaders fear to go Jewish Advocate June 22, 2012 By Charles Jacobs A young man is stalked, hunted down and killed - not because of the color of his skin but because of the uniform he wore. It happened in Little Rock on June 1, 2009. The killer had also targeted Jewish institutions, and had stalked Jewish leaders in Nashville, Memphis and Little Rock. He fire-bombed a rabbi's house. Most likely you have not heard about these incidents: The media, for reasons of its own, thinks it should not tell Americans exactly what happened and why. A hard working black family sends their son to college, and he comes back a jihadist. What could be happening in our colleges? You will not find that out by reading The New York Times or watching CNN or listening to NPR. But you can learn all of this by watching the documentary "Losing Our Sons," just released by my group Americans for Peace and Tolerance. It was featured on "Huckabee" on the Fox News channel on Father's Day. It was an emotional segment on Fox. Huckabee himself was upset as Melvin Bledsoe and Daris Long told him how one of their sons murdered the other in cold blood. Carlos Bledsoe, raised in a Baptist, church-going family, converted to radical Islam while at college in Nashville and killed Long's son, Andy - a US soldier in Little Rock. Carlos confessed and explained that he did it "for Allah." He was convicted and imprisoned for life. Carlos became interested in Islam while a student at Tennessee State University. He began attending local mosques, eventually converted and took the name of one of the mosques' imams: Abdulhakim Muhammad. It is not known exactly who converted Carlos, but we do know that Abdulahakim Mohammad preached that America "is the worst country on Earth," that the Christian faith is "the greatest lie ever told," that this worldly life "is trash" and that Muslims must seek death and the afterlife. And we know that he also preached that good Muslims should prepare for "a mass battle and war against the Jews," who "are gathering themselves in Palestine." (These sermons are featured in the film) It was more than a year ago that the two fathers decided to cooperate with each other - and with us - in making the film. They saw it as a way to tell the story that the media did not want to probe, and that many civic and political leaders did not want aired. We have seen now in several cities newspaper editors and reporters failing to report what they know, or suspect: that the historically moderate Muslim communities in America are being radicalized by extremist organizations that are building and/or taking over existing mosques and cultural centers. Journalists often feel they need to protect what they perceive as vulnerable minorities, and so they hesitate to publish anything negative about developments in the Muslim community. They also fear being labeled as bigots and Islamophobes. (They also fear being sued, as in Boston.) Speaking the truth in a politically correct culture is a sin. The truth about what happened to Carlos and Andy is practically taboo. Indeed, the Nashville Tennessean reports negatively about citizens who express concerns about radical Islam while rebutting allegations about extremism. If the newspaper had done its job, it could have warned about the radical preachers at Vanderbilt and TSU. We know that it could have reported everything we found in our research for the film: the outrageous sermons and classes - given by radicals who pass themselves off as moderates, in which Christianity and Judaism are mocked and said to be inauthentic frauds; Jews are demonized and threatened with death; gays are condemned to death under Islam; and America is cursed as evil. The paper interviewed Melvin, but he said it refused to write about what he told him. But what happened at the Tennessean could easily have happened at the Globe or the Herald, or the Washington Post, New York Times, ad nauseam. And then there's Nashville's Jewish establishment. Even though Carlos Bledsoe admitted that he had targeted Jewish institutions, firebombed a rabbi's house in Nashville and shot at a rabbi's house in Little Rock, Jewish federation leaders and progressive rabbis in Nashville refused to speak out. We are trying now to get them to show our documentary or to have Melvin and Daris address the Jewish community. Wish us luck! The failure of Nashville's civic leadership is compounded at the national level by the current administration. (The Bush administration was not much better). In scenes that grip, befuddle and anger audiences, congressmen and the administration's witnesses are shown in our film responding to concerns raised by Melvin and Daris with disdain. At the hearings on home-grown terror, administration officials adamantly denied any connection between the attacks by Muslims on US soldiers and American Jews and radical Islam. The Defense Department is treating the murder of Private Andy Long as a drive-by shooting, and is denying him the Purple Heart. Indeed this month, President Barack Obama, threatening to veto the Defense Authorization bill, specifically cited his opposition to an attached bipartisan resolution to give Andy Long the Purple Heart. (The administration takes the same position on the killings at Fort Hood by the son of Palestinian refugees who shouted "Allah Akbar" before he killed 13 of his fellow soldiers. This is being referred to as "work-place violence.") George Orwell, call home! Daris and Melvin are extraordinary men. They have come together to penetrate the thick fog imposed on us by our elites - the media, the progressive Jewish and Christian clergy and organizations, the professoriate - all of whom have failed them and continue to fail us. These fathers are dedicated to warning and teaching Americans about the growing threat to our security and civil society that our leaders willfully ignore. At our peril. I believe Andy might be alive today, and Carlos a free man, if our leaders were not failing us so completely. Until that changes, the threat continues. As Melvin says in the film, "It happened to my son today - tomorrow, maybe your son." The Internal Revenue Service recognizes Americans for Peace and Tolerance as a 501c3 non-profit corporation. If you would like to donate to our cause, you may send a check to APT, 15 Main St. Suite 118, Watertown, MA 02472 or donate online:

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