WASHINGTON (Sputnik), Leandra Bernstein — The US government should help Muslim Americans combat radicalization in their communities by establishing an informant hotline to assist law enforcement, Global Alliance for Terminating Al-Qaeda/ISIS (GAFTA) founder and president Ahmad Kubba told Sputnik on Monday.
“One of the projects of GAFTA right now is to use the American-Muslim as a surveillance camera to watch terrorism,” Kubba said, describing his plan to establish a toll-free number for US Muslims to inform authorities of suspicious, terrorism-related behavior in their communities.
On Sunday morning, a gunman killed 49 victims in a popular gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida. The FBI has confirmed that the shooter, Omar Mateen, swore allegiance to the Islamic State (ISIL or Daesh) terror group before carrying out the attack.
“It is your duty as a Muslim and a US citizen and as a good person to inform authorities if you see any suspicious things,” Kubba said, noting that he is working with US officials to try to implement the hotline.
Kubba, who founded the nonprofit group GAFTA in 2014, denounced the attacks in Orlando as "evil," saying those who commit terrorism under the name of Islam are "criminals" who steal the Islamic identity.
He further called for collective multi-faith efforts to combat radical ideologies, and deeper coordination of anti-terror efforts in the Middle East, particularly between the United States and Russia.
“The unity of all faiths against this evil, that is what they hate to see, that is what will destroy them,” Kubba said.
President Barack Obama introduced a number of new federal programs under his Countering Violent Extremism initiative, including the controversial Shared Responsibility Committees effort to enlist the help of community leaders to identify potential violent extremists for intervention. Lawmakers and civil liberties leaders, however, have said the program could lead to privacy violations.
