Lieberman proposes law to remove citizenship of Muslim terrorists

Daniel S. writes:

Sen. Lieberman is introducing a bill that would strip American citizens who join terrorist organizations of their citizenship. Now I certainly don’t oppose Lieberman’s measures here, it is an excellent idea, but it is again an reactive response to jihad terrorism rather then a preventive response. As Michelle Malkin notes on her website today:

But perhaps DHS and the State Department should concentrate on the homeland security front door—making sure jihadis don’t get citizenship and other immigration/entrance benefits in the first place—instead of waiting to deal with it on the back end after the fact.

LA replies:

First, that’s fantastic that a U.S. politician is talking about removing the citizenship of naturalized U.S. citizens who are jihadists, as I have been urging since 2004.

Second, you’re right that Lieberman’s position is inadequate, and that Malkin’s is more advanced. Unfortunately Malkin is herself at the kindergarten stage of the issue, having never read about it, thought about it, or written about it. Three years ago Robert Spencer was pushing the idea of screening out jihad supporters from immigration, until he realized that such screening was practically impossible, as there was no way for us to determine with any certainty who was a jihadist and who wasn’t. It was at that point that he began advocating for the first time the cessation of all Muslim immigration, though, as it turned out, he did so extremely gingerly and inconsistently, and now, based on the platform of his new activist organization, he seems to have dropped the idea altogether. It remains the case, however, that screening for jihadists is a non-starter, and Spencer’s blog entry on that is must reading. If you want to stop jihadists from entering America, you have to stop Muslims from entering America.

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Jim C. writes:

Bad terrorist, no citizenship for you (or Social Security). I don’t know if I should laugh or cry.

LA replies:

Yes, but such baby steps are the most that can be expected of liberal society.

Mark P. writes:

Frankly, I don’t trust the American government to apply such a “citizen-stripping” law in a reliably anti-Sharia/anti-Jihadi way. Given how much the government is chomping at the bit to ensnare white Americans, it would be better for this law to fail.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at May 05, 2010 09:06 PM | Send