by RYAN  MAURO

On June 1, 2009, William “Andy” Long was murdered at an Army recruiting  center in Little Rock, Arkansas by an Islamist terrorist named Carlos Bledsoe.  In a new, heart-wrenching and jaw-dropping film titled Losing Our Sons by Americans for Peace and Tolerance, you see the real  story of how this happened. The bottom line is this: The Islamists are operating  in our midst, we’re refusing to recognize it, radicalization is no accident and  any family can be victimized by it.

The process of Islamist radicalization unfolds before the viewer as the story  is told through the eyes of Melvin Beldsoe and Daris Long, the father of the  Islamist terrorist and the father of his victim, making the film a powerful  emotional journey. Both of them lost their sons at the exact same moment, they  explain. The attack wasn’t the result of statistics. Beldsoe wasn’t the  inevitable “bad apple” in a large group. This was the fruition of a jihadist  process that continues in Nashville and around the world today.

Beldsoe was exposed to radical Islam at Tennessee State University. The  school allowed an organization called the Olive Tree Education to host lectures  about Islam on campus. The organization’s website promoted sermons by Anwar  al-Awlaki and its leader teaches that Muslims must oppose “progressive Islam”  that believes Islam isn’t a “state matter.” Muslims are not allowed to have  opinions and must form a “reaction to Westernization” that involves implementing  Sharia Law. In one clip, the leader is asked whether homosexuality is punishable  by death under Islam. He replies in the affirmative.

Bledsoe began going to the Islamic Center of Nashville (ICN). He began  following the medieval rules of Sharia Law in his own life, viewing them as  applicable to today. He was a dog-lover but abandoned his dog in the woods. He  loved hip-hop but stopped listening to it. He took down his picture of Martin  Luther King, lest Allah view that as a sign of idolatry.

It’s easy to see why that happened when you see the clips of the ICM’s imam  in the film. He preaches that the U.S. is the “worst country on earth,” that  “the greatest lie of all time” is that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, that  Jews believe everyone was solely created to serve them and that Islamic prophecy  about a “mass battle and war against the Jews” is coming to pass. The mosque’s  library has pro-jihad hate literature funded by the Saudis.

He also attended the Al-Farooq Mosque. Its leadership preached similar  extremism to its congregation consisting of mostly Somali refugees. In 2009,  I broke a  story about counter-terrorism expert Dave Gaubatz’s research into child  abuse at the mosque. The former imam of the mosque is the one who provided the  required recommendation for Bledsoe to go to Yemen where he was further  radicalized and joined Al-Qaeda.

Over 40 Muslim-Americans, almost entirely Somalis, have been recruited by  Al-Qaeda. In places like Shelbyville, T.N., where there is a large Somali  refugee population, there is tremendous resistance to assimilation. A former CIA  case officer’s study of terrorist profiles found that exclusion from society is  one of the largest factors in Islamist radicalization. Bledsoe likewise became  reclusive and rejected Western society. The film takes aim at the State  Department’s $1 billion refugee program and granting of visas to visiting  extremist clergy as facilitating the problem.

One part of the film that will enrage viewers is when it shows how government  officials are refusing to recognize the Islamist ideology as the problem. The  two fathers were excited to speak at Rep. Peter King’s hearings on Islamic  radicalization but were condescendingly talked to by several members of  Congress. Bledsoe, frustrated with the political correctness in dealing with the  Islamist issue, says, “We’re worried about stepping on their toes and they are  worried about stamping us out.”

The part of the film that made me shake my head in bewilderment was about how  interfaith leaders are embracing the Islamist networks in the Nashville area.  One rabbi stood with them against a counter-terrorism law and said  Muslim-Americans are in the same position now as Jewish-Germans were when Hitler  first came to power.

Read more: Family Security Matters

This article was sponsored by the Institute on Religion and Democracy.

Ryan  Mauro is Family Security Matters’ national security analyst. He is a  fellow with  RadicalIslam.org, the founder of WorldThreats.com and a frequent  national  security analyst for Fox News Channel. He can be contacted at ryanmauro1986@gmail.com.

Stakelbeck on Terror Show: Losing Our Sons to Jihad – CBN.com