Is imam a terror recruiter or just an incendiary preacher?

I Think Both!It Don't Make Any Difference ,He Is...terrorists or jihadists Pure and Simple, Whatever you want to call it,

CAIRO, Egypt — The Yemeni-American imam who's been under renewed scrutiny after the deadly shootings at Fort Hood, Texas, preaches against alcohol, birthday parties, black magic and extramarital sex. He also supports armed struggle — jihad — against the U.S. military in Afghanistan and Iraq, and has encouraged extremist insurgents in Pakistan and Somalia.None of that sets Anwar al Awlaki, 38, apart from other militant Sunni Muslim clerics — and even many mainstream ones — in the Middle East. Awlaki uses digital means to spread his views, however, through a blog, lectures on YouTube and Facebook pages with more than 1,000 fans.American-born and popular with young Westernized Muslims, Awlaki preaches mainly in English and drops pop-culture references, invoking Michael Jackson in a sermon on death or the parable of a marijuana-smoking Muslim who turned his life around.Awlaki's teachings, however, also reportedly have inspired suspects in a number of high-profile international cases: two of the 9/11 hijackers, alleged militants accused of planning to blow up targets in Toronto, several Somali-American youths who died while fighting in Mogadishu and, most recently, the Muslim Army major who's charged with killing 13 people in the Fort Hood rampage Nov. 5.In the past year, U.S. investigators say, Awlaki corresponded several times with Maj. Nidal Hasan. The investigators deemed the exchanges benign, consistent with research Hasan was conducting on Muslims in the military. Awlaki himself, purportedly speaking through an intermediary to The Washington Post, said this week that he'd answered only a couple of the dozen or so e-mails Hassan sent him.Awlaki was under FBI investigation after the 9/11 bombings, but concerns surrounding him today appear to be based, at least publicly, more on his incendiary sermons than on solid evidence establishing a link to militant groups. Despite several brushes with terrorism suspects — allegedly by phone, e-mail and in U.S. mosques — Awlaki hasn't been charged with a terrorism-related crime and the only time he's apparently spent in jail was in Yemen in connection with a tribal dispute, according to news and court accounts.Middle Eastern analysts cautioned against treating Awlaki as a senior terrorism suspect when so little is known about his links to violent extremist groups. Targeting him also could backfire and increase his popularity among young Muslims worldwide, the analysts warned. Fans already have set up Web pages supporting him, with comments sections full of anti-American rhetoric."The American position is flexible and changes a lot. During most of his life, Yasser Arafat was considered a terrorist, but then he received the Nobel Peace Prize," said Fahmi Howeidy, a prominent Egyptian Islamist writer with a column in a Cairo newspaper. "It's the same with that guy, Awlaki; they've created a demon out of him."An independent Yemeni political analyst, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic, said the suspicions about Awlaki came from his hard-line beliefs, which were no different from those of other imams in the Middle East, where "praising jihad is prevalent in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and many Arab nations." Coverage in the Western news media is "exaggerating and magnifying" the threat that Awlaki poses, he said."This imam is a product of the Salafist Wahhabi" — or ultraconservative — "thought that managed to drive scores of youths to Afghanistan to fight the Soviet Union in the '70s, and which is still nestled in many parts of the Middle East," the analyst said. "The difference here is that he gave these sermons in the U.S., where it's unheard-of, while in the Arab world it's the norm."Awlaki's militant message and wide audience made him a subject of interest for U.S. intelligence agencies nearly a decade before the Fort Hood shootings.Back then, Awlaki wasn't hard to find. He served as imam to 3,000 Muslims at a mosque in suburban Virginia, held an online chat on The Washington Post's Web site in which he answered questions about the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, and granted several news interviews. In a report just after 9/11, The New York Times held up Awlaki as an example of a "new generation of Muslim leader capable of merging East and West."The FBI, however, was investigating Awlaki's activities and connections. The cleric moved to Yemen in 2002, presumably to be out of reach of U.S. authorities..To read the rest of the piece...more..http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/79261.html