Fearing that Islamic extremism is seeping into American mosques, a law and economics expert, counter-terrorism expert, and an Air Force officer-turned-professor teamed up to create the Society of Americans for National Existence (SANE). Among this group’s endeavors is the Mapping Shari’a Project, which aims to map every Islamic institution in the U.S. and rate them based on their extremism. The effort also aims to determine if there’s a link between education in following strict Islamic law (Shari’a Law) and supporting violent jihad. Almost 200 Islamic centers have been visited. The director of the project says these visits are “non-obstructive and non-confrontational.”

The “mapping” is done systematically. Members of the team visit Islamic centers, and look for 60 different indications of adherence of Shari’a Law, such as advocating the death of those who leave Islam, providing violent extremism literature, and other factors. After examination, the center receives a rating of its extremism.

“Based on my studies of the mosques and my visits to hundreds [of mosques] since 2003, 80% of the mosques visited to date have violent materials,” says Dave Gaubatz, the Director of the Mapping Shari’a Project. Gaubatz was the first civilian federal agent sent into Iraq in 2003, and was in charge of locating the top 55 regime officials and weapons of mass destruction. He received numerous awards for his work in the Air Force’s Office of Special Investigations.

“There are few cities, towns, counties, that do not have an Islamic center near them that does not promote Sharia Law and the violence it will bring to non-Muslims,” Gaubatz said.

Gaubatz places the blame for this at the foot of Saudi Arabia, which he says promotes Wahhabism, a radical Islamic sect, in the United States. Many of the Islamic leaders in America that advocate Sharia Law have been trained in Saudi Arabia, and/or are connected to organizations like the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which he says is receiving Saudi support.

Warning that this isn’t an attack on Muslims as a whole, Gaubatz emphasized that his best friend is a Muslim, stressing that “organizations such as CAIR [Council on American-Islamic Relations] and the Saudi-trained Imams do not represent Islam or the majority of Muslims.”

Ryan Mauro