Suhail Khan's Rise in the Conservative World

Written by David Frum on Friday February 18, 2011

As the Bush administration severed its connections to radical Islamists, Suhail Khan was rising to greater eminence in the conservative world.

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As al-Amoudi, al-Arian and al-Najjer met justice, the greeter at the White House door - Suhail Khan - was rising to greater eminence in the conservative world. He moved to the Department of Transportation after the 2004 election. After leaving government, Khan joined the board of the American Conservative Union: a remarkable recognition for a junior political operative. He now writes a column for the Daily Caller, Tucker Carlson's website: a visible symbol of the rapprochement which terminated the once epic Norquist-Carlson feud.

Who is Suhail Khan? He is the son of immigrants from India. His late father Mahboob Khan was a founder of the Muslim Students Association. Like a lot of US Islamic groups, MSA is a mix of the perfectly harmless and the seriously violent. Some Muslim Student Association members have been convicted of terrorist crimes. Others have gone on to placid careers as doctors and dentists.

Suhail Khan's own career has placed itself on the placid side of the ledger. If he's the mastermind of the Muslim Brotherhood conspiracy in the United States, it's hard to see what he has master-minded. He certainly seems to know some dubious characters. But that's not quite the same thing as being a dubious character himself. In the absence of evidence, the accusations against Suhail Khan sound like unfounded vilification.

The accusations against Suhail Khan sound even stranger because so much has changed in the US over the past 10 years. A decade ago, a Republican administration invited actual jihadists into the White House. Today Republicans rail against allowing law-abiding Muslims to build a mosque in lower Manhattan.  The pendulum has swung about as far as it can swing.

And with the swing of the pendulum, there's a chance to settle some old scores.

Click here to read part 7.

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