Attendees at Convergence Northwest in Vancouver this week were urged to keep tabs on university professors and local mosques. At The Columbian, reporters Kathie Durbin and Don Hamilton report today:

Brigitte Gabriel, a Lebanese-American woman who founded the American Congress for Truth to educate Americans about the threat of radical Islam, suggested that citizens monitor the lectures of university professors and report the names of mosque owners to the FBI.

The conference, organized by state Sen. Joe Zarelli of Ridgefield and his wife, Tani Zarelli, brought right-wing Israeli politicians to Vancouver to bolster local support among conservative Christians and Jews in the fight against global terrorism. About 300 signed up to hear seminars and speeches on the topic.

Zarelli and conference organizers were criticized for presenting a one-sided portrayal of the situation in the Middle East and for not inviting Muslims to speak at the event. Zarelli told The Colubmian he didn't consider inviting any Muslims.

"It's not my purpose or goal to understand why somebody wants to kill Americans," he said. "I'm not aware of a whole lot of folks who stand up in the Muslim community and are willing to participate."

Zarelli said he doesn't believe all Muslims are terrorists but he does see the Middle East conflict as a "battle of theology."

"Politically, people don't want to talk about it, to equate a whole religion to violence," he said. "But the fact of the matter is, some who practice in an extreme nature are believers in that particular faith."

ALSO: The Columbian also reports on the video speech delivered by former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He told about 300 people that radical Islamists are a threat not just to Israel, but to all Western democracies.

"What they are saying is, they want to roll back the past 500 years," Netanyahu said. "They want to reverse it not through the competition of ideas but by holy wars. This is the goal. Israel is standing in the way. Once they dispose of Israel they want to move on. ... Their ultimate target is to bring down the West, bring down the U.S."

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He urged those attending the conference to help prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons by pressing the managers of their pension funds to divest from European companies that invest in Iran.