In Muslim America : A presence and a challenge - attitudes toward US of American converts to Islam

National Review, Feb 21, 2000 by Daniel Pipes

Many converts eventually leave the Nation of Islam and join mainstream Islam; those of them who become Islamists are especially likely to continue to disassociate themselves from the surrounding culture in a radical way. Even after his break with the Nation of Islam, for example, Malcolm X announced, "I'm not an American." Similarly, the one-time radical H. Rap Brown, now known as Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, declares, "When we begin to look critically at the Constitution of the United States we see that in its main essence it is diametrically opposed to what Allah has commanded."

Imam Siraj Wahhaj is considered one of the most respected Muslim leaders in America, and he holds a host of prominent positions (e.g., vice president of the Islamic Society of North America). Yet he not only calls for replacing the U.S. government with a caliphate, but has taken practical steps in this direction. He served as a character witness when Sheikh Abdel Rahman was on trial for-and found guilty of-conspiracy to blow up the United Nations and two other New York City targets. Wahhaj was even listed by the U.S. attorney for New York as one of the "unindicted persons who may be alleged as co-conspirators" in the blind sheikh's case.

Those American converts who went to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s may now be the most extreme in their hatred of the United States. After imbibing the mujahedin vision of destroying both superpowers, they vowed to do their part on returning home. As one such man put it to a Pakistani magazine in 1989: "It is the duty of all Muslims to complete the march of jihad until we reach America and liberate her. And I will be a guide for them."

Other converts went further. Clement Rodney Hampton-el, a New Jersey hospital technician, was a wounded veteran of the war in Afghanistan against Russia. He came back to the U.S. and helped set off the February 1993 explosion at the World Trade Center in New York.

White Islamists also typically condemn America for its immorality, consumerism, tolerant social policies, and warm relations with Israel. They talk about "our society's unrelenting greed" and its neglect of the downtrodden. In some cases, they associate with hostile governments. Mohammad Al-Asi, head of the Islamic Educational Center in Washington, D.C., explicitly called on Muslims to vanquish the United States during the Kuwait crisis of 1990 (note how he uses the pronoun "we"): "If the Americans are placing their forces in the Persian Gulf, we should be creating another war front for the Americans in the Muslim world-and specifically where American interests are concentrated. In Egypt, in Turkey, in the Indian subcontinent, just to mention a few. Strike against American interests there."

Why do some converts become so hostile toward their own country? There are two main reasons: personal temperament and the immigrant-Muslim milieu. Americans drawn to Islamism tend to be discontented with their lives or alienated from their society. For them, Islam's reputation as Christianity's historic archrival is an attraction; accepting Muhammad and the Koran offers a protest vehicle that is far larger than themselves and much deeper than politics.