It is a sad to see how many American converts to Islam-whether black or white, rich or poor, members of Nation of Islam or normative Islam-hate their own country. Perhaps the two most prominent symbols of this pattern are Jamil Al-Amin, known previously as H. Rap Brown, and John Walker Lindh. Al-Amin, a middle-aged black nationalist with a long career of criminality, has been convicted of the murder of a police officer. Lindh, the young son of privilege who joined the Taliban in Afghanistan, was charged with providing material support and resources to a foreign terrorist organization. "Conversion and Anti-Americanism" documents the pattern they exemplify and finds two main reasons why converts go this route: personal temperament and the immigrant Muslim milieu. Converts to Islam in the United States are generally alienated from the society in which they live; and then they are influenced by the immigrant Muslims' generally low regard for the United States-an often potent combination.
Introduction from Militant Islam Reaches America