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Politics : Israel to U.S. : Now Deal with Syria and Iran -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Scoobah who wrote (3354)	10/29/2003 7:14:28 PM
From: Scoobah	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 22250

A third reason for immigration is Islamist ambition. Although the numbers in this category are smaller than those for refugees or students (and, indeed, some Islamists also fit in those two capacities), Islamists have particular importance, for they harbor religious and political ambitions that are in a potential collision course with the majority population. Islamists arrive in the United States despising the country and all it represents, intending to make converts, exploit the freedoms and rights granted them, and build a movement that will effect basic changes in the country's way of life and its government. The superpower status of the United States makes it especially attractive to those who wish to change the world order; what better place to start? Islamists do not accept the United States as it is but want to change it into a majority Muslim country where the Koran replaces the Constitution. "Our plan is, we are going to conquer America," is how a missionary put it already in the 1920s.1 His latter-day successors are no less ambitious. They have two alternate strategies, nonviolent (i.e., conversion of the Christian majority) and violent (i.e., jihad), to accomplish this. Islamists also find several other advantages to U.S. residency: The protection of freedom of expression permits them to write or broadcast whatever they wish. Good communications and transportation allow the Islamists to stay in constant touch with their movements. There is no country as open to outside actors or influences as the United States. And American affluence offers possibilities for fundraising. But it's not a complete paradise, especially if the Islamists engage in illegal activities. Omar Abdel Rahman, the blind sheikh spending the rest of his life in a U.S. jail for his part in attempting to blow up New York City landmarks, finds things less than ideal in the United States: "I came here to smell freedom; I found it to be suffocating here." Since September 2001, groups (such as the Global Relief Foundation) and individuals (such as Enaan Arnaout, head of the Benevolence International Foundation) who hitherto found the United States a playground for dubious behavior suddenly have found themselves caught up with the law.

To: Scoobah who wrote (3354)	10/29/2003 7:37:56 PM
From: steve kammerer	Respond to of 22250

"The first challenge in studying Muslim immigrants in the United States is counting them. By law, the official census cannot count adherents of a religion, and Muslims are too few to show up reliably in most survey research. In addition, there are questions about whom to count (do Ahmadis, legally not considered Muslims in Pakistan, count as Muslims in the United States?)." Same problem in how to count jews in the US. Orthodox in Israel don't count reformed as being jewish. Should they be counted in the United States? If not the 2 1/2% counted as jewish in the US would be miniscule.