Separating the Fact From the Fiction In Islamic Extremism

The question is whether radical Islam is on the rise here. For now there is little evidence to show a growing Islamic conspiracy on US shores, say official and unofficial sources.They cite many reasons: the ending of the 1988-93 Palestinian intifadah ; Yasser Arafat's election as Palestinian president; little to no support in the US Muslim community for predatory Islam; and fear of retaliation, like the US bombing of Libya in 1986.

One other major reason: Most of the radical Islamists, such as Abdel-Rahman, were originally associated with the CIA-sponsored "pipeline" that supplied guns and training to Afghan guerrillas in the 1980s. Pressure from law-enforcement and immigration officials along with the court trial of the sheikh has scattered this group.

Even most of the work of controversial writer Steven Emerson, whose documentary "Jihad In America" asserts a growing network of Islamic terrorists in the US, relies on speeches and events in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Mr. Emerson insists the jihad continues.

One senior US official who tracked intelligence on Islamic groups told the Monitor, "There's a lot of talk but little evidence of a real conspiracy. There's a problem of support for the groups, and a problem of exposure. To launch and sustain a campaign of terror takes enormous resources and funding. You can be exposed on the phone. You can't trust anyone. You can be traced by checks, credit cards, licenses, ATM withdrawals, shopping-center receipts. People warn of terrorism here, but it rarely surfaces."

The principal source of Islamic terrorism had been rooted in the decades-long tension between Israelis and Palestinians. That conflict dates to the creation of a Jewish state in 1948, and Israel's military eviction of Palestinians from hundreds of villages a year later. By the early 1990s, US politicians and media depicted the Palestinian Islamic group Hamas, based in the Gaza Strip, as one of the most likely sources of terror in the US - despite Hamas's statements to the contrary.

In 1993, for example, nine members of Congress and Sen. Alfonse D'Amato (R) of New York made allegations that Hamas presented a threat in the US, particularly through its funding potential. "Hamas [is] no longer confined to the Middle East, but organized enough to strike downtown America," wrote Reps. Jim Saxton (R) of New Jersey and Peter Deutsch (D) of Florida in a letter distributed to Congress.

But both the FBI and State Department issued statements in 1993 saying they had "no evidence" that Hamas had or was directing terrorist operations in the US.

Sources contacted inside groups sympathetic to Hamas, such as the Muslim Arab Youth Association in Indianapolis; the Islamic Association of Palestine in Dallas; and the Islamic Committee for Palestine in Tampa, Fla. told the Monitor that fund-raising was difficult and that their operations had shifted to local concerns, like building Islamic schools. All cited the Oslo peace accords of 1993 as the reason for diminished activity.

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