Excerpt:
When five young Americans disappeared from the greater D.C. area last November, only to be arrested a week later in Pakistan where they allegedly sought to join the jihad against Americans, people wondered why.
Why would five young men forfeit lives of comfort and opportunity to try to kill soldiers defending the nation that made all that possible? How could reportedly supportive families generate radical Islamists like Ramy Zamzam? Emerging from court in January, he declared, "We are not terrorists. We are jihadists, and jihad is not terrorism."
Much of the initial focus was drawn to the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), the organization to which all five young men belonged. This dissipated following assurances from ICNA and its local chapter that it had not engaged in any form of radicalization and, in fact, would launch programs to combat it:
"Extremism has no place in Islam, and ICNA works tirelessly to oppose extremist and violent ideology."