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PORTLAND, Maine - Isanu Dyson, a fifth-generation American
who converted to Islam three years ago, is prepared to
join the jihad against the United States, and believes
government workers are fair targets.
The 24-year-old Maine resident, who
carries a dagger and 3-foot sword, told The Post it would
be "noble" to enlist with the Taliban and fight
against American soldiers in Afghanistan.
"I am a Muslim-American, not an
American-Muslim - I have a greater obligation to them than
to anybody," he said.
"I pray when the day comes that Allah
doesn't make me a coward - that I don't run away from the
fight."
Dyson, who spoke from his apartment in
Portland, said "colonialists," including the
United States and Britain, created a monster by trying to
oppress Muslims and propping up governments sympathetic to
the West.
"Now the monster they created is
biting them back," he said. "The U.S. might be
an economic and military superpower, but Islam is a
religious and manpower superpower - we are 1 billion
people."
Dyson's inflammatory comments have drawn
the attention of Portland cops.
Portland Police Chief Mike Chitwood told
The Post, "These sort of comments are disheartening
and sickening.
"If he feels that way, he should go
and join Afghanistan."
Dyson, who says he began carrying the
sword and dagger after Sept. 11 for
"self-protection," admitted he felt
uncomfortable making such comments while living in
America, and said he had considered going to Afghanistan
immediately after the attack.
"I would consider it more noble for
me to go and get myself out of the country, renounce my
citizenship, end up in Afghanistan, pick up a gun and
fight alongside everyone else against the enemy - American
soldiers," he said.
But he said he consulted an Islamic
scholar for guidance, and was told his first
responsibility was to a young son from his previous
marriage.
Dyson, who raced motorcycles before
turning to Islam, said he would continue to obey American
law - "up until the point where I would have to
disobey the law of Islam."
He claimed he knew one of the Sept. 11
kamikaze hijackers, Nawaf Alhazmi, two years ago.
Dyson said he met Alhazmi, who was aboard
the plane that killed nearly 200 Americans when it crashed
into the Pentagon, through the Muslim community when
Alhazmi first came to America as an illegal immigrant.
Dyson was living in his hometown of San
Diego, Calif., and said he helped Alhazmi settle in, not
realizing he was part of a deadly plot against civilians.
Terrorists Mohamed Atta and Marwan
al-Shehhi spent their final night in Portland before going
to Boston and hijacking the planes they piloted into the
World Trade Center.
Dyson said he believes that Islamic laws
forbid the killing of civilians and that the hijackers
were wrong to involve innocent people.
But Dyson said that crashing a plane into
the Pentagon would be within the boundaries of acceptable
fighting if the plane were empty, because U.S. government
workers helped to implement foreign policy.
Dyson, who is unemployed, also backed
terror lord Osama bin Laden, saying the chain of evidence
against him is extremely thin.
"Osama bin Laden says he wasn't
involved - that is enough for me," he said.
He said if bin Laden is captured, he
should be tried in a Muslim court.
Dyson also described the United States as
"hypocritical," because it believes in freedom
but interferes in the affairs of other countries by
helping to install governments against the peoples'
wishes.
Dyson said he had heard many Muslims in
Portland say they were prepared to join the jihad.
"Things are going to be very
dangerous, and that's not a threat from me - that's a
fact," he said.
