ABSTRACT
The American Religious Identification Survey 2001 carried out by the Graduate Center of the City University of New York polled more than 50,000 people and found the total American Muslim population to be 1.8 million. If the great majority of American Muslims adopt a moderate approach, the Muslim community should fit well into the fabric of American life. Islamists aspire to make the United States a Muslim country, perhaps along the Iranian or Sudanese models. Believing Islamic civilization superior to anything American, they promote Islam as the solution to all of the country's ills. Some Islamists even talk about overthrowing the US government and replacing it with an Islamic one. Ibn Warraq argues that Muslims have experienced great travails trying to modernize because Islam stands foursquare in their way. Ibn Warraq's assessment of Islam is exceptionally severe: the religion is based on deception; it succeeded through aggression and intimidation; it holds back progress; and it is a "form of totalitarianism".
