Converts with a Mission

Converts to Islam are taking over the terrorist operations previously carried out mainly by Muslim-born immigrants and their children.

This was dramatically illustrated when a Belgian convert to Islam, Muriel Degauque, 38, blew herself up near Baghdad on November 9 in a suicide attack on US troops, becoming the first Christian-born Western woman to kill herself for Islamist purposes.

And of the 14 people arrested because of connections to Degauque, half were converts to Islam. In neighboring Holland, a just-published government report specifically worries about radicalized converts.

Islamist terror organizations particularly prize converts. They know the local culture and blend in. They cannot be deported. They can hide their religious affiliation by avoiding mosques, lying low, even drinking alcohol and taking drugs to maintain their cover. One guide counsels would-be suicide bombers going to Iraq to "wear jeans, eat doughnuts and always carry your Walkman."

CONVERTS who either carried out a terrorist operation or were jailed come from many Western countries. Here is a partial listing...