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Countries doing something to make these young people feel alienated? >> no. the story is more complicated than simply shifting blame on one party. the fact is, when you're a young muslim and you want to explore and engage your cultural identity, figure out what your place in society is, there's a big vacuum and that vacuum oftentimes, unfortunately, is not filled by the healthiest and most positive influences that you and i would want our children to grow up around. >> steve, i hear you're wanting to get in on this. >> well, i sort of want to agree. look, america is a nation of immigrants and ...

So, in fact, it looks like the communal leaders didn't stop or actually encourage radicalism. maybe not believing he would engage in terrorism, but that was the end result of his belief that, somehow, the west had wronged islam and he must avenge it. >> steve, i want to show you some video. i want you to listen to this because it's good that you mentioned him. let's play it and then we'll talk about it. >> only reason we're staying here, away from our families, away from the cities, away from, you know, ice, candy bars, all these other things, because we are willing to meet with the enemy. >> ...

What do you think of what steve is saying? >> i believe that we need to take into consideration that many factors come to play here. first of all, in my opinion, the most important one is that we need to make a clear distinction between islamist influences and the fact that, when you a young man now in america and you're not radicalized by any stretch of imagination, there's a lot of incentive and pressure on you to run away from your muslim identity. one has to take that into factor and realize that, by us emphasizing on the role of religious leaders, on mosques, on imams, and somehow, appoin...

U.s. citizens or they've lived in the states. the justice department says it's part of a growing and disturbing trend, terrorists organizations recruiting americans. joining us now are nasa wadadi and the civil rights outreach director for the american islamic congress. he is the director. and steve imerson, founder of the investigative project on trim. okay, so, steve, this question is for you. why are some americans falling under the influence of extremists? >> i think there are several reasons. if we look at some of the youth, like omar hamami, who was only 26 years old, he was a white conv...