Note that Zarif can speak so knowledgeably and in English because he is a product of the system he now seeks to thwart. The smooth Zarif goes mum, however, when asked about Iran’s practice of stoning homosexuals, executing women accused of adultery, jailing and executing apostates, banning free speech and assembly, incarcerating foreigners, rigging elections, and subsidizing terrorist murderers. He certainly would never have gone to America if Americans had treated Iranians the way his Iran now treats Americans — and indeed its own people. One wonders whether Zarif’s fury at the U.S. will force him to seek the revocation of the Great Satan citizenship of his two children — or whether their blue passports are too valuable as insurance policies for when Iran goes through the next round of revolutionary purges, and Zarif might once again need a parachute to land back in Godless America?

The list of Westernized anti-Westerners could easily be expanded. Mohamed Atta, one of the terrorists who carried out the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center, spent over a decade in Germany, apparently not under coercion. In fact, lots of the 9/11 hijackers had come into the U.S. under expedited student-visa programs and indulged their appetites before purging them on hijacked suicide planes…

There are lots of explanations for these moth-to-flame pathologies. A sense of inferiority can permeate the psyche. After a Zarif or a Morsi has lived in the West for some period of time, paradoxical reactions can ensue. Too seldom do we see a simple sense of gratitude for getting a chance at a liberal education and constitutionally protected freedoms unknown at home. One common Qutb theme is a sense of self-loathing for having been “corrupted” by the West. Morsi did not run home after a year at USC. Khan does not discuss his Western party-boy behavior when he meets with the Taliban. They assume that it was a debased Western culture, not their own appetites, that made them stray from Islamic purity.

There arises anger as well: Why is Pakistan or Iran such a mess and California in comparison is not?