I was struck by this lack of condemnation within the American Arab community. Where was the outrage? I felt helpless and angry. I simply could not shrug my shoulders and say “wana mali.” I could not continue living in America as if nothing had happened. How could I deserve to be an American if I were to stay silent? America is the country that saved my life and gave me a beautiful home, safety, security, equality, and respect equal to that of citizens born in the USA. I knew the moment the suicide bombers flew into the twin towers and the Pentagon that a war was on, a very real war. And winning this war required me to do my duty.
And so I began to speak out and write. I headed to my computer and started writing against terrorism and exposing the culture of jihad behind it. My first article against terrorism appeared in several Republican women’s group newsletters. And then my articles were reprinted in other newsletters and posted on the Internet. I was stunned by the response. I started receiving e-mails from around the world. There was a huge need for an Arab’s honest, unbiased viewpoint; a nondefensive analytical view that aimed for understanding, reformation, and peace.
It was not long before I began receiving requests to speak. I was reluctant but agreed to speak at a Republican women’s group. I was not trained in public speaking, and in fact was terrified of speaking in public. It took prayers and all the courage I could muster before my presentation. I kept reminding myself that it was not about me; it was about standing up for America and informing the American public of the danger and the nature of Islamic terrorism. To overcome my terror of speaking, I imagined a giant machine called peace and visualized myself as one small cog in that machine. I had to move my part in the direction of peace. That is the image that helped me concentrate on my message, forget about myself, and overcome my shyness.
The response from the Republican women’s group was overwhelming. A dear friend in the group by the name of Selma asked me if I could speak to her Hadassah group. I agreed and wrote a special speech for that Jewish women’s group. The title was “Why I support the State of Israel.” The room was packed, with an audience made up mostly of women. I will never forget that day—the first time I spoke before a Jewish group. As I was speaking, deep inside I felt a profound sadness about the tragedy of anti-Semitism in the Muslim world. I was thinking about how the small State of Israel daily lives with the terror of suicide bombers, how at any moment they know their children can be blown up on a bus on the way to school, or when they stop for pizza in a café. I looked into the eyes of these gracious and wonderful women who had dedicated their lives to serving their community, not just the Jewish community, but also the community as a whole. I felt deep respect.
As I spoke, I saw tears in the eyes of two women in front of me. I choked and felt the tears running down my face as I was speaking. I managed to wipe them and continue with my speech. The audience was very gracious, and when I was finished, they gave me a standing ovation. It was I who wanted to give them the standing ovation. It then hit me, the injustice these people suffered not only in Europe but then later at the hands of my people who called them “apes and pigs” and “enemies of God.” What a shame to treat another religion and another people with such persistent and obsessive hatred. These were people whom I personally was learning a lot from—their compassion, their justice, their civility, their education, their humanitarianism and hard work to make the world a better place.
I firmly believe that there is a strong element of envy of Jewish achievements within the Muslim world. Instead of respecting these achievements, we Muslims want to kill them, condemn them, and smash them. Perhaps it reminds us of Muslim society’s failures, shortcomings, and poverty despite being blessed by living in an oil-rich area.
I thanked Selma for giving me the opportunity to speak to her Hadassah group. Until then I had never spoken about my history in Gaza and about my father to anyone. I then wrote another article titled “The Daughter of a Shahid Speaks Out.” I showed it to Selma and she wept. She encouraged me to publish it and I did.
Again the response was tremendous, and ready or not, my speaking career was launched. This development in my life was not planned by me. My whole life had suddenly been turned upside down. But I felt that I had found my calling. It was something that I had to do. Selma and I developed a close friendship that I will treasure for life. It has been wonderful American women such as Selma who taught me the value of public service and a sense of my duty toward America.
Why do I speak out, and what do I say? I try to help Americans face the truth about the terror threat they are up against, help them understand the mind-set of the jihadists who wish to destroy America. I realize there is fire in my heart. I do not deny it. I am angry at my culture. What arrogance and ingratitude. Who gave my people the right to destroy the world in the name of Allah? No religion should advocate that. Who gave my people the right to destroy people of other religions, cultures, and beliefs? Who gave them the right to declare a fatwa of death on Muslim critics who speak out against Islamist tyranny? Some say this is a clash of civilization. The truth is that this is an attack on civilization itself by haters of civilization.
Even though I understand it, when I look at it from my new American perspective, I am still amazed that, to many Muslims, all this jihad ideology feels and seems normal, honorable, and righteous. In the Middle East, we were never taught consideration, compassion, and empathy toward non-Muslims or nonbelievers. The stories we learned as Muslims always ended with victory for Islam. Even Arab Muslim immigrants to the West still believe in the nobility of jihad and are torn between their Muslim culture of origin and their new country. Caught in the turmoil and confusion between the two cultures, the “silent” majority cannot make a moral stand. When I speak to fellow Arab Americans, they say they are against terrorism but always have an explanation or a “but” that follows. They claim Islam is a religion of peace but refuse to criticize their homegrown terrorists. They will not even acknowledge the dilemma let alone make an independent moral stand. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out who is wrong and who is right, but many don’t have the courage to say that our Muslim culture has spawned monsters and that our system is flawed.
As for me and a few others like me, I see no confusion, no hesitation as to what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is evil, and when we may look the other way and when we have to make a stand. I see with total moral clarity that my culture of origin has become a threat to world peace. The problem of jihad, terrorism, conflict, and brutality is no longer a local Middle Eastern problem. Once it was a matter of Middle Eastern Muslim cultures inflicting harm and tyranny on their own minorities, such as Jews and Christians. Now, thanks to oil money, technology, travel, and immigration, jihad has crossed borders and is demanding “dhimmitude” and subjugation of the non-Muslim world in the most outrageous and spectacular way the world has ever seen.
Along with the fire of anger in my heart is a profound sadness for my Arab brothers and sisters. The long-term effect of terror is demoralizing and demeaning to human dignity and spirit. I lived half of my life in the Muslim world, where most of the countries lost their liberty a long time ago. They have no memory of how to live in freedom, how to bring it about, how to preserve it. Now, having never tasted the fruits of freedom, they are trying to take away the liberty of the West through terrorism.
After 9/11, many Americans sincerely asked: “Why do they hate us?” Western logic could not comprehend the magnitude of the problem. They were caught totally off-guard. Personally, I don’t understand why they did not see this coming. Just a one-month visit to the Middle East in 2001 scared the hell out of me. Bear in mind, I was not a CNN journalist stationed in Cairo, Riyadh, Baghdad, or Damascus, whose job it is to have ears open and eyes peeled and to report back to the world. I was merely returning to Egypt to enjoy my family and show my children their mother’s homeland. How did all the Western reporters and embassies miss the open threats that were all over the Arab media and the Ara
b streets and on the lips of bin Laden himself? I feel that the U.S. media was not doing its job of informing the American public.
There is another American reaction, a close second behind the why-do-they-hate-us question. My American neighbors and friends often politely asked me: “Why aren’t Muslims standing up to extremists and terrorists? Why are they silent?” The perceptions of my American neighbors are right; the majority of Muslims are silent and are doing very little to bring about change. Why do we keep on defending, excusing, and blaming terrorism on other nations or on historical injustice? First of all, Arab culture’s normal reaction is to refuse to take responsibility and instead find someone else to blame. Israel, in particular, has always been the great excuse, the handy scapegoat. Any wonder why Arabs don’t care to make peace with Israel? If they did, then whom would they blame for their next crisis? The existence of a villain upon which to hang all Arab jihad aspirations, violations, aggression, mistakes, terrorism, and corruption is important in order to camouflage, confuse, and mislead the innocent Western bystander who has no idea what hit him.
Another reason for the silence is that for most Muslims, criticizing jihad, martyrdom, or terrorism seems in their minds—rightly or wrongly—to be equivalent to criticizing Islam itself.
To Muslims who remain silent this is what I say: Are you aware that 9/11 and the last forty years of Islamic terrorism has tainted how history will judge Islam? A religion is not judged by writings in a holy book, but by the behavior of its followers, not by the idealism of the religion, but by its actions. Religion’s purpose is to elevate and civilize man. Terrorism and jihad against the infidels does not contribute to world civilization but sends mankind back to the Dark Ages. Terrorism is a behavior of desperate people, and Muslims and Arabs should not be desperate. They should be grateful. Arabs have been blessed with land from the Atlantic to the Persian Gulf, and Muslims are 1.2 billion strong. They have been blessed with oil and a strategic location on the world map. But they are greedy and want more; and in the process they have forgotten and sacrificed their core self. Terrorism is tearing apart Muslim society and rotting it from the core. But instead of working within to reform, Muslims are spilling their turmoil into the rest of the world, infecting the rest of society. Islam is at a crossroads. It is up to Muslim scholars to save Islam by reforming it or to start World War III.
Other great religions have owned up to barbaric actions perpetrated in the name of God and brought about reform from within. During an earlier era, Christian rulers burned “heretics” at the stake, executed “witches,” marched their armies into lands to conquer them for Christianity and in so doing brutally plundered and killed local populations. The excesses of the Crusades are well known. And in fifteenth-century Spain, Jews and Muslims who did not convert were brutally executed in a reign or terror called the Inquisition. But at some point, Christianity acknowledged and repudiated such actions and attempted to return to the message of love and redemption found in the Holy Scriptures. It is time now for another of the world’s great religions to move from the Dark Ages and Medieval-era excesses and return to the true meaning of Islam. Reform is possible but not easy. It was not easy for Christianity. It will not be easy for Islam. It will take the courage of the faithful, and the admission that change is necessary.
But instead, most Muslims have chosen to avoid and deny the problem. Instead of looking within, they have chosen to attempt to sway the outside world’s impressions. In many ways, radical Muslims were emboldened by 9/11 and continued the momentum of the 9/11 “victory.” Soon we saw Bali, Madrid, London—radical Islam on a roll to conquer the world by the sword all over again. While the terrorists flexed their muscles, their oil-rich defenders began an effort to calm down world public opinion by making all kinds of excuses and defenses.
Fearing a backlash, a massive Muslim public relations machine was ramped up after 9/11, with Islamic scholars, distinguished clerics, and Arab intellectuals attempting to explain Islam to American audiences. There is no honorable reason for jihad against the infidels in international law; it is called terrorism by the civilized world. Thus they came up with an honorable slogan for terrorists, calling them “freedom fighters.” I regret to say some in the West were fooled. Much of what I was hearing was inaccurate and designed to mislead and confuse. In the face of this, I had to act. Because I possess knowledge both of Middle Eastern and American culture, I felt it was my duty to inform Americans and openly speak the truth.
I began speaking out to expose the Muslim radical groups in the United States who claim to be moderate. Most of these groups are well financed by Muslim countries and are concerned with reforming Islam only in the eyes of Americans. Example: An astounding discussion of the meaning of the word “jihad.” After 9/11 many Muslims in the West reinterpreted the meaning of jihad as an inner struggle for self-improvement. This new, mystical interpretation of jihad was designed to be more acceptable to Western culture. This “inner struggle” business is hogwash. In the Arab world there is only one meaning for jihad, and that is: a religious holy war against infidels. It is a fight for Allah’s cause. Ask anyone in the Arab street what “Jihad for the sake of Allah” means and he will say it means dying as a shahid for the sake of spreading Islam. I have never heard of any discussion of inner struggle in my thirty years living in the Middle East. Such nonsense is a PR ploy for Western consumption only, concocted to save face and protect the reputation of Islam in the eyes of the infidels whom Muslims want to lure into conversion. It was made up by people who are searching for excuses for terrorism and are not standing up against the forces of extremism and violence in the Middle East. Unfortunately, terrorists are encouraged by the defense of these apologists. When Osama bin Laden speaks of jihad, he is not talking about an inner struggle for self-analysis or self-improvement. In all his tapes, he is very clear about his mission to destroy Western civilization and win the world to Islam. That is why many Muslims danced in the streets after 9/11. The dirty little truth is that the majority of people in Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Muslim world regard bin Laden as a hero of Islam. The reason bin Laden cannot be found is because he is loved by a large number of Muslims who will not give him up for any amount of money.
Saudi Arabia also hired American lobbyists to speak on their behalf to improve their image—without Americans knowing that these individuals were paid lobbyists. In fact, one member of a political group to which I belong was constantly defending Saudi Arabia and the Al-Jazeera television network. At the time, many in the group found it noticeably unusual. We later read an article in which her name was listed among others as being a paid lobbyist for Saudi Arabia. We were all surprised that she had never mentioned this fact in her presentations.
While all these PR campaigns were focused on the West, other types of campaigns were going on in Arabic aimed at citizens of the Middle East. Total lies were told in Arab media. My cousin in Egypt, who keeps me abreast of the views in the Middle East, told me that Arab media claimed that America’s food drops to Afghani citizens during the war in Afghanistan contained poisoned food. Arabs were also told that the United States wanted to use weapons of mass destruction on Afghanis and Iraqis. On Egyptian television, a three-year-old Egyptian girl, Basmallah, daughter of a famous Egyptian actor, was encouraged to say she hated Jews, whom she described as “apes and pigs.” The show praised her as an example of a good little Muslim girl. The host said, “Don’t we all wish to teach our children to be good Muslims like Basmallah?” How sad that in the Middle East, Islam has been reduced to hating Jews and feeling paranoid and victimized by non-Muslims.
These two contradictory campaigns—the Arabic one in the Middle East, fueling hatred and anger against the West, and the English one in the West, proclaiming “Islam as a religion of peace”—can bring only disaster between the two worlds.
Muslim defenders often answer questions about the actions of Muslims by reciting the ideals of Islam. They insist that Islam is a religion of peace and toleran
ce while ignoring the daily prayers in Middle Eastern mosques for the violent exploits of great heroes and martyrs. Religious leaders across the Middle East are blessing and approving of suicide bombers and those who kill the infidels. Even Muhammad Sayyed Tantawi, the sheikh of Al-Azhar University in Cairo, who is the highest-ranking cleric in Sunni Islam, has issued fatwas in favor of violent jihad against America and in support of suicide bombings.
The notion that Islam teaches peace and tolerance is ridiculous in light of the record of Islamic countries’ treatment of their minorities or the sermons preached in neighborhood mosques. Even in the new, supposedly “democratic” Afghanistan, in the spring of 2006 a Muslim who converted to Christianity was sentenced to death, a punishment mandated by sharia law. His life was spared only after Western governments pressured Afghan authorities, and the man was secretly whisked away to Italy in the midst of death threats from top Muslim clerics. So-called moderate Muslim leaders unfortunately were silent and did nothing to protect or defend that poor Afghani convert. There were no Muslim riots to save his life. The only outrage came from the mob wanting to kill him themselves if the government set him free.
Now They Call Me Infidel Page 22