26TH ANNUAL FALL FUNDRAISER
Editor's Letter
presents
An electrifying
Radical Islam Unmasked
joyride
T
of music and dance!
here I sat, struck by the force of his message:
Muslims must reform Islam so that the dominant
teaching is stripped of glorifying terrorism and
replaced with tolerant, peaceful context. Otherwise, the vio-
lent ideology in young Muslims will nurture more terror.
The West must dial in to radicaliza-
tion of the world's most-practiced reli-
gion. The Jewish community is espe-
cially vulnerable. Western freedoms
— women's rights, mass education,
voting rights — are enemies of what
Islam seems to have morphed into.
"We are dealing with a real crisis','
asserts Dr. Tawfik Hamid, 46, a former
jihadist turned medical doctor, psy-
chologist and Islam scholar. He knows
the inner workings of theocratic terror
and vows to help de-radicalize Islam.
He describes Israel as a victim.
His story can't be ignored.
Raised in a secular, wealthy Egyptian family that had
Christian friends, Hamid was in medical school at the
University of Cairo when he became
involved with the radical Islamic move-
ment Jamaha Islameia led by Dr. Ayman
al-Zawahiri, now Osama bin Laden's top
lieutenant. "In eight months," Hamid said,
"I changed from loving Christians to
dreaming of taking part in jihad. I used
to envy people who died for Allah. It was
the only guaranteed ticket for paradise, I thought:'
Then he had an epiphany. Realizing how wrong he had
been, he began to practice Islam, read the Koran and preach
in mosques with a new, inclusive understanding.
• Declaring war on non-Muslims to force them to convert
or be killed.
Few imams talks about these things and openly denounce
them. They prefer to focus on the Arab-Israeli conflict, usu-
ally with Israel as the aggressor. They call Islam peaceful but
won't condemn the violence within, Hamid says.
Jews have found some imams willing to be ostracized and
to tell the truth about Islamist extremists, but their influence
is minimal because there are so few of them.
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Standing Firm
The West can't give in. Like Hamid says: "Confront the reality
of Islam now; otherwise it will confront you later."
Hamid warns of a Taliban-like culture arising throughout
the world because that's part of the Islamist vision for erasing
infidels. When Hamid talks about violent teaching infiltrating
Muslim families, I have visions of how Hitler rose in the pre-
Holocaust days in Germany. Evil metastasized under the guise
of a superior race and little resistance.
Hamid begs Western imams to denounce radical Islam and
espouse a faith that unites instead of conquers. "Otherwise,"
he said, "there will be a clash of civilizations. And I'm sad to
•
The West must dial in to radicalization of
the world's most-practiced religion. The Jewish
community is especially vulnerable.
say that the Jews will be the first target because it is taught
that Muslims have to kill the Jews before the 'end of days.'"
Is that scary stuff or what?
Hamid questions not only imams, but also Muslim groups
like the Council on American-Islamic Relations that profess
to be "moderate" yet won't split from the dehumanization of
Much To Tackle
Jews — that we're "pigs and monkeys" — out of fear their
"The current teaching creates an innate threat to others','
credibility would be hurt and their funding would dry up.
Hamid, told me on Oct. 19 during a visit to the Southfield
Hamid is right: It's time to reconsider who are moderate
offices of the Detroit Jewish News. He and his wife fled to
Muslims. I want to believe that they could become the major-
Saudi Arabia and then the West after he was persecuted for
ity within Islam. Still ...
his 22-year ordeal of trying to reform Islam in Egypt.
Imams and mullahs realize they wouldn't win on the battle-
In 2005, he published The Roots of Jihad
(www.roots4ihad.com ), a penetrating book about how Islam field so devised a cunning plan, Hamid says: Out-populate the
enemy. It's a game of patience and waiting -- and a red alert
has become more radical in the past 30 years because vio-
for the unsuspecting West.
lence has seeped deeper into the teaching. Eerily, he predicted
Hamid isn't without hope. Neither am I.
9-11 two years before it occurred.
Successful bridge building in the West lies in Westerners
Seemingly mainstream Muslim groups that won't denounce
challenging the lies that pervade many mosques and Muslim
terror are passive terrorists in Hamid's eyes. "They give ter-
marches. We've criticized the Catholic Church for past hatred.
rorists the energy and the feel of support that they need to
Why haven't we held Muslims to the same standard? Why
continue he said
do we recoil in the face of inciting pronouncements of hate?
Terrorism is relentless because Muslims collectively won't
Free speech cuts both ways. When Muslims who we want to
demonstrate against it because of their indoctrination. "If
believe are mainstream generalize that Jews are subhuman,
they did',' Hamid said, "terrorism would stop or go down."
there's nary a peep among Westerners. Why?
Hamid is touring North America to promote his book. He's
"Awake, America, awake," Dr. Hamid urged.
also trying to influence U.S.-based Muslim groups to confront
We're talking about immigrants who enjoy democracy yet
a radicalized Muslim agenda that validates:
too many among them somehow perceive our freedoms as a
• Killing apostates, those who "defect" from the current
weakness and non-Muslims as chattel.
teaching.
Muslims, Christians and Jews must learn to co-exist if reli-
• Beating women and enslaving female workers, who are
gious harmony is to take root. But the outreach must come
not considered equal to men.
from the Muslims who share Dr. Hamid's vision. Make no
• Calling Jews "pigs" and "monkeys" because they are chief
mistake about that. El
among infidels.
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October 26 • 2006
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