February 21, 2008

Ex-Radical Dr. Tawfik Hamid on The True Cause of the Arab-Israeli Conflict

(Note: the first part of this post repeats introductory information from this previous post on Dr. Hamid).

Dr. Tawfik Hamid addresses an audience at Pepperdine University

Last week at Pepperdine University, a panel event was held to focus on the work Dr. Tawfik Hamid. Panelists included  Frank Gaffney, former Deputy Asst. Secretary of Defense for Nuclear Forces and Arms Control Policy; Robert G. Kaufman, Professor of Foreign Policy, Pepperdine University and former instructor at the Naval War College; and Larry Greenfield, a former Naval Intelligence serviceperson and now California Director of the Republican Jewish Coalition.

Hamid grew up in Cairo. He reports from his own personal experience how he, as a child, was radicalized - how, in his own words:

The love in my heart had changed into hatred. Not because of American foreign policy. It is because of the teaching that they gave me when I was child.

Dr. Hamid has written an article detailing the astonishing way in which this is done to many Islamic children, as he personally experienced it:

When I was nine years old, I learned the following Quranic verse during one of our Arabic lessons:

But do not think of those that have been slain in God's cause as dead. Nay, they are alive! With their Sustainer have they their sustenance. They are very happy with the reward they received from Allah (for dying as a shaheed) and they rejoice for the sake of those who have not joined them (i.e., have not yet died for Allah). (Quran 3:169-70)¹

It was the first time I was exposed to the concept of shaheed (martyr), and naturally, I began to dream of becoming one. The thought of entering paradise very much appealed to me. There I could eat all the lollypops and chocolates I wanted, or play all day without anyone telling me to study. What made the concept of shaheed even more attractive was its power to quell the fear I experienced as a young boy-for we were taught that if we were not good Muslims (especially if we did not pray five times per day), a "bald snake" would attack us in the grave. The idea of dying as a martyr provided a perfect escape from the frightening anguish of eternal punishment. Dying as a shaheed, in fact, was the only deed that fully guaranteed paradise after death.

Dr. Hamid spoke about the true cause of the Arab-Israeli conflict:

...going to war against ideology, or against any problem, we need to understand the true causes of the problem. If I have a car now, and the car is not working, and someone said to me the problem is not in the battery, it is in the engine. And the problem _was_ in the battery. I can spend all my life trying to fix the car, and never be able to fix it, because the problem is in the battery.

Some people would say that the problem in Islamic terrorism and jihad is caused by the Arab-Israeli conflict, for example. I say to them, it's illogical for me, it's difficult to convince me, that killing hundreds of thousands of Algerians, innocent Algerians, by the hands of the jihadists, have anything to do with the Arab-Israeli conflict. When someone says to me, it is poverty and lack of education and socio-economic circumstances that are the true cause of terror, I say to them, if this was the situation, why Christians who live in the Middle East, under the same circumstances, socio-economic or political or whatever, lack of democracy - do not contribute terrorism as their Muslim counterparts there. So why is it specific to a specific group of people? If the socio-economic circumstances were the true cause of terrorism, we will expect Christians who live under the same socio-economic circumstances, to contribute to terrorism. But this is not happening. In the Middle East we see selective involvement of a specific group of people who follow a certain ideology.

So the true cause as I witnessed it, when I was a child, my real dream was to serve the almighty, to serve the devine, to serve god. I loved him from the bottom of my heart. I really didn't want to kill anybody. But, all this energy, toward god, was just directed to certain forms of religious teaching. It was _only_ the religious teaching. I was from a relatively wealthy family. I was highly educated. Yet, I was totally captivated by their teaching. And my brain was totally washed, and I became ready to die and kill. The love in my heart had changed into hatred. Not because of American foreign policy. It is because of the teaching that they gave me when I was child. (APPLAUSE).

At the end when people say it is American foreign policy. Let us just think logically for a moment. Can this convince me that, why Sunnis are killing Shias in such barbaric manner? They slaughter innocents with no mercy. They mutilate their dead bodies after killing them. Just because they are Shias. Can anyone convince a sane person that this has anything to do with American foreign policy? (laughter). How come I kill my fellow Muslim in such barbaric manner - how come this can change, or be related to, American foreign policy? There is something wrong in the way we analyze these things, because I do believe political correctness has reached the level to be a sort of hypocrisy. Honesty is the only solution, to solve this problem. (APPLAUSE).

The true cause of the Arab-Israeli conflict is the hatred taught to many Muslims when they are impressionable children -- unable to defend themselves from having their lives poisoned with such beliefs.

This is the testimony of someone who witnessed it -- and who experienced it -- personally.