An Ex-Islamist Speaks
This video clip shows an interview with Tawfik Hamid, former member of the radical Egyptian terrorist organization Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya and ex-protégé of Ayman Al-Zawahiri, who may be familiar to you as Osama bin Laden's second-in-command in al-Qaeda. Hamid was raised in a secular family but became interested in religion while in medical school, where he was recruited into Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya. Note that Hamid came from an extremely comfortable background: his father was an orthopedic surgeon and his mother a French teacher. He is yet another example of the educated, disaffected child of privilege who turns to extremism to fill an ideological gap in his life -- more evidence of the vacuity of the notion that terrorism is the response of the hopelessly poor and disenfranchised.
In the clip, Hamid describes being taught by his religious mentors to use violence against non-Muslims and also against Muslims who do not conform to their version of Islam. He was sufficiently radicalized to have been invited to participate in the kidnapping and burying alive of a police officer, an act he was unable to stomach. He ended up renouncing Islamic extremism completely, and began to promote "a reformation [of Islam] based upon modern peaceful interpretations of classical Islamic core texts," as he puts it on his site.
Hamid's former friends attempted at first to seduce him back to the group through ideological appeals, but were unsuccessful. They resorted to death threats that apparently still continue. He is now the Senior Fellow and Chair for the Study of Islamic Radicalism at the Potomoc Institute for Policy Studies and the author of Inside Jihad: Understanding and Confronting Radical Islam.
When asked by the interviewer who the enemy was defined to be by his jihadist masters when he was a young radical, Hamid doesn't mention the Jews or Israel:
"Women's rights were the first enemy for us. Strange, but this was the first enemy, truly. ...That's why when you see radical groups, the first thing they do is they suppress women. The first thing, before anything else, they tell women not to go out, to wear the hijab....[T]he first enemy was not a political enemy; it was women's rights. This is what we typically hated, and the West represented for us the guardian of women's rights."
The interviewer cited the incessant debate within Israel (where the video was recorded) as to whether or not we should make concessions to extremists. Hamid responded:
Never do concessions to radicals. The moment you do concessions, the more they attack you. For example, when radicals attacked US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, the response was weak. This...encouraged the radicals of al-Qaeda to attack the US again on September 11, in three years. So too the cartoon issue with the Prophet Mohammed. The radicals didn't demonstrate for a four-month period -- until the magazine apologized. Then they started demonstrating. So concessions mean nothing for them but a green light , an invitation to attack you more. So my advice to you: never do concessions.
He goes on to say that the responsibility is now on the side of the Arabs to bend toward the Jews and Israel, who have, as he says, "done your best." Now, Hamid says, "it's our turn to do something. We always expect concessions, and the world also expects concessions only to come from the Israelis and the Jews. But it's now our turn...otherwise the problem will not be solved."
This is obviously a dangerous position to hold, but Hamid is not worried. If Islamists succeed in assassinating him, he says, "they will not kill my voice...[T]here will be thousands of Tawfik Hamids coming to stand against their evil."
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Feb '11
Re: An Ex-Islamist Speaks
If Islamists succeed in assassinating him, he says, "they will not kill my voice...[T]here will be thousands of Tawfik Hamids coming to stand against their evil."
Why are these supposed thousands waiting until someone assassinates him? If they want to speak up, they have the opportunity to do so now, an opportunity - yea, a responsibility - they have had for years.
Mar '11
Re: An Ex-Islamist Speaks
Good point, Israel, although a bit pessimistic after that exhilarating interview. Thanks for sharing, Judith.
Feb '11
Re: An Ex-Islamist Speaks
That's my job. Pessimist. Or, if you prefer, cynic.
May '10
Re: An Ex-Islamist Speaks
What a remarkable interview!
Here's what particularly struck me: It starts with women's rights. Hatred of women's rights is the number one motivation and priority of the radicals. They hate the west primarily because of its protection and promotion of women's rights.
In our "war on terror" we have hardly begun to grasp this reality or exploit this vulnerability.
As for Israel's point: true martyrs inspire conversion.
May '10
Re: An Ex-Islamist Speaks
I mean to say, why is that line from Les Miserables (my sons' school had a production last week, so it's fresh) "The blood of the martyrs will water the meadows of France" bracing rather than depressing?
Answer: Because martyrdom causes people who were fearful or doubtful or faithless to become believers.
Sep '10
Re: An Ex-Islamist Speaks
Ricochet continues to have the best Middle East coverage on the web in addition to having a bevy of burqa free contributors and editors. Thank you for this Judith. I often wish I had more time to respond to your posts.
Sep '10
Re: An Ex-Islamist Speaks
I'd like to frame that along with Daniel Pipes's 1995 article on The Western Mind of Radical Islam.
Edited on Apr 13, 2011 at 5:10amOct '10
Re: An Ex-Islamist Speaks
I'm inclined to share Israel P.'s doubt. I'll save my frustration for everyone who promotes fake moderates while excluding the Tawfik Hamids. It is cliche to point out that more Muslims than non-Muslims are killed by radical Islamists. It is also cliche to observe that promoting the Tariq Ramadans while ignoring the Wafa Sultans enables many others hiding behind a moderate facade. Ayaan Hirsi Ali's rejection by the trendy multi-culti set in Holland and the US, the same people seen praising CAIR, is another tired example. But if these observations are all rote, at least to those paying attention, then why are they also accepted with hardly a shoulder shrug?
There is no profit in volunteering to be on the receiving end of a fatwa. There is tremendous psychic profit in joining a movement. Unless we stop advertising the glories of Islamist duplicity, we hardly have standing to demand that Mr. Hamid's thousands put their lives on the line.
Feb '11
Re: An Ex-Islamist Speaks
I must confess that I found it hard to get past the part that said "He was sufficiently radicalized to have been invited to participate in the kidnapping and burying alive of a police officer, an act he was unable to stomach." Does that mean that he turned down the offer, or was he present for the kidnapping/burying and only converted after participating?
Jun '10
Re: An Ex-Islamist Speaks
"...began to promote "a reformation [of Islam] based upon modern peaceful interpretations of classical Islamic core texts."
Amen to that.
I am not surprised that he names women's rights as the first enemy of Islamists. By supressing women to the crazy extent that Islamists do they immediately cut off half the population's voice. At the same time the foundation of any society -- healthy nuclear families -- is instantly & completely destroyed. The Islamists now have a population so twisted and miserable and brainwashed that their calls for Jihad can take root.
May '10
Re: An Ex-Islamist Speaks
katievs: What a remarkable interview!
Here's what particularly struck me: It starts with women's rights. Hatred of women's rights is the number one motivation and priority of the radicals. They hate the west primarily because of its protection and promotion of women's rights. · Apr 13 at 4:53am
It certainly isn't based in morality or founding a healthy society. It springs from fear of these dangerous women that make them all disturbingly tingly like Chris Matthews at an Obama rally, and thus the need to dominate them and beat them down into powerlessness.
We should find some sort of Stuxnet virus to show the Dear Woman video on a continuous loop on all their computers. If it doesn't wear them down, it will at least annoy them, which is a worthy goal in itself.
Re: An Ex-Islamist Speaks
Thank you, Pseudo.