DAR AL HARB - U.S.A.: 'RADICAL', SHMADICAL...ISLAM HAS BEEN VIOLENT & ON THE WAR PATH SINCE ITS VERY BEGINNINGS

Ex-terrorist trainee urges reform of radical Islam
by MIKE McKIBBIN
The Daily Sentinel

ASPEN — Ending terrorism won’t happen until radical Islam is reformed, a former terrorist-in-training said Monday night during an Aspen speech.

Born in Egypt to a secular Muslim family, Tawfik Hamid joined the extremist Islamic group Jemma Islamiya while a student in medical school, and said he remembers being preached to by a doctor named Ayman al-Zawahiri, now second-in-command in al-Qaida.

“They suppressed my critical thinking and transformed me into a beast from an innocent child,” Hamid told a crowd of about 150 people in Paepcke Auditorium. “I regret I became a beast that thought of burning churches and mosques. Fortunately, my conscience and upbringing made me realize what they were teaching was violence and hatred.”

Hamid said he became a physician and scholar of Islamic texts. When he began to preach in mosques about peace instead of violence, Hamid, 46, said his life was threatened many times.

“I prefer to be a brave man who stands for his principles instead of a scared man,” he said to strong applause.

Hamid said his mission now is to speak out against radical Islam, and that his studies of the Quran show it has been misinterpreted to advocate hatred, violence and killing of all who do not follow radical Islam’s fundamentalist views and laws. He said radical Islam rose to prominence shortly after Saudi Arabia became an oil giant. [LIAR ! ! ! 'Radical Islam' has been on a path of war/jihad since the 7th century...Old mo' engaged in it, his followers engaged in it and now moslems engage in it...Because ALLAH TELLS THEM TO MAKE JIHAD UNTIL THE ENTIRE WORLD IS UNDER HIS RULE ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ed. A.I.]

“The rest of the Islamic world looked and saw there were no Christians or Jews in Saudi Arabia,” Hamid said. “They said, ‘This is what Saudi Arabia believed and they were rewarded with oil and money.’ ”

America was targeted by jihadists, “because you invited them to the West without any checks, and like a cancer that was dormant for 50 years, it metastasized” into attacks on the U.S. embassy in Kenya in 1998 and New York City on Sept. 11, 2001.

America’s response to invade Afghanistan and Iraq wasn’t followed through on, Hamid said, in order to send a message terrorists respect.

“Military power has to be used effectively,” he said. “If America had responded with force after the embassy attack in 1998, there wouldn’t have been a 9/11.”

Hamid also said invading Iraq to remove Saddam Hussein was a proper move, since Iraq attracted terrorists from across the world.

The post-war planning, however, failed, Hamid said, and a sudden withdrawal of U.S. forces now would cause a major crisis because the U.S. would be seen as conceding.

“If you show a weakness like that to terrorists, you only invite more attacks they believe will lead to more concessions,” he said.

Hamid said he is working to help reform Islam through education of young Muslim children, teaching them the correct version of the Quran, so when they are exposed to radical Islam, “they have the conscience to know it’s wrong.”

An Aspen-based group, the American League for Effective Responses to Terrorism, or ALERT, sponsored Hamid’s lecture. Formed at the first of the year, ALERT works to educate people about the threat radical Islam poses to U.S. and worldwide security, said co-founder Judith King of Glenwood Springs. The “demonization” of Israel and “atmosphere of appeasement” toward radical Islam are others, she said.

“We feel this is as big a threat as Communism or Nazism,” she said. “Dr. Hamid typifies the all-too rare Muslim who breaks with the Jihad movement and is a real symbol of hope.”


Pertinent Links:

1) Ex-terrorist trainee urges reform of radical Islam