Message from a former terrorist

Tonight we had a former terrorist speak at Houghton. It was extremely interesting! His name is Dr. Tawfik Hamid and he was born in Egypt in the early 60's. Since he was born to secular parents, he first started to explore the possibility of God in his mid-teens. Being in Egypt, Islam was the most popular religion and the first one Dr. Hamid turned to. He was recruited by JamahaIslameia (JI), a terrorist cell, when he was still in his teens. JI was led by Dr. Ayman alZawahiri who is now second only to Osama Bin Laden in Al-Qaeda. Dr. Hamid was taught the ideas and beliefs of fundamental Islam. As he grew in his maturity and learning, he decided that the violent teachings of so-called "radical Islam" were wrong. He could not ignore his conscience and ill feelings towards the taking of another life. He then began to speak against the violent teachings of radical Islam. After Dr. Hamid began doing this there were many threats on his life. He along with his family had to flee the country to ensure there safety. Dr. Hamid even changed his name to what it is now in order to be safe. He now speaks all over the world including the Intelligence Summit in Washington, D.C. about his views on Islam and ways to combat fundamentalism. He has spoken to many television agencies which include: CNN, CBS, and FOX. Dr. Hamid's ultimate goal is to reform Islam, and refute the violent, fundamentalist ideas taught in much of the world today.

A very interesting thing Dr. Hamid talked about was that the reason fundamentalism grew so big and rapidly because of Saudi Arabia. Before Saudi Arabia became the rich country it is today, it was home to many fundamental Islamic groups that were suppressed because the country was not the power it is today. When Saudi Arabia became the power it is the suppressed people rose up and spread their fundamental ideas on Islam. The writing on the Saudi Arabian says, "I testify that there is no god but Allah, and I testify that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah." This is called the "shahada creed". Under the creed is a sword. The meaning of the flag, according to Dr. Hamid, is that the religion of Islam is to be spread through all the world, and spread by force (the meaning of the sword).

One of the things I found most interesting was his views on the Iraq War. He said that there are three aspects we need to look at when considering the war. 1) The local insurgency is the first aspect. Dr. Hamid said that we initially made smart moves, including the capture and detainment of Sadam Hussain. After the good initial moves, he said that the U.S. clearly made some poor tactical decisions. The problem is now how to salvage those bad decisions and turn the war around in favor of the U.S. 2) The "Global Jihad" is the second aspect that needs to be looked at. This, Dr. Hamid said, was not affected much by the war. If anything, the war slightly decreased the "Global Jihad". It made the attacks on people more concentrated in Iraq. This was helpful to the rest of the world, because it made radical Islamics concentrate on one area, not the whole world. This was all on a small scale, however, and like I said before, the war only effected this a little 3) Reformation in Islam is that last aspect of the war. In Dr. Hamid's mind, the war has helped this cause greatly. He said that the Muslim people always like to feel victorious in whatever they do. When the U.S. came in, captured Sadam, and took control of Iraq it made many of the radical Islams feel defeated. This had an effect on their psyche and it opened the door for people to teach a peaceful form of Islam to those who would listen.

The final things he said about the war were, in my mind, ingenious ways in which the U.S. needs to pull out of Iraq when the time comes. The first thing he said was that the U.S. absolutely can not just pull out immediately. If the U.S. were to do this, the fundamentalists would say that they had won, and the attacks on the U.S. and around the world would get worse. As I said earlier, everything comes down to a sense of victory for the Muslim faith. We need to play "psychological warfare" on the people in Iraq. The first option for the U.S. is to pull out of Iraq slowly and strategically, but as we pull out we need to say things and do things that make the Iraqis feel like they have been defeated. Unlike what many people in America believe, if the Iraq people feel defeated they will become weaker and fall back instead of making more attacks. A testament to this would be after the attacks on September 11, there have been no attacks to U.S. civilians on our soil. The fundamentalists felt defeated when the U.S. first invaded Afghanistan and Iraq and therefore only began to fight in their own countries. The second option, and my favorite, is that the U.S. needs to set a date for leaving Iraq. Along with this date is a condition that says, for every attack on American soldiers the U.S. exit of Iraq will be delayed by a certain amount of time (ex. two or three months). If we do this, Dr. Hamid believes that that attacks on soldiers will reduce greatly. As much as the fundamentalists hate Americans and want to kill them, they feel even stronger about America leaving Iraq. This plan will make any terrorist think very hard about attacking anyone.

Well, there is much more that Dr. Hamid said, but this is all I am going to write. Please, if you have any questions or comments ask! I would love to hear what people think regarding this subject. As always, thanks for reading.