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Inside Jihad: How Radical Islam Works; Why It Should Terrify Us; How To Defeat It

Why has radical Islam become such a deadly threat and why does it dominate the Muslim world? A quarter-century ago, Tawfik Hamid was recruited into Jamaa Islamiya, a terror group led by Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, the man who replaced Osama bin Laden to become the leader of al-Qaeda. Eventually and miraculously, Dr. Hamid recognized the insidious nature of violent jihad and rejected its distortions of the Quran, the holy book of the Muslim faith. Ever since, he has pursued a path of reformation within Islam by writing new interpretations of the book's key texts and by sharing his message in mosques. Inside Jihad reveals Dr. Hamid's insights about the Islamic terror movement drawn from his personal experiences. As a medical doctor and a psychologist, he helps readers understand the jihadist mindset. He also explains the meaning of jihad and the role that sex, petrodollars and the hijab for women play in its proliferation. And he details his bold plan for Islamic reformation that would eventually change the minds of jihadists and stop their reign of terror.

Paperback: 238 pages

Publisher: Mountain Lake Press; Updated edition (September 10, 2015)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0990808912

ISBN-13: 978-0990808916

Product Dimensions: 6 x 1 x 9 inches

Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #175,201 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #23 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Islam > Rituals & Practice #117 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Islam > History #123 in Books > History > World > Religious > Islam

.Though this book will have value to both Muslims and non-Muslims alike, it was primarily written to try to explain the basic tenets of the Islamic faith to non-Muslim Westerners, and the causal factors that result in radicalisation. From that standpoint it can't, and doesn't, cover Islam and its many variances (to the satisfaction of a Muslim reader anyway). What it does do, however, is offer Western readers some historical and political background on the inception and development of the Islamic religion, and the elements that underpin and dictate behaviour in Muslim society, past and present, as well as interpreting some of the more pertinent passages of the Quran.For a large percentage of people living in the West, the leap from pious prayer five times a day to violent and savage jihad brutality is completely incomprehensible. How could ANY RELIGION possibly condone this, let alone actively teach it? What sort of religion advocates killing or maiming your fellow man for so many minor and inconsequential transgressions? And - the biggest myth of them all - how any Muslim could believe he is a good and pious person, worthy of reward, while simultaneously murdering innocent people.Why would anyone WILLINGLY follow such vicious ideology?These questions are being asked every day. We ask them after every terrorist attack but the reactions and explanations on our news services, in the media and by our leaders and Politicians only serve to cloud the issue further and make such events even more inexplicable and unfathomable by continuing to insist that “Islam is a religion of peace”.It isn't. And it never has been.Not in its current guise, and certainly not in the hands of fundamental Islamists who take so literally the words of the Quran and even more concerning, of the destructive Hadiths - dubious additions (sometimes many different versions of the same verse) written and compiled 150 years later, in the mid 8th century, with a decidedly militaristic and combative bent.I suspect there is a base general assumption among Westerners that all religions advocate peace and loving your fellow man, so Islam must just be the Middle-Eastern version of Christianity. It's not. And this is a dangerous presumption to make because it couldn't be further from the truth. What Islam teaches is so far removed from the values we uphold that it is difficult to believe it is even considered a religion at all.Islam is a call to arms.And we have good reason to be concerned.We need to educate ourselves on what Islam is teaching and what it is advocating.Our leaders and Politicians need to educate themselves and stop trying to assuage and appease the greater community (of any denomination) and call it what it is - terrorism perpetrated in the name of Islam. If they continue to deny, rationalize and whitewash, they become more of a threat to our future than the terrorists themselves.The following excerpts from the book ably demonstrate this propensity of our political leaders to refuse to call it what it is;“U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon once said the genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan, which began in 2003 and rages on even today, had stemmed from global warming. He advanced the idea that the Janjaweed militias – the so-called devils on horseback – of Northern Sudan were exterminating the residents of Darfur because of drought brought on by climate change.Former President Jimmy Carter, in merely one in a long string of similar comments, blamed the January 2015 terror attack at the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, the French humor magazine, on the treatment of the Palestinians by Israel.President Barack Obama, reacting to the same event, condemned the violence without mentioning the words “radical Islam” or “Muslims ,” even though eyewitnesses reported that the attackers shouted “We have avenged the Prophet Muhammad” as they murdered the magazine’s staff, calling out their names one by one.Incredibly, President Obama characterized the murder of Jewish patrons of a Parisian kosher delicatessen, an attack related to the Charlie Hebdo incident, as an act by “a bunch of violent, vicious zealots ” who “randomly” shot “a bunch of folks.” He did the same when commenting on the mass-murder of Christians by al-Shabaab suicide terrorists at Garissa University in Nairobi.Perhaps President Obama’s most ill-informed utterance of all was his assertion that the terror group Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, aka ISIS – which the President persists in calling “ISIL” (for Islamic State in the Levant) – is “not Islamic.” He has refused to call the members of ISIS jihadists or radical Islamists or Muslim extremists. He will deem them terrorists or extremists, but at this writing President Obama will not associate ISIS – or al-Qaeda, for that matter - with Islam.This reticence to call a spade a spade, so to speak, isn’t difficult to understand. Islam has more than 1.5 billion adherents, making it the world’s second-largest religion. Muslim communities reside in nearly every nation, and it is common for them to become vocal, aggressive minorities.It’s one thing to say that extremist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood and ISIS and al-Qaeda and al-Shabaab and Boko Haram don’t represent Islam, even though all claim fealty to the Quran and to Muhammad, and all claim they act in Allah’s name. It’s quite another to blame the emergence of jihadists on the theology of Salafism and its companion, Wahhabism, which currently pervade Islam. Doing so, and when criticism - or particularly satire - is directed at Prophet Muhammad, the backlash can be severe. (Witness the Charlie Hebdo massacre).”This propensity to “refuse-to-name” is Political Correctness at its most debilitated. What PC really translates to is a lack of courage in stating your piece. It has always been a great cover for those who fear assertiveness. But these are precisely the times in which we NEED courage and assertiveness.Political correctness has become an acceptable politically-correct way to turn a blind eye, to bury our heads in the sand. It is crippling any intelligent and useful discourse on how to deal with the problem of rising Islamist fundamentalism and has contributed primarily to the situation as it stands now. Our inherent wish to be polite, to not step on toes, to not offend means that * the truth * is never spoken, and therefore problems are never addressed. Every evasion, every whitewash, every denial and every overturned decision are victories for terrorists. They are weaknesses to be celebrated and exploited. And they glaringly show westernised Governments as spineless, feeble, easily daunted and ineffectual.And not only Governments, but EVERY back-down to avoid offending Muslims, from the misguided school Principal who takes ham off the cafeteria menu, to the misguided CEO who tells staff they can't send Christmas cards that mention the word “Christmas”.Even the most peaceful, law abiding muslims will feel such measures are a “Win for Islam”.Such misguided decisions, on both a large and small scale, all give the message that we're easily cowed, easily dominated and easily intimidated. The individuals behind such decisions wrongly believe they are being “tolerant” and “inclusive”, but in the Islamist’s eyes it is just cowardice and weakness. (And when a Christian country refuses to mention the ‘Christ’ in their biggest religious commemoration of the year, this is a HUGE win for terrorism).Similarly, western Governments involved in military conflicts who pull out troops following a terrorist attack only succeed in emboldening the terrorists and giving them the message that we can be easily intimidated. The failures of the Carter, Reagan and Clinton administrations who, by their vacillation in combatting extremism, all contributed (with each building on the work of their predecessor) to the paper tiger Western (and particularly American) Governments have become.In addition to this evasive non-naming, many political and social commentators also continue to cite various incorrect reasons for the proliferation of Islamist fundamentalism and terrorism, and Dr. Hamid addresses (and debunks) each of these myths as being a causal factor. Among them;POVERTYDISCRIMINATIONLACK OF EDUCATIONABSENCE OF DEMOCRACYWESTERN COLONIALISM AND IMPERIALISMTHE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICTU.S. FOREIGN POLICYThis book, and those like it, therefore are essential reading if we in the West are ever going to understand what happens in those crucial 10 or 15 years between childhood religious instruction and murderous hatred just a few short years later in the mind of a 20-something Muslim man hell bent on havoc and destruction - simply because we are not the same as him.And HE is not the same as the majority of law abiding Muslims - a delineation that Dr. Hamid goes to great pains to stress. A ‘moderate’ adherent of Islam is a very different being to a radicalised “Islamist” even though both subscribe to Islam and both are deemed Muslim. And the radicalised Islamist is the focus of this book.The book itself covers vast territory, relevant to its topic, in direct and concise language. The inception and history of Islam, Dr. Hamid’s own history and subsequent radicalisation as a young man, political and economic factors, social mores - what living as a Muslim in a Middle Eastern country means in actuality, and the path from recruitment, strategy and indoctrination of young men to engage in acts of terror. Who knew that many of the young men targeted by terrorist organisations are University educated (not the poor, the destitute or the dispossessed we assume would be ripe for grooming and exploitation). How can such educated intelligent individuals be turned from promising young graduates to murderous jihadis? Through a highly orchestrated process of indoctrination which starts in schools and universities.Phases of Indoctrination:LEARN HATREDSUPPRESS CONSCIENCESUPPRESS CRITICAL THINKINGDESENSITIZE VIOLENCEPREACH SUPERIORITYACCEPT A STATE OF WAROFFER SEX AND PARADISETHREATEN HELLMODEL PROPHET MUHAMMADRESTRICT EMOTIONAL OUTLETSEven if the individual is not sufficiently radicalised and motivated to carry out violent acts of terrorism, indoctrination is still desired to moderate the public, control the Muslim population, and sway them toward the desired agenda.This is done by infiltrating every aspect of Muslim life:-* from widening the divide between Muslims and Jews or Christians (it's okay to kill either)* it's also okay to kill any Muslim who leaves Islam and converts to another faith. Jews, Christians, other less pious Muslims and those who leave and convert (apostates) are all permitted to be killed indiscriminately* by allowing and encouraging violent & criminal, and racist & discriminatory behaviours, then excusing and absolving Muslims by blaming the Devil, instead of the individual responsible* by threatening never ending torture, and burning in eternal damnation in hell if religious edicts are not strictly adhered to* by completely controlling and subjugating women and getting them to willingly wear the hijab by telling them that those women who wear it are free and superior to other women, and are protected from rape (which non-hijab-wearing women, who are thus considered slaves, can be subject to, with no compunction nor repercussions)This excerpt from the book;“the hijab is not simply a clothing accessory. It harbors deep Islamic doctrinal connections to slavery and discrimination. Western women [visiting Middle Eastern countries] who cover themselves are unwittingly endorsing an inhumane system. Within Salafi Islam, the hijab serves to differentiate between slave girls and women who are considered free. In this sense, it creates a feeling of superiority among the women who wear it (and their men) over women who do not”.Perhaps this is the REAL reason why Muslim women wear the hijab; this tiny whiff of superiority is possibly the ONLY time they will feel something resembling self esteem. Otherwise Islam considers women religiously inferior, intellectually inferior and polluters of devout and pious male minds, useful only as cooks, carers and copulators for men* therefore to keep them in check they must be regularly beaten* they can never be equal to men because they were created to be deficient in intelligence (a man being the mental equivalent of 2 women)* menstruating women are “unclean” and not fit for fasting or prayer. Like everything else, menses propriety too is subordinated according to the Holy book. Allowed on the list at No. 2 is washing the husband's head and combing his hair. No. 4 is the husband graciously letting the menstruating wife sleep under the same sheet. No. 5 is ordering the menstruating wife to walk around stripped to the waist, the better to allow access to fondling her boobs, even donning a garment called the “Izar”, designed for this express purpose. (I kid you not).“The Book of Menstruation” alone is worth a read (!!)Though this is an outlandish (but nevertheless true) example, it is demonstrative of the many such measures, too numerous to name, that dictate and seek to control EVERY aspect of a Muslim’s existence, male or female. And while much of it seems archaic, primitive, even puerile and juvenile, there is always a future objective firmly in the sights of those behind the scenes pulling the strings. For the puppeteers in power the strategy and ultimate end-goal is always the same;1. Al-daawa: preaching (in schools, universities, mosques)2. Al-musharaka: participation (in the community)3. Al-tamkeen: consolidating power while faking legitimacy4. Al-mughalab: enforcing ShariaInstead of focusing on what is being taught, based on a corrupted and misinterpreted skewed view of Islam, the Quran and the Hadiths - and the disastrous influence this is having on Muslim (and non-Muslim) populations everywhere - our leaders and the media continue to dwell on the Sunni/Shia divide. According to Dr. Hamid;“The Sunni-Shia conflict is largely sectarian, with roots going all the way back to the early caliphates. The Sunnis asserted, at least superficially, that Islam has no favorites among believers, and therefore any Muslim is technically entitled to become caliph. The Shia insisted the caliphate must be headed only by a descendent of Muhammad.The Sunni-Shia rift is largely superficial. This isn’t to say the conflict is unimportant. On the contrary, in terms of human rights as well as geopolitical decision-making, the Islamic divide is of utmost importance. But for our purposes it plays a negligible role in global Islamic terrorism.al-Qaeda and ISIS, are Sunni, yet Shia-dominated Iran is the world’s largest sponsor of terror”.What Dr. Hamid says does play a role are the differences between Sufi and Salafism;“When we speak of Islamic terror, we should focus on the differences between Salafi Islam, or Salafism, and Sufi Islam. Salafism corresponds closely to what is called Islamic fundamentalism.Sufism is relatively – but not entirely – peaceful. Sufis typically consider jihad as internal struggle against the individual’s evil inclinations. Hence, Jews and Christians were able to survive under Sufi governance.Sufism is a true branch of Islam, while Salafism, in contrast, is not precisely a discrete sect or formal organization. It is more of a force, a powerful reactionary energy that can impose itself on any Islamic society or group. Very few Muslims would identify themselves or think of themselves as Salafist. Many Muslims who are in every respect Salafist would not even know the term. An adequate English approximation for Salafist would be “fundamentalist.”We will never find the answers if we're looking in the wrong place. But whether Sunni or Shia, Sufi or Salafist, the end goal for the Islamist extremist is always the same.“All jihadists are motivated by the same objectives and utilize largely identical tactics. [But] most important, they are sworn enemies of Western values”.Yet we in the West continue to jeopardise the safety of our countries, communities and citizens by not taking the threat seriously, and blindly rushing in before properly assessing the risk (AND assessing the risk from a Western perspective. Because of the behavioural complexities and contradictions, any risk needs to be assessed in conjunction with someone (such as Dr. Hamid) who has extensive knowledge of the Muslim populace and mindset and a deep understanding of the factors driving radicalised behaviour and motivations).Many countries including Greece and Italy, and Germany, Austria, Sweden and the Netherlands, who take in hundreds of thousands of refugees from Middle Eastern conflicts (who are mostly Muslim and who will naturally have sympathisers and radicals amongst them) are not only destroying their own cultural heritage, but with little or no identification are opening the door to disaster. In the times in which we live, it is extreme folly to invite in masses of people whose histories and sympathies are a complete unknown. We need to assist refugees of course but why aren't rich Gulf states in the Middle East doing more to help their neighbors? Amira Fathalla from BBC News says “the trend in most Gulf states, such as Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE is towards relying on migrant workers from South-East Asia and the Indian subcontinent, particularly for unskilled labour”. Why aren't those those jobs being made available to refugees instead? Resettling refugees in those countries makes a lot more sense than resettling them in Western and European countries we KNOW are targets for terrorism and where we KNOW they will never assimilate. They can't; their religion forbids bedding down with the al-kafireen (“the infidels”). And while we cannot, and must not, label all Muslim refugees as sympathisers, it would be foolhardy in the extreme to not consider that among the genuine refugees there will exist people who have ulterior motives and who pose an unacceptable and obvious risk.Unfortunately most Politicians are more concerned with the image they're portraying to the Electorate than seriously assessing the risk their uneducated and premature decisions may pose to their own communities. Politicians seem particularly willing to waive normal and sensible protocols, indeed any common sense at all, as soon as the “M” word is mentioned, lest they be labelled racist or islamophobic. In this rush to appease the Muslim populace, they are completely ignoring the security and safety of the populations they are responsible for, and in this regard are themselves culpable if/when the worst should happen.In a twisted paradox though, for all the extremist’s objections and their stance against what they believe to be the amoral, decadent and depraved West, they still murder many more of their own. As Westerners we KNOW they have us in their sights, but murdering your own people? This must be particularly wrenching for ordinary law-abiding and peaceful Muslims who must surely be angry. Angry too that their religion has been so brutally defiled, and hijacked by criminals who are brainwashing the young to carry out their own murderous agenda. (If the rewards are supposedly so great why are there no older suicide bombers? Why are they all young men under 30? Shouldn't such a dubious “honour” be reserved only for the most senior members? These are basic questions every young Muslim should be asking himself).If my child was useful only as cannon fodder for vengeful old men, I know I’d be angry. I'd be more than angry (I'd probably become murderous and vengeful myself). But where is the outrage of law abiding Muslims?As human beings, are we all prone to apathy unless galvanised by personal tragedy or terror landing in our own backyard?Dr. Hamid goes on to say;Passive Terrorism“The seeds of Islamic terror could not have sprouted into voracious weeds if they had not found fertile soil in which to germinate. Such soil is the world’s Muslim community. A large percentage of Muslims today passively approve of Islamic terror. They minimize it, shift the blame or do nothing about it. Some of these behaviors are deliberate strategies by Islamists to support terrorists by misleading their pursuers. In other cases, there is simply an unwillingness to face the problem. Therefore, the term “passive terrorism” refers to a broad category of enabling behaviors and beliefs, both conscious and unconscious, which serve to exacerbate jihadism”.No doubt there are multitudes of sympathisers, enablers and apologists as Dr. Hamid writes above, but there must also be ordinary Muslims who ARE outraged, but whose voices we never hear. And to Westerners that silence is deafening.But - like the violence-against-women issue - even though we, as women, are outraged, it is difficult for the average woman (or Muslim) to know how to take any decisive action that will make a difference.But, just like that issue, if we start with the root cause - attitudes learned as children - and condemn and stifle such leanings before they have a chance to take hold, we can not only help foster morally responsible and worthwhile human beings, we can help rebuild their future. We have to educate tomorrow's adults - irrespective of which country or faith they belong - that violence is NEVER acceptable and is NEVER an option.The current interpretations of Islam, the Quran and the Hadiths need to be reviewed, revised and reinterpreted. Because as they are currently being taught, by fundamentalist Islamists, they are burning hatred and violence into the very DNA of young Muslims everywhere.It still stuns me that there is, and has been throughout history, so much blood shed over something not known and intangible. Religion is a blind belief of which we have little empiric certainty, and only an abundance of our own blind faith, yet more people have died in the name of religion than in battles and wars over something more evident. Only when we die will we know whether it was all worth fighting for.If this, and future generations, are to have any hope at all of being free to live long, fruitful, fulfilled lives, the scourge of Islamist extremism needs to be nullified. How we do that is the million dollar question. But it starts with changing the narrative inside the heads of today's children. The consequences of not doing so now, will be dire.Because a sharia-ruled world will be the Apocalypse realized..

Here's my four-sentence review of Dr. Tawfik Hamid's new book Inside Jihad: How Radical Islam Works; Why It Should Terrify Us; How to Defeat It. Buy this book. Read this book. Refer to this book. Share this book.I've read and reviewed counter-jihad classics by bestselling experts including Robert Spencer, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Bernard Lewis, Andrew Bostom, Wafa Sultan, Brigitte Gabriel, Mosab Hassan Yousef, and Phyllis Chesler. I think highly of each. This is how good Inside Jihad is. If someone said to me, "I want to read just one book about jihad." I'd give that reader Dr. Hamid's book.Inside Jihad is brief. Hamid's style is direct and fast-paced. He says what he needs to say without sensationalism, emotionality, literary ambition, or apologies. He pulls no punches.Tawfik Hamid was born and raised in Egypt, the most populous Middle Eastern country. He was raised Muslim. Hamid's mother was a teacher; his father, a surgeon and a private atheist who taught him to respect Christians and Jews. The family observed the Ramadan fast but had little other religious observance. Arabic is his first language and he has studied the Koran in the original Arabic. From 1979-82, he was a member of Jamaa Islamiya, a terrorist group. He met Ayman al-Zawahiri, the current leader of al-Qaeda.Hamid grew up under Gamal Abdel Nasser's pan-Arab socialism. Nasser wanted to modernize Egypt. He suppressed the Muslim Brotherhood, executed one of its leaders, Sayyid Qutb, and curtailed travel to and from Saudi Arabia, fearing Wahhabi influence.The 1973 Oil Embargo sparked a revival of Islam. Muslims concluded that Allah rewarded Saudi Arabia for the Saudis' strict religious observance. Allah's reward was the Saudi ability to humble the United States.Islamization in Egypt "started mildly enough." Hamid warns the reader to pay careful attention to slow Islamization. He says that the same methods that were used in Egypt are now being used in the West. "The more we surrender" he warns "the more Islamists will demand."The camel's nose under the tent was something few could object to: individual prayer. Previously, if an employee interrupted his workday to perform one of Islam's mandated five daily prayers, it was perceived as bizarre. Now it was admirable.Another straw in the wind: the hijab. In school photos taken before the 1970s, many Egyptian girls are without hijab. After America's humbling in the oil shock, more and more girls began to wear hijab. Men stopped wearing gold wedding bands; gold was deemed "un Islamic" for men. More toxic Islamizations, including Jew-hatred, followed. Imams preached that Jews are monkeys and pigs and that they poisoned Mohammed.Islamization on campus also began in an innocuous way: Islamists used the moments before class began to talk about Islam. One day, the Christian professor of one class said that it was time for discussion of Islam to stop and the academic hour to begin. The Islamists called the professor an infidel and broke his arm. "The Christian students were terrified," Hamid reports."I remember the first time I looked at a Christian with disdain," Hamid reminisces. He was reading a required textbook. The book told him that Mohammed said, "I have been instructed by Allah to declare war and fight all mankind until they say 'No God except Allah and Mohammed is the prophet of Allah.'" Hamid, who had previously had Christian friends, turned to a Christian student and said, "If we applied Islam correctly, we should be doing this to you."Jamaa Islamiya actively recruited medical students like Hamid. It took six months for Hamid to become "sufficiently indoctrinated."Hamid details several lures that recruiters used to bring young people into their movement:• fear of hell,• a demonization of critical thinking,• a sense of superiority over non-Muslims,• suppression of any emotional life outside of Islamism,• suppression of sexual expression,• a promise of sex for jihadis,• and upholding of Mohammed as the perfect example, beyond criticism.Author Don Richardson estimates that one in eight verses in the Koran mentions Hell. By contrast, the Old Testament mentions Hell once in every 774 verses, and it is never described as graphically as it is described in the Koran. Hamid quotes Islamists using many Koranic passages that vividly describe Hell to terrorize potential members: "garments of fire shall be cut out for them … burning water will be poured over their heads causing all that is within their bodies as well as the skins to melt away … they shall be held by iron grips; and every time they try in their anguish to come out of it, they shall be returned and told 'Taste suffering through fire to the full!'" Infidels in Hell will eat thorns and drink scalding water as if they were "female camels raging with thirst and disease." Their intestines will be cut to pieces.Another method used to Islamize recruits was "al-fikr kufr" – "one becomes an infidel by thinking critically."Recruiters flattered recruits, telling them that they were superior to non-Muslims. "Take not Jews and Christians for friends," they quoted from Koran 5:51. Jews are monkeys and pigs: Koran 5:60. Those who worship Jesus are infidels: Koran 5:17. Do not offer the greeting "As-salamu alaykum," or "peace be with you," to Christians or Jews; whenever you meet Christians or Jews in a road, force them to its narrowest alley: Sahih Muslim. Muslims who did not carry out jihad were also inferior.Terror recruits' emotional outlets were cut off. They were forbidden from creating or consuming music, dance, or visual art. They were discouraged from having sex, but lured with promises of great sex in paradise. The houris – dark-eyed virgins – are graphically described in Muslim literature as very soft, without complaint, and easily satisfied. Houris regain their virginity immediately after sex. Men are promised organs that never go limp. Mohammed, recruits were assured, could have sex with eleven women in an hour.Finally, the example of Mohammed himself was not to be questioned. Mohammed married a six-year-old. He raped war captives, in one case immediately after decapitating the captive's brother and father and after she had witnessed her mother being carried off also to be raped. Mohammed approved of the dismemberment of Um Kerfa, a poetess who criticized him. Mohammed is the "perfect example, worthy of emulation." Muslims today must unquestioningly approve these behaviors.Hamid's fellow extremists were aware that Muslim countries were no longer in the cultural forefront. Islam had spread as far as Spain and India in only the first century after Mohammed's death. Terror recruits believed that early Islam's success was caused by strict adherence to Islamic doctrine. They believed that their strict observance could bring back Islam's early dominance.Some wonder how women could be recruited into a movement that keeps them in an inferior position in relation to men. Hamid clarifies: Muslimahs were told that they would be superior – to infidel women.Hamid expounds uncompromisingly on the power and importance of hijab. He insists that when prominent Westerners such as Nancy Pelosi and Laura Bush travel to Muslim countries and wear hijab, they are making a grave error. Hijab is not "a neutral, or merely traditional, fashion statement." Hijab's purpose "is not modesty or to encourage observers to focus on a Muslim woman's personality." Hijab exists to proclaim "deep Islamic doctrinal connections to slavery and discrimination. Western women who cover themselves are unwittingly endorsing an inhumane system." Hijab's purpose, Hamid argues persuasively, is to create a society where superior free Muslimahs are visually distinct from inferior infidel slave women.Islamists "despise women who did not wear hijab. We considered them vain … we believed they would burn in Hell." Further, "the hijab serves to differentiate between slave girls and women who are considered free … it creates a feeling of superiority among the women who wear it." The Koran promises that women who wear hijab will not be "molested." Women without hijab are slaves and can be raped without guilt.Australia's foremost Muslim cleric restated this Islamist position in 2006. In Sydney, fourteen Muslim men gang-raped non-Muslim women. Sheikh Taj el-Din al-Hilali said that it was the victims' fault. "If you take out uncovered meat" and cats eat it, the cats are not to blame. Women possess "igraa," "the weapon of enticement."Hamid emphasizes that hijab is both vanguard and emblem of Islamic supremacy. During their 1953 meeting, the first thing Sayyid Qutb asked Nasser to do was to force women to wear hijab. A YouTube video documents this conversation. In the video, Nasser is speaking to a large assembly. When he repeats Qutb's demand, the crowd laughs. One wag shouts out, "Let him wear it!" Nasser points out that Qutb's own daughter does not wear hijab. The crowd laughs even more, and bursts into applause. This video is at least fifty years old. It is a reminder that fifty years ago, countries like Egypt and Iran were modernizing. Women, in cities at least, could be seen in public in miniskirts and without hijab.Hamid reports that the Muslim Brotherhood does not announce its end goal openly. "They pose as peacemakers … The Muslim Brotherhood will accept circumstances that offend their beliefs – temporarily – if doing so will advance their goals." They will – temporarily – permit western dress for women and alcohol consumption. This is all part of taqiyya. The Muslim Brotherhood has a four stage plan: at first, merely preach. Then, move on to participation in public life. Next, consolidate power "while faking legitimacy." Finally, enforce sharia.A few turning points turned Hamid away from Islamism, for example, when a fellow terror recruit described his plot to bury alive an Egyptian police officer.Hamid had been studying the Bible so that he could better debate Christians. Jesus' words haunted him. "What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" He asked himself, what profit to Islam if it subjugated the entire world but lost its soul? "Exposure to the Bible was crucial in helping me question the violent aspects of Salafist teaching."His medical studies also gave him pause. "I wondered if the divine DNA molecule was violent. Did it attempt to conquer the rest of the cell? Did it try to force other cellular components to behave like itself? It did not. Rather, it worked harmoniously within an organism to create and sustain life."The clincher for Hamid was "the existence of alternative forms of Islamic teaching." Hamid met Muslims called "Quranics," who reject the hadiths. The Quranics "stood against killing apostates, against stoning women for adultery, against killing gays. They viewed the Islamic Conquests as immoral and senseless." The Quranics "allowed me to think critically." "If this alternative sect had not been available, it would have been much more difficult for me to resist jihadism."After recounting his own history, Hamid turns his attention to the international scene. Hamid makes mincemeat of a slew of Islam-apologetic arguments. He insists that it is utterly wrong-headed to blame Islamism on poverty, global warming, lack of education, discrimination, Islamophobia, dictatorial regimes, colonialism, imperialism, or the treatment of Palestinians by Israel. President Obama's statement that ISIS is "not Islamic," was the "most ill-informed utterance of all."Hamid stresses that one must attend to what Muslims say to each other, in Arabic, about their faith, not just what propagandists in the West say in English to a media that never seems to hit Muslims with any hard questions. Hamid cites the example of prominent Saudi Sheikh Sale al-Fawzan. Al-Fawzan says that "slavery is part of Islam" and "slavery is part of jihad, and jihad will remain as long as there is Islam." Anyone who tries to extract slavery and jihad from Islam is an "infidel." Familiarity with such pronouncements would have prepared the world for ISIS' practices.Dr. Hamid's righteous indignation – and his courage – reach heroic heights when he castigates his fellow Muslims, not just for being passive in the face of terror, but for secretly applauding it. "A large percentage of Muslims today passively approve of Islamic terror," he says. "They minimize it, shift the blame, or do nothing." They are "secretly proud." Terrorism gives them "a sense of victory and power."Muslims often can't bring themselves to perceive terrorists as bad people. "It is widely believed that a Muslim who fulfills the Five Pillars of Islam is virtuous" – whether he's a terrorist or not. "Islamists cannot be bad Muslims because they perform the superficial rituals."Hamid unpacks in detail several different taqiyya strategies Muslim apologists use to mislead Westerners into thinking that they oppose terrorism while in fact supporting it. Hamid lists seven questions that must be answered by any spokesperson for Islam. Every American politician should read these pages; voters should photocopy them and mail them to elected officials. Students should have them on hand before they head off to college."Many Muslims seem to have this tendency to point fingers at anyone but themselves," he observes. Islam fosters a "culture of deflection" that "makes it very difficult for Islam to correct itself." Many insist that Muslims did not carry out the 9-11 attacks. It was the Jews! They insist. "This denial is a form of passive terrorism." Hamid writes perceptively that "Redemption from shame is not and can never be the product of denial. It comes rather from honestly admitting fault and then confronting it openly."I'll mention that Islam, unlike Christianity, lacks the ritual of confession. For two thousand years, Christians have been following scriptural dictates to confess their sins to others, and to atone for them. Self-examination is valued in Christian-influenced cultures – enough so that politicians caught in scandals are often advised to appear on the highest-rated talk show that will book them and to offer a "mea culpa," a phrase from Catholic confession. There is no comparable Muslim ritual.Hamid is equally gloves-off in his criticism of the West. He reminds the reader of how gradually and innocuously Islamization had begun in Egypt. He says weak Western military response to jihad is comparable to using too few antibiotics to treat an infection. Surviving bacteria become resistant, and more virulent. He lambastes moral relativism. He utterly rejects comparisons between jihadis and fundamentalist Christians and Jews. Hamid singles out one voice – that of pseudo-scholar Karen Armstrong – for special condemnation. He accuses Armstrong and others like of her "paving the way for Islamic barbarity." Armstrong is "spectacularly representative of the multicultural revisionism and moral backsliding that are helping to cripple efforts at genuine reform of Islam."His critique of Western liberals' enabling of jihadis is echoed in many memoirs by Islam-critical Muslims and former Muslims, including Ayaan Hirsi Ali. "It is strange how Christianity is constantly assailed by Western progressives" including the American Civil Liberties Union. "The ACLU said nothing about installing Islamic footbaths in restrooms … at a taxpayer-funded public institution in 2007." Hamid sticks his hand in a real hornet's nest: immigration. He believes America should change its policies to weed out jihadis.Dr. Hamid remains a Muslim. He loves his religion, and he wants to save it. By writing this book and speaking out as he has, he is risking his life to do so. The final portion of the book offers his complete re-interpretation of Islam and the Koran, and his plan for defeating extremism.Muslims like Dr. Tawfik Hamid inspire my hope and admiration. In his excellent book, one sentence struck me as most poignant and worth lengthy pondering. "I often wonder how al-Zawahiri would have turned out if his childhood religious education had promoted love instead of hate and violence." Dr. Hamid is doing his part to re-interpret his beloved natal faith, Islam, in a peaceful and loving way. One can only wish him good fortune in that herculean effort.This review first appeared at Front Page Magazine

An important work -- for its contribution toward a saner world -- Inside Jihad is both well documented and highly readable. It offers unique insights into Islamic terror, from theological, psychological, historical and political perspectives. Few authors can speak as authoritatively on the subject as Dr. Hamid, a committed Muslim who once belonged to Egypt’s Jamaa Islamiya and subsequently rejected its message of violence and intolerance. The very fact that someone of his background could be drawn into such a group is frightening. Many aspects of this book are scary, not least of all the cluelessness of the West. Hamid eviscerates the myths many Western leaders and media representatives perpetuate about terrorism and about Islam itself, myths born of ignorance and wishful thinking. For all the frightening aspects, the message is one of hope: Islam can reform itself and thereby deprive groups like ISIS, al-Qaeda, the Taliban and Boko Haram of their support base.

Outstanding text that lays bare the Islamists' goals and methods. Written by a man who was actually recruited by and became a dedicated Islamist and who then subsequently rejected the Islamist ideology as basically inhuman and unconscionable.Also lays bare the failure of the vast majority of the so-called "Islamic Moderates" to tell the truth about Islam and/or to work to reform Islam and to make Islam truly relevant to anyone not living in the Eighth Century AD.I've purchased multiple copies and have given them out to friends.

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