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Inside Jihad
By Victoria Morphy, Missouri
When Tawfik Hamid entered medical school in Cairo 25 years ago he had dreams of becoming a doctor. Hamid came from a well-to-do secular family - his father encouraged critical thinking over dogma - he was bright and on track to become an internist.
But medical school would teach Hamid about things other than science. Medical science spawned a religious awakening and deep curiosity about God for Hamid. An introductory course in the structure and function of DNA molecules made a profound impression on Hamid about the beauty of nature and the Creator who created it.
"A few members of Jammaa Islamia were planning to kidnap one of the police officers and bury him alive beside the mosque. This was way before Sept. 11th – but Sept.11th was a manifestation of this ideology." -Dr. Tawfik Hamid
However, his new belief in God led him to join a group of older medical students on campus who gave lectures on Islam every morning before classes. This group would later become the infamous terrorist organization, Jammaa Islamia. Hamid attended these lectures and so did a fellow medical student, Dr. Al Zawaherri who went on to become the second in command of Al Qaeda.
Acceptance in this group was easy. Indeed, the group easily attracted new members by selling copied Western medical books very cheaply outside of their mosque, which was permitted on campus.
At such an impressionable age perhaps it's not hard to fathom how a bright young man could allow himself to be brainwashed by a jihadist group for nearly one and a half years. Indeed, there were many bright young men attending universities in Egypt who had never previously been attached to radical Islam who suddenly decided to belong to similar jihadist groups.
With his critical thinking suppressed, Hamid underwent several levels of indoctrination that presented Islam in a very narrow theological manner. Dreams of becoming a successful physician in this life were reprioritized for those of a second life in which there were 72 virgins awaiting his arrival.
"Once I started to follow blindly without critical thinking everything went after that," Hamid said. "There was no other form of teaching that taught me in a different way and that was the problem."
Fortunately Hamid had an epiphany when he learned about the group's plans to perpetrate extreme acts of violence. His conscience kicked in and he withdrew from the group after advancing to stage two. He had been on track for jihad in Afghanistan.
Hamid's life could have been quite different. Indeed, as events around the world have demonstrated, many young students without the benefit of Hamid's upbringing in critical thinking have chosen this different path.
Today Hamid dedicates his life to defeating the violent ideology of radical Islam by creating paths for Islamic reform. He says there is not a lack of moderate Muslims, rather there is an absence of a modern moderate interpretation of Islam and he is developing such a text that will offer a more modern peaceful interpretation so that young Muslims, in particular, will be able to choose how they believe.
Dr. Hamid has practiced internal medicine as a specialist in Egypt and Saudi Arabia and has also taught at the University of Auckland (New Zealand) School of Medicine and Health Science. He has also advised many law enforcement and intelligence agencies in the U.S. including the Pentagon, the National Counter Terrorism Center, the Joint Counter Terrorism Task Force (New York) on how to defeat radical Islam and how to win the war on terrorism. Dr. Hamid has spoken at many universities and has been interviewed about his experience Inside Jihad (also the name of his book). Voices recently caught up with Dr. Tawfik Hamid. What follows is our interview with him about terrorism, Islam and what can be done to stop radicalism.
You came from a secular, educated, well-to-do family -you had a positive family experience - yet in medical school you joined jihad. How did that happen?
Yes that is true. My father was not at all religious and my upbringing was based on critical thinking -we used to critique everything.
My first direct experience with the existence of the Creator was in my first year at medical school. I was studying the structure and function of DNA molecules and I was so impressed with the beauty of nature and the Creator who created it.
This experience was simply utilized by a group of students who were in the fifth year. [These students] used to come to us every day in the morning before the medical lectures to give us lectures about Islam. Initially this was very peaceful. Later on, when they started to attain power they forced boys to be separated from girls and they prevented students from having any part of music - they said music was unIslamic.
The medical school allowed them to have a mosque on campus where they attracted more people like me and it grew from there. They actually did some charitable work but it was a kind of illegal charity because they copied Western medical books and sold them for a very cheap price to the students - so the students had some reason to go to the mosque to buy some of these books. The group is now well known as the Jammaa Islamia.
Why did you give this group so much control over you?
It was a gradual transition. They start teaching you how to hate non-Muslims. Your conscience is telling you this is wrong, it's unacceptable but the teaching is telling you to accept it. And because my love to God was very high I wanted to obey him blindly. So I suppressed my critical thinking and my conscience until I nearly lost it.
"After a while the kinds of activities that were being planned reached a level where I started to shake. My conscience was telling me that these people were not on the correct path.quot; -Dr. Tawfik Hamid
So Jammaa Islamia started out as a kind of religious club that turned students into terrorists?
Absolutely. When I joined the jihad the first thing they said to me was, "Thinking will make you an infidel." They taught me I could not argue, question or even think about any religious thing in Sharria - I had to just accept everything - like polygamy, like the beating and stoning of women.
The third thing they taught was to suppress the present and to instead create a dream of a second life. So they used fear in a very powerful way to suppress my critical thinking and my conscience and then through fear of hell-fire they made us believe in a second life rather than the first life. They also imposed a culture of what I would call a sex deprivation syndrome - which was the inability to marry or have any extra marital relationships due to both cultural and financial limitations.
This created a lot of tension in us because when you read some of the stories about the Prophet Mohammed in the traditional books - that he married 9 wives or he married young girls - with details, for example of how he used to kiss his wife - they were suppressing our sexual desires and having us dream of 72 virgins in Paradise. Just imagine the discrepancy here.
Why did you to accept that?
There was no other form of [religious] teaching that taught me in a different way and that was the problem.
How did your peers react?
Because they presented Islam in a theological manner no one could denounce it. People are afraid to criticize their religion.
Did the medical school know that this was going on?
Absolutely. In fact, there were many confrontations between the Jammaa Islamia and the medical school administration. One day there was a big party where there was music -innocent music and singing - and no alcohol. Jammaa Islamia got students from other jihads at other universities and colleges to come to our medical school. Apparently they were going to form a military unit but the police came and controlled it. A few members of Jammaa Islamia were planning to kidnap one of the police officers and bury him alive beside the mosque. This was way before Sept. 11th - but Sept.11th was a manifestation of this ideology.
When you were in the more fundamentalist group what was expected of you? What were they training you for?
In the Jammaa it was like being in an army - you could not be different.
Initially you were psychologically prepared to be in a state of jihad against the whole Western world and against all people considered non-Muslims - including Muslims who were considered not Islamic enough.
From the first day when I went to pray they insisted we stand so that our shoulders and our feet touched each other with no gaps between them. I wondered why they did this and the answer came after a while with verses from the Qur'an that says, "God loves those who fight for his cause as if they are one cemented structure - one wall with no gaps between them."
So the first stage prepared us to feel at war with the West- and the real hatred was directed at the West's freedom - women's rights were our first enemy. In fact, we used to laugh at women's rights and feelings as being unIslamic.
The second stage was about controlling Islamic society and hopefully the whole world by the Sharria system. They gave us books and brainwashed us to believe that we had to return to the time of the Golden Age when Islam was powerful and did violent jihad in order to be victorious in reaching Europe and Persia, and Indonesia. They said that when Muslims stopped doing jihad they became weak and were occupied by other nations. So they believed we should use wars to spread the religion to be powerful.
Dr. Al-Zawaherri was at these lectures and as we know he later became second in command of Al Qaeda. Like Al-Zawaherri, after you got to a certain level they would invite you to go further in the organization. I was invited to join Islamic jihad and to go to Afghanistan. At the time Egyptian President Anwar Sadat had just been assassinated. Fortunately I started to think for myself again - I had an awakening of my conscience and so I didn't go on to the third stage of the process. Thank God I didn't do it.
"The ultimate strategic goal is to control the world under the Sharria system and return back to the Shalafa to apply a Taliban like system on the world. It’s as simple and as clear as that.quot; -Dr. Tawfik Hamid
How did your family react?
They were so unhappy and my father was extremely sad. They felt they had lost me because I was very fanatic. But they couldn't do much because the whole society was directed towards Islamization. I still remember the day when I rejected the teachings of Jammaa. My father was in Saudi Arabia. I informed him through a letter and he later said it was the happiest moment in his life. He felt he regained his son.
How did you end up leaving Jammaa Islamia?
After a while the kinds of activities that were being planned reached a level where I started to shake. My conscience was telling me that these people were not on the correct path. I thank God the power of good helped me to be safe and to take the step backward away from them. The moment I took one step backward I started to think critically again.
I was also helped by the presence of alternative Islamic groups [on campus] that were relatively peaceful. There were three mosques at the medical school - one built by the university - you can call it secular - another was Sufi (Sufism is peaceful) and the other one was the Jammaa Islamia mosque, which was supported by the medical school until they initiated tough confrontations with the Dean and created problems with the authorities.
But it was not difficult to enter or to leave the Jammaa Islamia. You can just go to pray with them and get the teaching - or you can just withdraw. When I withdrew they tried to convince me to change my mind. But I had already made up my mind and I adopted a different way of interpreting Islam, which was with a group called the Qur'anics and it was based only on the Qur'an - not on the other stuff like the hadith and the sunna and other things that ruin Islam. This group allowed my interpretation of Islam to flourish. Currently, I accept any good meaning from the Quran, Sunna, or other sacred and religious books.
"There is not lack of moderate Muslims but rather a lack of moderate Islam.quot; -Dr. Tawfik Hamid
Why are Islamic terrorists carrying out acts of violence against Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan, Jordan?
Anyone who decides that prayers in the current jurisprudence book of Islam are wrong, or anyone who denies commonly accepted beliefs in Islam, or anyone who supports non-Muslims or becomes friendly with non-Muslims, like Jews or Christians, is considered by the jihadis to be infidel. Once they consider you an infidel they believe your blood is halal and they justify killing you. For them it's a very easy process. Basically they believe they are not killing Muslims. So anyone who supported America in Iraq, like the Shia for example, they are considered enemies of Islam, or infidels and that is how they justify killing them.
Is there a prioritization of strikes against Western countries or embassies over unIslamic Muslims?
It doesn't work that way. Each organization of the main Islamic organization has different tactics but shares the same strategic goals. The ultimate strategic goal is to control the world under the Sharria system and return back to the Khhelafa to apply a Taliban like system on the world. It's as simple and as clear as that.
Why do you think there is a growing hostility against Muslims and Islamists in Europe where the population is growing?
Let me phrase your question in a different way. If after the terrible terrorist attack of Sept. 11th and the barbarism that is happening in many parts of the Muslim world - from the stoning of women to other things - if the Western world saw the Muslim world demonstrating with such power and passion against the terrorists I believe there wouldn't be such negative reaction against Muslims. If the Western world knew there were fatwahs against bin Laden and the terrorists like the one against Salman Rushdie the West probably wouldn't be reacting in this way. I'm not trying to justify the hatred but trying to analyze this logically.
After September 11th there wasn't one single powerful demonstration against bin Laden anywhere in the world. We haven't seen any of the top scholars in the Muslim world issue one single fatwah to consider him an apostate on the bigger scale. There was one small fatwah in Spain but that was insignificant - the mosque had only 20 people.
The second reason is that when you question Muslim scholars on the teachings in Islamic jurisprudence books such as killing apostates, calling Jews pigs and monkeys, beating and stoning women to death and creating jihad wars to spread Islam which is the traditional teaching that Muslims want to implement -you don't get a clear answer of rejection. You just get some sort of twisted answer. They want to deceive you or make you feel that there is no problem while the problem is growing.
What do you think will ultimately tear down this problem and allow reconciliation to occur?
First there must be proper debate and dialogue between non-Muslims and Muslims. When I say proper dialogue I mean a dialogue that is not emotional. The moment you start bringing emotions into the discussions people get angry and they start accusing each other. But when you have polite discussions with some of the Islamic scholars in televised debates that are shown all over the world about some of these fundamental issues I have mentioned you can begin to create change.
There is no lack of moderate Muslims but rather a lack of moderate Islam. There isn't a single interpretation of the Qur'an or approved Islamic jurisprudence book that stands clearly against violence, killing apostates, stoning women for committing adultery, etc. I believe there must be such a source for young Muslims and that is why I'm currently writing one.
If you are a Muslim and you want to be religious and there is only one book to follow, it's not easy. This approach to religion is your culture and it takes over your mind and Muslims have no other options except to accept this theologically based violent text. Muslims must be able to choose a theologically based text that teaches Islam in a different way.
Also if there is no continuous constructive critique of the violence and existence of Sharria people will not feel there is need of change.
Finally the Muslim world needs to understand that the West has accepted Muslims into their society- they've allowed them to build mosques, and Islamic schools, and they have given them the same freedoms and rights as other citizens. If Muslims in Pakistan and Egypt understand this then they won't continue to believe that the West hates Islam. This is essential because Islamic scholars perpetrate a different truth because they are afraid to change their fundamental teachings.
As a reformer of Islam has your life been threatened?
In the past yes - but since many people are talking about these issues now it is good. However, the moment I have completed this [new interpretation of the] Qur'an and the educational system [I am working on] I will certainly not have many Islamists as friends. But I do what I believe is correct and good and I don't want to live my life in fear.
"The Muslim world needs to understand that the West has accepted Muslims into their society- they’ve allowed them to build mosques, and Islamic schools, and given them the same freedoms and rights as other citizens.quot; -Dr. Tawfik Hamid
Why do you think that so few people feel like you do?
It's a good question - but probably it has to do with my upbringing in critical thinking which was not traditional. I have also been exposed to many faiths and beliefs in my life and this gives me experience. I was exposed to Christianity even before Islam. I was taught in synagogues by rabbis. I went to Sikh temples and Bahai temples so I have had a long journey in religions and religious thoughts. I have also lived in Saudi Arabia and in the West and I understand the value of liberty and human rights. I have searched my whole life for God and for truth - continuously challenging my beliefs so I can improve them. To be born from an atheist, to believe in God from science and DNA, to be taught by Jesus before Islam, and then to become radicalized, and then to bring a new interpretation to Islam in a modern way has been my journey.
You have sort of done it all!
Maybe - that's why I have defined myself as a Muslim by faith, a Christian by spirit, a Jew by heart and above all I am a human being.
With a presidential election around the corner - it's conceivable that either a McCain presidency or an Obama presidency will be tested by a terrorist threat or a terrorist attack?
It could be.
What would be the response to such an attack?
To develop a complete comprehensive strategic plan to end radical Islam. Winning the war against radical Islam needs a strategy. I presented such a strategic plan to the Director of U.S. National Intelligence, to counter-intelligence people, to people at the White House, and to people in the American congress and it includes ideological approaches, educational approaches, psychological tactics, war, intelligence and other military and non military components.
I believe that the leaders of this country must speak together as one hand. This is a problem here in America. You play this chess game with 16 players and each one of you is a champion, yes but you play independently. That benefits the opponents. The moment people start to put America and freedom first, this is when we will win this war. The moment when people in the military and people in educational systems and people in the Intelligence and people in the media believe that none of them by themselves will win this war but all of them together will win this war that will be the moment when we can say together that we will win this war.
For more information www.tawfikhamid.com
