Nonie Darwish speaks her truth about Islam, Arab culture and Israel
When Nonie Darwish was 8 years old, her father, Lt. Gen. Mustafa Hafez, the deputy head of Egyptian intelligence in the Sinai and Gaza, was assassinated by the Israel Defense Forces.
His killing, in July 1956, was the first such targeted assassination by the IDF.
Now, 50 years later, Darwish has renounced Islam and become a vocal advocate for the State of Israel. A freelance writer and public speaker in Los Angeles, she founded Arabs for Israel, an organization that promotes reconciliation, acceptance and understanding between Arabs and Israelis.
And her first book, “Now They Call Me Infidel: Why I Renounced Jihad for America, Israel, and the War on Terror,” will be released in November.
Darwish will talk about her experiences and her ideas in Milwaukee during a free public lecture, “From the Gaza Strip to a Supporter of Israel,” on Sunday, Oct. 29, 7 p.m., at the Sister Camille Kliebhan Conference Center at Cardinal Stritch University.
Her appearance is sponsored by Advocates for Israel in Milwaukee, a local pro-Israel advocacy organization, and the Milwaukee Jewish Council for Community Relations.
Pride and shame
Darwish’s family spent several years in Gaza, where her father founded a guerilla force called the Fedayeen, which “penetrated Israel’s border and created as much death and destruction as possible,” Darwish said during a telephone interview this week.
After his death, Egpyt’s then leader Gamal Abdel Nasser personally challenged Darwish and her siblings to kill Jews to avenge their father’s death.
“Pride and shame is how they bring us up,” Darwish said.
Her father’s death left her mother widowed and powerless at age 35. Stripped of her husband’s status, Darwish’s mother suffered from depression after returning to Cairo.
“In the Arab world women must live in the shadow of a man. Without a man, she has to stay in her house.” Darwish said her mother, beautiful and intelligent, was criticized for being a loose woman because she bought a car and drove herself around Cairo.
“I wanted to leave all this oppression behind,” she said. And in 1978, Darwish and her then husband, an Egyptian Christian, immigrated to the U.S. where she raised three children, divorced and remarried an American.
A one-time journalist for the Middle East News Agency, Darwish said she decided to begin speaking out in earnest after Sept. 11, 2001.
She flew back from a visit to Cairo, she said, on the evening of Sept. 10 that year and woke up the next day to see the second airplane hit the World Trade Center.
She knew she was looking at Islamic fundamentalist rage. “I panicked and I cried and went to the phone and called seven people — friends, my mother, sister and cousins” — and none of them recognized what she saw, she said.
“I wanted them to say, ‘No, terrorism this way is not acceptable. This is a line we should not cross.’ But each and every one of them said, ‘How dare you accuse Arabs of doing this.’ Some said it was an Israeli conspiracy. That denial is Arab pride and shame,” Darwish said.
Born a Muslim, Darwish now strives to influence other Muslims to face the reality of the dark side of Islam and to call for reform within their religion.
Darwish’s road away from Islam may have begun as a child but became clear when she came to the United States and visited mosques twice.
“I was totally shocked because they preached hatred, radicalism, anti-Semitism and an anti-American ideology. It is all political and not at all spiritual,” she said.
On her Web site “Arabs for Israel,” which Darwish said sometimes gets 7,000 hits a day, she calls out to Arabs and Muslims across the globe:
“Reject hate, embrace love. Bring out the best in Islam by showing your compassion, gratitude and forgiveness. Make the holy land truly holy by giving Israel and the Jewish people the respect they deserve in their tiny little country.
“This is not a crisis over land. It is a crisis of the soul: a crisis of our faith, judgment and self confidence. Israel should not be regarded as an enemy, but as a blessing to our neighborhood. We need not fear peace, but embrace it.”
Now, she said, other Arabs and Muslims are also beginning to speak out on these issues. Several have told her that her Web site inspired them, Darwish said.
For more information about the Oct. 29 event, contact AIM at imlang@wi.rr.com or MJCCR at 414-390-5777.
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