Meet Kamal Nawash, Muslim-American Activist and founder of the Free Muslim Coalition Against Terrorism:
The Free Muslim Coalition Against Terrorism is a nonprofit organization made up of American Muslims and Arabs of all backgrounds who feel that religious violence and terrorism have not been fully rejected by the Muslim community in the post 9-11 era.Nawash entered the No Spin Zone to talk about the FBI arrests, anti-Muslim sentiment in America and how most of the Muslim organizations in this country are foolish, stupid and endangering Muslims in this country:The Coalition was created to eliminate broad base support for Islamic extremism and terrorism and to strengthen secular democratic institutions in the Middle East and the Muslim World by supporting Islamic reformation efforts.
The Coalition promotes a modern secular interpretation of Islam which is peace-loving, democracy-loving and compatible with other faiths and beliefs. The Coalition’s efforts are unique; it is the only mainstream American-Muslim organization willing to attack extremism and terrorism unambiguously. Unfortunately most other Muslim leaders believe that in terrorist organizations, the end justifies the means.
O'REILLY: "Impact" segment tonight. The feds have arrested two men in Albany,
New York. A Muslim cleric and the founder of a mosque on a charge of trying to
obtain a shoulder-fired missile for terrorists here in the USA.
Fox News has also learned the two suspects, Yassin Aref and Mohammed Hossain
have ties to an al Qaeda associated group.
Joining us now from Washington is Kamal Nawash, the founder of the Free
Muslim Coalition Against Terrorism. You know, I know this to be true, that there
is a tide of rising anti-Muslim sentiment in the USA, Mr. Nawash. And I don't
want that to happen, but these headlines, you know, you can understand why
Americans are getting very, very tired of it, number one, and suspicious of all
Muslims. Can you not?
KAMAL NAWASH, MUSLIM-AMERICAN ACTIVIST: Oh, I totally understand it. And the
first one I blame for this are the Muslim organizations in this country. I mean,
we have to come out and admit that we have a problem, we have a problem with
extremism. It's not just in the United States. It's a movement that's been
growing for 20 years throughout the entire Muslim world. And rather than come
out, like we have, and admit that we have a problem and try to deal with it,
most Muslim organizations in this country feel that if they admit that we have a
problem, that somehow we will bring the religion in bad light.
So all they do is go on the defensive and accuse everyone else of being
anti-Islam. And thus, they become part of the problem. And this is the problem.
O'REILLY: Yes, I think you've articulated it very well, that what Americans
want to see is American Muslims, 1 percent -- less than 1 percent of the
population. So you know, the numbers are not that large, but they want to see an
organized effort on the part of American Muslims to repudiate the kind of
extremism we are seeing that are putting all of our lives in danger. And we have
not seen that yet.
NAWASH: And you're absolutely right. I mean until we can -- I mean, you know,
one of the reasons we didn't come into being much longer is because we honestly
thought that after September 11, that this would happen naturally. I mean, we
couldn't believe that the organizations we had continued with the status quo.
But just remember, I think, in addition to the reason I gave you earlier,
remember -- you know, try to understand what is the reason for this extremism
and the terrorism that's happened. The ultimate goal of these terrorist
organizations or these extremist organizations in the world is not Palestine.
It's not Iraq. It's not any of that. They just use these issues for to recruit
people. Their ultimate goal is to build what they call Islamic states,
theocracies. And unfortunately, because a lot of the Muslim organizations in
this country agree with the overall goal, that same goal, maybe not the tactics
of these terrorist organizations, it's also very difficult for them to
criticize this.
And this is foolish. This is stupid. And they're endangering -- I think the
Muslim organizations in this country have -- are the ones who endangered the
Muslims in this country.
O'REILLY: Can you put a percentage on how many Muslims worldwide are fascists
who want this theocracy? Because that is fascism. That's what it is.
NAWASH: Yes, I agree with you.
O'REILLY: You get a mullah. He takes over. He cuts your head off if he wants
to.
NAWASH: Absolutely.
O'REILLY: What percentage worldwide wants the fascist government?
NAWASH: Well, you know, from country to country, it differs. I can tell you
this. I think it's much, much larger than anyone is willing to admit. Because I
really would say -- if I was to say it's about 50 percent, I don't think that's
far-fetched.
O'REILLY: Wow.
NAWASH: Because the way the extremists were able -- you know, these
extremists are those people who wanted Islamic theocracy. They have been wanting
to do this for the last 100 years, but they've been unsuccessful. What happened
is in the 1980's...
O'REILLY: Real quick, real quick.
NAWASH: All right. Well, anyway, they started adopting popular Arab and
Muslim issues as their causes to help recruit people. And now all of a sudden,
they got popular support.
O'REILLY: They got it. All right. Mr. Nawash, thanks very much.
NAWASH: Thank you.
O'REILLY: And THE FACTOR will be back with the Laci Peterson trial in a
moment.
Trascript: THE O'REILLY FACTOR - August 5, 2004
[American Muslims and Arabs of all backgrounds who feel that religious violence and terrorism have not been fully rejected by the Muslim community in the post 9-11 era...]
That is the most bracingly crisp lung-full of air I've drawn in since 9-11.
I've got to wonder, however, how fond Nawash's head is of his torso. Then again, Mansoor Ijaz has kept his dome through it all...
Cheers,
Posted by: Moze | August 06, 2004 at 09:32 PM