‘Infidel’ sharpens critique of Islam

UNIVERSITY PARK. Nonie Darwish won't shut up, even if you don't like what she has to say.

“Why does my country turn religious believers into killers? We owe the world and the victims of terror honest answers,” Darwish said Wednesday night at a lecture sponsored by Penn State Chabad.

Darwish believes she has those answers. Author of “Now They Call Me Infidel,” the anti-terrorism advocate recounted her 30 years of life in Egypt and Israel’s Gaza Strip, where she was taught from a young age to not only shun, but also kill non-believers.

“Peace was never an option,” Darwish said. “Children are taught jihad. That was the obligation — the only guarantee to go to heaven.”

When she was 8 years old, Darwish’s father and former Egyptian commander of army intelligence, Mustafa Havez, was killed by Israeli forces. She recalls Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser asking she and her siblings, “Which one of you will avenge your father’s blood by killing the Jews?”

“I grew up hearing sermons ending in cursing of the non-Muslims,” she said. “I never heard prayers for the whole world as equals. I only heard it in America. In the Middle East, we only pray for Muslims.”
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Cursing a Muslim is blasphemy, which is punishable by death, Darwish said, emphasizing that Muslim children don’t need to be taught this “garbage.”

“If 10 percent follow the preachers, then we’re in trouble,” she said.

Her lecture and book feature an extensive examination of Sharia, the laws that govern Muslims and 22 Islamic countries. These laws, she said, call for violence against nonbelievers in a world where “no government is Muslim enough and (...)