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Former Jihadist Backs Alternate Islam

[Jerusalem Post] David Horovitz - At Cairo University in the late 1970s, Tawfik Hamid joined the Jamaah Islamiyah fundamentalist organization and fell under the spell of an older fellow student, Ayman al-Zawahiri, described as a lieutenant to Osama bin Laden in al-Qaeda. Nearly thirty years later, Hamid, who left Egypt 13 years ago and now lives in the U.S., is visiting Israel with a group of moderate Muslim leaders on a trip sponsored by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and the Project Interchange institute of the American Jewish Committee. What is most crucial, Hamid stressed in an interview, is defeating Islamic fundamentalism at the ideological level and providing an alternative interpretation of the Koran. "Islam could be followed and interpreted in a peaceful way," he said, "but the current dominant way of interpretation has many violent areas that need addressing....It can be taught peacefully. The texts can allow you to do this." He said Muslims ought to be "incredibly respectful of Jews - on the basis of the Koran." He said there is repeated support in the Koran for the Children of Israel as the "preferred" and "chosen" people, and there are several references to "the land God promised" to the Jews as a "permanent inheritance."
2008-01-11 01:00:00
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