held. "q&a >> this week on," -- >> " nonieek on "q&a, darwish. her views on his laws and muslims in a post-9/11 world and the current state of muslim countries ruled by sharia law and their relationships with u.s. as the war on terror continues. >> nonie darwish, where were you on 9/11 and what was your

reaction? >> i had just arrived from a trip to egypt on september 10 at night. -- i had arrived late at night on the september 11 morning. i arrived at my home in los angeles. i woke up at six clock a.m. -- at 6:00 a.m. and had time to see it live. i was traumatized because that this is i knew that terrorism. rented a phone and called many people in egypt. , wanted them to comfort me especially because the leader of the 19 terrorists was from cairo.

i called about eight people and they all said the same thing even though some of them do not know the other. how dare you say that this was done by arabs or muslims? don't you know this is a new conspiracy question -- a new conspiracy? i hung up the phone and suddenly felt i cannot relate to my culture of origin anymore. this is a very hard feeling. when you cannot relate to how the people you love and you were brought up with for many years of your life and they do not see the reality as it should be. >> why do you think they said those things? >> because we were all brought

up with lots of propaganda and indoctrination. minute you are born in the muslim world, especially in the 1950's and 1960's, when i was growing up, a whole withation was brought up an ideology of blakeney -- blaming the outside world. >> what is the basis of hating jews? what is the reason? >> it is not something new. it is not just jews. it is jews and christians and non-muslims in general. when islam rose in the seventh century, judaism and christianity already existed. they were penetrating the

culture. they came with values that are very different from arabian values. , treat your ,eighbor as you treat yourself peace and justice for everybody, womenare equal -- men and are more or less human beings. that is very different from the arabian style of culture. women are possessions. wife.ew men had only one marriage was not one man and one woman, it was one man, multiple wives.

so christianity came and threatened the normal culture of arabia, which was a brutal culture. ,o reverse, water is scarce people trying to protect their wealth and other tribes were their enemies. other tribes do not have the same human rights as some tribes. human rights are by membership of your tribe. judaismchristianity and -- arabia required, in my opinion, major role -- major cultural change. as an assertion to

arabian culture. and as a rejection to judaism and christianity. prospect of islam actually killed a lot of men in jewish tribes and he was a warrior. mohammed was a warrior. wars has, after all these and battles with jews and with , it came to a point where islam had justifiable killings. , jews anding it non-muslims cannot be human anymore. you have the verse that states that jews are apes and

christians are cakes. >> here is a bit of a speech that you gave in september in a conservative group where you were speaking. in islam to go to heaven is to kill non-muslims . when my father was killed, i was only 8. i remember that day. i was brokenhearted, really. people came and said, congratulations, your father now is in heaven. to go to heaven is to die in the process of killing non-muslims. jews.g what an honor. with my eight-year-old mind, i , i don't want my dad in heaven. i want him down here with us. i was looked at with such

disrespect. so i learned to keep it to myself. that was a message. >> what were the circumstances of your father's death? >> my father was involved in military intelligence in the 1950's. his job was to start something, and operation against israel. it is a man who sacrifices himself for jihad. went -- thejihadist jihadis went to israel in the 1950's and caused a lot of destruction and damage. before hamas, a terror group --

, myy father and israel father was killed by the idf. force.israeli defense >> correct. >> and where did you live? do you remember anything about it? schools in elementary and i learned hatred, vengeance, retaliation. in the schools, they never talked about peace. something -- it was a sign of weakness. was jihad,ed about giving our life to the jihad, the highest honor and the highest thing you should aspire for is to die in the process of killing non-muslims. >> how was your father killed? office andn his

there was a bomb letter that came to his office and he was the target. he opened the letter and it exploded. >> what do you remember about that? ini used to be -- we were the movie theater. explosion. heard the the soldiers came and told us we have to go. cairo and i to learned that my father died. when we arrived, that is when we knew. day.s a very tragic my life was never the same again. in egypt, they do not tell the children what happened. life and my family and my mother's life changed.

my mom had to face life as a woman without a man. that is very hard in the middle east. because you do not get invited to a lot of things if you do not have a man a company you -- accompany you. her life changed completely. she wanted to buy a car. my father used to have a car so she wanted to buy a car so she could take us to school. rare for anery egyptian woman to drive a car. she was looked at by some neighbors and even members of her family as a loose woman. ira member her crying a lot. enough theyn't it jihad,r husbands, the but they do not give us women the respect to live with some

ease after they die? that was the day i really felt the struggle women have to face in a family where there is no man. i remember one time when i was a teenager, i was standing in front of the school, waiting for her to pick me up and a boy came and he was like four or five or 10 feet away from me and he was talking and she came to pick me stopd my mom would not yelling at me -- how do you look back at the boy when he was talking to you? boy, not the fault of the it is the fault of the girl. , it isen rapes happen the fault of the girl. i was grounded for a week.

for a man talking to me from afar. that can give you the idea of life as a woman in the middle east. modern thanch more other places like saudi arabia or jordan or iran. so you can just imagine the harshness on women in the muslim world. >> how important was being a muslim to you in your early years and when did you leave egypt to come to the united states? is -- ita muslim feels, when you are a muslim and live in the middle east, like you have no choice and it. -- in it. it is not like islam in the west when you are asked, what is your

religion? people say, well, i think you are a christian -- it is more of a relationship with god. it is something that is by choice. you are not afraid of anybody if you say i am not a christian or i am not jewish or i am an atheist. you are not afraid. in the middle east, the majority of muslim countries, you are afraid. you cannot even imagine that you are not muslim anymore. the penalty of leaving islam is death. a lot of people do not even think about death. it has become such part of our muslim is the number one identity. , as aur relationship not a, to god, it is

relationship with god, it is a contract to fate. being a muslim is not just a relationship with god. only between me and god and nobody else. >> when did you leave egypt? >> when i was 30 years old. of 1978.er >> why? >> for freedom and for better life. >> what were the circumstances? >> i used to be a jeweler in egypt before coming to the united states. one of my jobs was to do a censorship. censorship of everything is normal in the middle east. felt i wanted to live in freedom from every aspect of life. >> and you have been married.

>> i got married in america as soon as i arrived. i fell in love with a fellow journalist. but he was christian and it is illegal for a muslim woman to marry a christian man. to the united states because he had family in los angeles. when he came here, i followed him. actually, that was one of the reasons i went to america, because i could not marry the person i wanted to marry. >> when did you become a christian? >> i did not become a christian right away. it took me a long time. i still consider myself muslim when i came to america. i felt like it was really great in myn america, mosques

women to come. -- invite women to come. because in the middle east, we just pray at home. in america, i heard that women are going to mosques. i thought, how nice. a very nice form of islam. i welcome it, that these women are welcome inside the mosque. my first trip to a mosque was to pray for the purpose of prayer. i was disappointed because the sermon was quite political. it was about jihad, our role in america. i was told to wear my head cover and i said, i never wore these close in the middle east -- clothes in the middle east so

why should i do it in america? that we have to go back to the origin of what islam is and the traditional islamic roles. we have to be proud of it in america and assert our religion and our culture. i just could not do it. i could not relate to it. so i went about 17 years without any religion. but i had to send my kids to a christian school so they could learn a little more. watching onewas know, sundayu morning, there are a lot of -- what theyi was were preaching about was different than islam. they are saying, we are all sinners.

that was revolutionary. we are all sinners. because in islam, they are all sinners. it is not we are all sinners. it is they, the outside world, are the sinners. jihad to make them muslims and take them away from their sins. it is according to the sharia books. >> and what is sharia? >> sharia is islamic law. it is this law from the books of islam, the koran, the life of mohammed, and all of the scriptures of islam. >> you mentioned the koran. -- now what that is mohammed.e of

is theinition of jihad war with non-muslims to establish the kingdom of islam. it is a war. i think 97%, when the koran mentioned the word jihad, it refers to war, violence. the word terrorism is not mentioned in the koran. it talks about the other kind of jihad which is to do within yourself. when i was growing up in the middle east, jihad was war and violence. >> let me show you some video of ofegyptian clerk in the name

mohammed hussein jack lew -- yacoub. it is an example of what you can find on the web of some imams and what they say. >> how much is that what you hear in mosques all the time?

>> it is very common. it is on the streets, it is everywhere. just the word jew can make a person feel scared. >> there are 1.6 billion muslims 15the world and about million jews around the world. why is everything based on this? >> because islam, by nature, unfortunately, they like to find evil outside. it is not like the , whichhristian culture demands that people look within before they look outside. when i came to america and i attended churches with my family , i noticed that they

, onentrate on redemption fixing themselves. concentrates on fixing others. >> sharia law, what does it mean and -- you hear people in this country talking about the fear of sharia law coming to the united states. like -- my religion of origin. a lot of people think i am this islamophobe who wishes to talk bad against islam. islam today is practiced on the basis of applying sharia.

islam today is consumed with living under sharia law. same way muslims lived in the seventh century. a want to apply seventh century morals and values to today. this is a major problem facing islam today, how to live today with amputation of , with with beheadings stoning adults and women. islam is the only religion on earth that kills the people who leave it. legally, in the legal system, every muslim country has sharia in their constitution. , in itsday

constitution, has sharia law. today president in egypt or any other muslim country removed sharia law from being of the islamicw country, that president would be killed. this is where the problem lies. islam and sharia today are totally married together. , true muslims, cannot even imagine life without sharia. >> tell me if any of this is not accurate. law,nstance, under sharia aletimonies of four m witnesses are required to prove rape against a woman. >> exactly. did you know there was a young who was in qatar and she

was raped, reported the rape, both she and the men who raped men both she and the three were sentenced to jail. rape.oman is punished for >> a man can beat his wife for insubordination. >> absolutely. it is not just in sharia. >> a man can unilaterally divorce his wife, but a woman needs his consent. >> absolutely. >> a man can marry an infant girl and consummate the marriage when she is nine years old. >> yes. it happens today. yemeniu heard of the 18-year-old girl who filed for divorce against her husband? she got the divorce in saudi arabia and she was sent back by the court to her husband.

punishable by amputation of the right hand. >> yes. >> have you ever seen that yourself? >> no, i have not seen it in egypt because egypt does not follow criminal law. there are too many robbers in egypt to apply this law. that, all of the islamic countries of south sudan who are serious about it. sometimes i learned, in egypt, theyen in apply sharia law without even the government's consent. >> i want to show you another imam who we saw a lot of back in 2010 when they wanted to build the mosque right there by ground zero in new york.

i asked you to put this in perspective, what he says about islam. >> there is the perception in the west that islam is a myth we need to break. there are reasons for militancy within the muslim world. as many writers have written about post-9/11. it has to do with the geopolitical history between the west and the islamic world. phase. this is a passing some connect its roots all the way back to the crusades. i do not see it that way. i would contend that with the growing numbers of muslims in the west, in europe, the united thees, canada, that

understanding of islam will become far more nuanced. >> the understanding of islam is what? >> i did not hear the last sentence. militancy is a myth is where he began. imams likee a lot of him. very distinguished, very eloquent. and he will sit and speak about sharia and how islam is a religion of peace. he is not very different from who wantmic scholars to convince the west that this is a big misunderstanding. but how can they call this a misunderstanding? abouts a misunderstanding the carranza commands muslims to kill non-muslims?

to go to heaven. carranza -- the koran is to encourage muslims to torture, kill, humiliate, subordinate non-muslims. kill that in the word does not mean kill? sameis imam is saying the thing we have been hearing over and over and over again. politicians ind they say islam is a religion of peace. every religion is posted be a religion -- is supposed to be a religion of peace. but these are diplomats. media,level of the

intellectual honesty, academia, we have to be more honest in that. 2009, president obama went to egypt and gave a speech. were you there? >> i was here in america but i heard the speech. >> let's listen to a minute of it and get your take on it. >> i also know that islam has always been a part of america's story. the first nation to recognize my country was morocco. in signing the treaty of tripoli in 1796, our second president, john adams, wrote, "the united states has, in itself, no character of empathy against the laws, religion, or tranquilly of muslims." since our founding, american in the have been rich

united states. they have fought in our wars, served in our government, stood up for civil rights, they have taught at our universities, excelled in our sports arenas, won nobel prizes, built our tallest buildings. >> anything there you disagree with? >> i disagree completely, of course. obama is a politician. go and say nice compliments, well overboard like jihadist claims of islam are -- if you look at how muslims regard america and the west, they regard the whole earth as belonging to islam. for president obama to give them beliefto confirm their

that american grounds were and,hed by islamic culture almost from the very beginning -- the carranza -- the koran, what role did it play in our constitution or founding principles? none. christopher columbus discovered america. odd -- it a man is an was not mohammed. going overboard to complement muslims -- >> what impact do you think that speech had on their world?

>> it made them very happy. it confirmed their claims for jihad on america. demand fromlims muslims -- from non-muslims acknowledgment. >> wasn't our president trying to create a bridge to the muslim community and try to begin a relationship that would not turn out the way it has? started by trying islam, he thought he was going to teach american how to see the muslim world. that is how he started his trip as president. and now he is almost at the end of his term and, instead of having the muslim world love us more, they are hating us more. them, it is not about

appeasement. it is about submission. if you are nice to me, i am going to be nice back to you. if you are nice to me, i am going to hit you on the head. is veryculture different from western culture. western culture is really -- the way they relate to one another, they relate to each other as human beings. we are all equal in front of god. , it is aslim world slave-master relationship with human beings. >> when you came to this country, you took 17 years that you remained a muslim or you were not anything -- >> i was not. >> what religion did you then join? >> i became a christian for one reason, one basic reason. it made me a better person.

a society thates has trust between people. the good thing about what christianity does, as an ideology -- put aside religion, whether it is literal or not -- what christianity does to a society is establishes a level of trust between people upon which civilization can happen. islam takes away the trust of people. if you go to live in the muslim world, you will see that nobody trusts anybody. >> when did you become an activist and form arabs for israel? >> after 9/11. >> how soon after? >> right away. becausery traumatized

did 9/11 was from my country. and he was not alone. there are a lot of them in the middle east with the same way of thinking. felt so badet and i -- i just said to myself, how can any religion accused a whole group of people of doing something that we arabs know very well we have done us else? this is supposed to be a crime. slanderr islamic law, and lying is not against the law if it is for the benefit of islam. >> when did you write your first book and what was it? >> my first book was written in

2006. it is called "now they call me infidel: why i renounced jihad for america, israel, and the war ." >> what was your second book? calledecond book was "cruel and usual punishment: the terrifying global implications of islamic law." , how itbout sharia impacts society. can beingle law detrimental to operation of a society. >> and your third book? >> my third book is called "the devil we don't know: the dark side of revolutions in the middle east." it was written while the revolutions were happening in the middle east. happy.get too we have been there before. egypt had the 1919 revolution and the 1982 revolution and the

2011 revolution and the 2013 counterrevolution. and still more to come. reason why there is political instability. there is no political system that is stable for muslim countries to flourish under. if you check the background of , ary muslim leader revolution, a coup d'état, or an assassination. why is that? americans do not under stand. why don't they just have an election like we do? this is the reason why -- it goes back to sharia law, islamic law. there is a law in islam that says a muslim head of state cannot come to power through

seizure of power, meaning through force. this is a law in sharia. the unitedyou think states and its involvement over in the middle east -- we have a base in almost every country and we sell arms to almost every arab country. we have given billions of dollars to egypt in the agreement back in 1979 over the relationship with israel. what do you think of it? solve. is very hard to islam is a big problem. it is a big problem for muslims who want to live in peace. it is a big problem for the west, europe, america. it cannot adapt to modern day living. today, has not learned their lesson. we have not learned our lesson.

1972, 1973, there was an oil embargo. war. the 1973 the west should have learned their lesson and not depended anymore on the middle east for oil. i don't know -- they look at oil -- how come the saudi's lifespan is going up? how come, with all the drilling going on in the arabian peninsula and the arabian gulf and the persian gulf, all of , the fish is fine, okay,mels r.o.k. -- are

it is not a horrible environmental problem. disasterenvironmental that happens in the middle east is when they set an oil rig on fire on purpose. that is when the environmental design -- disasters happen. did not learn their lesson in 1973. if they had drilled properly --rywhere and the refineries we have really shot ourselves in the foot. the west have shot themselves in the foot. now, in 2014, we cannot be oilpendent of middle east in a lot of the industrial countries. we have actually handicapped ourselves. we made the idea of drilling andnymous with the earth

animals. this is not correct. lifespanifesapn -- would have been lowered or there would have been environmental problems. >> sharia says that if you leave islam, you can be killed. so here you are. do you worry about that? >> that is why i cannot go to islamic countries. i cannot go to the middle east anymore. >> they won't kill you here? >> they might be there have been deaths in america for other killings. >> do you have security when you go? >> i do not have any security. i am very grateful for the united states. i could never have left islam if i had not lived in egypt. there is no way. >> where do you live here? >> i live in los angeles.

>> how many children do you have? >> i have eight children. >> what do they do? are they muslims? >> they are all christians and they are very happy. all my family in egypt have cut their relationship with me. i have been disinherited. video of show you some .9 city nine -- 1969 it is very short. it is president nasser of egypt. put him in context for us. >> to reach peace, we have to give up -- the israelis have to give up the extension. give up theot extension, there will be no peace. >> what role did he play in your life?

at the very least, he said they will not give up expansion, there will not be any peace. that is always an issue when they get down to negotiating peace. >> at that time, what he was talking about, expansion. >> frontiers into the 1967 war. >> the war was initiated by egypt. father to gazamy to destroy israel, there was no expansion by israel. existed in the borders of the 1957 war. -- 1967 war. a lot of people do not understand that president nasser and the jihad was doing aggressive expansion before the war.

these arabat all of countries are afraid of expansion is ridiculous. look at the map of the middle east from morocco all the way to iran and beyond. turkey, to sudan . you can hardly see israel. israel is mentioned in the koran as the holy land of the jews. later on, when mohammed became a warrior, he condemned the jews as the enemies of allah. so in terms of islam -- in , the concept of

jihad is a violation of international law. theirslims to camouflage beliefs, they have to put themselves in a position of being victims. the most important thing for muslims to do jihad is to do jihad in response to being victims. so they have to claim that israel is expanding when, in jerusalem has always been called a jewish city. --usalem is a jewish city you know, if you check the koran , jerusalem is jewish. later on, mohammed completely slipped against the jews when they did not want to convert.

>> back to president nasser. he said, i believe, around his death, "which one of you will avenge your father's death by killing jews?" when did he say that? >> in our house, when he came to kids us, my mom had five but the youngest was a baby and he came with his entourage to give condolences when our father died. he came with his entourage and he put us on his lap and asked entourage and i cannot remember exactly which one, but i remember the finger was pointing. one of you will avenge your father's blood by killing jews?" i felt very uncomfortable.

it may me feel like i lost my father and i must kill jews. >> the rest of your four siblings, where are they? >> they are in egypt. >> any relationship with them at all? >> nothing. called arabsite for israel. they heard about my conversion. i have been cut off from the family in egypt. >> when was the last time you were in an arab country? >> right before 9/11, when i visited egypt. i returned home september 10 at night. >> what kind of work do your brothers and sisters -- how many are there? >> i am the second of five. sister died of lung cancer because she was a smoker. my sister used to work for the

arab league. she is an economist. my brother used to be an ambassador, an egyptian ambassador. by thethey threatened fact that if they communicate with you at all, that they can be killed under sharia law? embarrassed. i know others who have left islam and their family still communicates with them. my family does not communicate with me at all. i have a few cousins who contact me and talk to me. >> how do you see what is going on over in the middle east right now? whatever you want to call them, that.isil, i.s., all of tell us what you're perception is of that.

undergoingle east is a lot of social change. there is a lot of infighting now. muslims are not happy with one another. so that is why you see none of them -- they do not know what to do. generationsought of with the idea of jihad. now that they are doing what they want, a lot of the leaders are saying, stop. what we see isis doing a -- doing now is the end result of a generation of being brought up fornd the fence of islam many centuries. x what was your reaction when this country went into iraq the second time?

>> well, it was a 50-50 thing for me. because ivery happy lovedhat -- not because i saddam hussein, but because i knew that he is holding onto the dead skeleton of this nation that is torn down and if you take out saddam hussein, it is going to be a mess. that is the problem. why do we have all dictators? gaddafi, brock -- mubarak, all of these leaders are just a symptom of the problem. it is not their fault. it is sharia's fault. under islamic law, the muslim caliphate has to do jihad with non-muslims. that is his job description.

a lot of people do not understand. the muslim head of state has no choice but to do jihad. he has no choice but to fight israel. that is why, when he was given a most everything -- almost everything during the clinton administration by the israeli leader, he left. he rejected and left. he knew that if you signed an honest peace treaty with israel, he would be violating sharia law , which obliges him to be in a permanent war with non-muslims. a lot of people do not understand why saddam was killed, why gaddafi was killed. the cause he violated sharia law by having a peace treaty. was holding onto

this body called iraq. nicetunately, it was a shake of the region by america. it was a big thing in the arab world. but it came at a big cost for america. is 50-50., it removal ofhat the saddam hussein by america was more a favor to the arab world than a benefit to america. >> what are the chances that there will ever be democracy in the arab world? chance is when islam is no longer practiced the way it is practiced today. when islam is formed or destroyed. reformed and stripped

old, seventhhe century laws that prohibit moccasin -- democracy. then there is a chance that the muslim world will continue and will progress into democracy. but if they still hold on to sharia law and the requirements and no freedom of speech, no freedom of religion -- because you cannot have no freedom of speech, no freedom of religion, and, at the same time, want democracy. sharia cannot coexist. too not want to give no hope people who love islam and want to keep islam but want us to

live in democracy. the only message want to tell the muslims is if they want to theyonto the same islam have been preaching for the last centuries, they will never have democracy. if islam does not reform and ,hed this horrific legal system they will continue living from one revolution to another, from one coup d'état to another, from one assassination to another. what do women think behind the scenes about the relationship men have to women is the -- in the islamic world? what do they say? , they have to adjust to life under islam and

under sharia. the problem is women who reject prostitutes,lled all kinds of names. they are rejected by society and other women. to be a feminist in the muslim that we are equal to men, it is unacceptable in the muslim world. women in the muslim world have developed a kind of feminism that is different from feminism in the west. many muslim women have acquired by actuallyer supporting sharia. detrimental for any kind of progress.

>> if people want to read what you write and follow what you do, what is the best place to go? >> they can read my three books. it is on amazon, all of the bookstores. i have three books and they can check my website, arabs for unitedand former muslims . >> what is the difference between former muslims united and arabs for israel? >> arabs for israel is to promote more voices among arabs to accept israel and end the stalemate of hatred and welcome peace in israel. former muslims united is dedicated to exposing the death for killing

apostates in the muslim world. it is happening all the time. people are being arrested and executed for leaving islam. a lot of countries are calling them -- they have committed a crime against the state to -- against the state. it is a religious crime. appeal int want to front of the world. former muslims united is exposing because, even inside former, there are many muslims and they are afraid. some are threatened and some are killed. >> nonie darwish, we are out of time. thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you very much. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014]

[captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> for free transcripts or to give us your comments about this program, visit us at qanda.org. next, president obama's foreign-policy speech in brisbane, australia followed by his news conference. then a discussion on the decision to add u.s. troops to train iraq he and kurdish forces. another chance to darwish. with nonie a speech by the nrc

chair on the safety of nuclear power in the united states. that is live at 1:00 p.m. eastern on c-span2. >> monday night on "the theunicators," kindle will, columbia law school professor who coined the term net neutrality, on how to manage the internet. >> i have long felt that one of the things that is getting -- notked in this debate everyone is overlooking it, but generally -- the question about, what about people without broadband? how are they going to get it? i would say no one is addressing that. title to does give the agency more power to try to do things like mandate universal service, like we did for telephone service in the 20th century. it collects money, which right now goes to subsidize rural telephone service, which could be repositioned to create rural bran