Free Muslims Against Terror: A Conversation with Kamal Nawash
4 min readIt was a bright, clear morning in September in Virginia as Kamal Nawash undertook his morning rituals of taking a shower and enjoying his morning tea. He turned on his television to find that there was a large fire at the World Trade Center in New York. His sister, who was living with Kamal at the time, screamed, “Oh My God! A plane crashed into the building!” It wasn’t long before his own building, two miles from the Pentagon, began to shake. As you all know, one of the four hijacked airplanes crashed into the Pentagon. He sat down in disbelief and held his head as the chaos enveloped not only him, but a nation.
Mr. Nawash was running for a seat in the Virginia House of Representatives at the time. As the reports trickled in that the hijackers were Islamic extremists, he knew in his heart that his political career was over but that didn’t matter to Kamal. At that moment, he had never felt more like an American in his life. Kamal resolved at that point to do all he could to stop this madness. He also experienced great frustration with the Muslim leadership in not being more forthright in their denunciation of the September 11th attacks. His vision on how he would respond came to him during his required haj, or holy pilgrimage to Mecca in 2003. It was in this inspired, formative moment that Kamal decided to be a voice of reason. Believing that it was only fellow Muslims who could stop the terror carried out in the name of Islam, Mr. Nawash set out to form the organization Free Muslims Against Terrorism (FMAT).
His organization has gained publicity through the website http://freemuslims.org and Mr. Nawash’s numerous public appearances such as on Fox News Channel’s “The O’Reilly Factor,” filling in for radio talk show hosts, and most recently attending an anti-intolerance conference held by Europe’s Organization for Security and Cooperation by invitation from Condolezza Rice, U.S. Secretary of State. His organization took a very bold step in 2004 by issuing an apology to non-Muslims for the heinous actions committed by Islamic extremists in the name of Islam, from which a dialogue with non-Muslims has been born.
It hasn’t been all fun and games for Kamal. He’s received tons of hate mail. His observation is that many do not understand what he is trying to accomplish. Some accuse him and FMAT of being agents for the CIA or the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence service. Non-Muslims have accused FMAT as being a front organization of Al Qaeda to put a “happy face” on Islam while being a part of a conspiracy to help Islam conquer the world. Muslims who hated FMAT have accused Mr. Nawash of being a sellout, or in his words “those who hated us were more interested in feeling victimized rather than recognize that we have a problem with extremism and that we need to take the lead in the war against terror.” Kamal’s family has greatly suffered since the inception of FMAT.
In my interview with Mr. Nawash, we talked about similarities between fundamentalists in both the Christian and Muslim worlds. Mr. Nawash’s observation is that both parties use their eschatological views as justification for bigoted or militant action. Whether it is Christians giving carte blanche to Israel in how they deal with Palestinians, or Muslims strapping suicide belts to their bodies, both are driven by a desire to bring about an earthly kingdom for God.
Going back to the apology, Mr. Nawash talked about the reaction he received, especially from Christians. He said “The feed back was breathtaking. Our web site received more than a million hits in the days after the apology. Christians wrote us saying that they began crying when they read the apology.” Muslims responded in fury because most Muslims had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks. His goal was to begin the necessary dialogue to combat Islamic militancy.
I asked Mr. Nawash if he believed we are overreacting to the threat posed by Al Qaeda. His response was that you can’t take an organization like Al Qaeda too lightly. He said “They [Al Qaeda] represent an evil and dangerous movement that is the single biggest threat to the civilized world.” Surprisingly, and much to Kamal’s chagrin, no federal agency has approached FMAT to enlist their assistance in the war against terror. He believes that moderate Muslims must be engaged if we’re serious about making a stand against the forces that were responsible for 9/11. He is also a supporter of the Patriot Act, with the caveat that some of its provisions need to be reviewed to ensure that civil liberties are not being trampled in the process of assisting law enforcement in their intelligence gathering activities.
When I discovered FMAT about a year ago, I was so thankful to find that there was a group of Muslims that held the same values that I do and all they really want is to live in peace with their non-Muslim neighbors. What I should be taken to the woodshed for is the fact that it was a surprise to me. I too joined in privately painting all Muslims with a broad brush, and it took someone with the moral fiber of Mr. Nawash to turn my thinking around. His only request to us is that we consider joining his organization.
