Nonie Darwish, a Middle East scholar, is Director of Former Muslims United and author of Cruel and Usual Punishment. A human rights activist, Nonie Darwish was raised as a devout Muslim in the Gaza and Cairo before immigrating to the U.S. Her controversial new book, Wholly Different: Why I Chose Biblical Values Over Islamic Values, argues that NOW is the time that to proudly stand up and proclaim what is known to be true—Islamic values are bad. Period. With President Trump’s recent immigration ban, Wholly Different could not be more relevant.
Born in Egypt, Darwish is the daughter of an Egyptian Army Lieutenant General, who, when assassinated by the Israeli army in 1956, was called a “shahid” by the Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser, although Darwish blames “the Middle Eastern Islamic culture and the propaganda of hatred taught to children from birth” for the assassination. In 1978, she moved with her husband to the United States, and converted to Christianity. After September 11, 2001 she has written on Islam-related topics.
Nonie is the author of the book, Wholly Different: Why I Chose Biblical Values Over Islamic Values, Now they Call Me Infidel: Why I Renounced Jihad for America, Israel and the War on Terror, and Cruel and Uusual Punishment: The Terrifying Global Implications of Islamic Law . Her speech topics cover human rights, with an emphasis on women’s’ rights and minority rights in the Middle East.
To learn more about Nonie Darwish visit Former Muslims United, and check out her books and video testimony below.
“I always blamed Israel for my father’s death, because that’s what I was taught. I never looked at why Israel killed my father. They killed my father because the fedayeen were killing Israelis. They killed my father because when I was growing up, we had to recite poetry pledging jihad against Israel. We would have tears in our eyes, pledging that we wanted to die. I speak to people who think there was no terrorism against Israel before the ’67 war. How can they deny it? My father died in it.
After 9/11 very few Americans of Arab and Muslim origin spoke out and from my experience it took us a long time to get noticed by Western media. Western media still regards Muslim organizations such as CAIR as representative of moderate Muslims in America. This is not the case. Muslim groups in the U.S. try to silence us and intimidate American campuses who invite us to speak. I often tell Muslim students that Arab Americans who are speaking out against terrorism are not the problem, it’s the terrorists who are giving Islam a bad name. And what the West must do is ask the politically incorrect questions and we Americans of Arab and Muslim origin owe them honest answers.” – Nonie Darwish
