Nonie--MaryAnn11

Ms. Nonie Darwish, director of Former Muslims United, spoke this evening at Furman University as part of the Cultural Life Program at the invitation of the Conservative Students for a Better Tomorrow. A noted, albeit somewhat controversial, author and national news commentator, she shared her thoughts and experiences with the gathered crowd of more than 75 students, faculty and citizens from the community.  She spoke before the event with The Times Examiner and shared her personal thoughts and feelings.

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When you meet her, the first thing you notice about her is the depth of feeling in her eyes. They convey much more than her soft-spoken, personal manner. She recalled her early years living in her native Egypt and moving with her family to Gaza. Her father was an Egyptian Army Intelligence Officer and was killed when Nonie was only 9. “It was a jihad death.” She compared the west and our tolerance and respect for each others views with the patterns from Islam. “Hate is normal. We were taught don’t assimilate, and to hate the Jews. At the end of Friday prayers there was always cursing at the end, particularly other religions! But you have to remember that I attended American University in Cairo so I had exposure to other religious views.”

She immigrated in the late 70s to the United States and had a family here, and in 1997 became a Christian. Nonie and her children returned to Egypt in 2001. “It was a major change! I felt and saw that Saudi Arabia was promoting and accelerating the stricter Islam practices. I saw a double standard toward the West. Islam is a ‘one-sided’ open system with a culture imbalance!” Nonie felt fear for the first time in that visit back. She told no one of her conversion and adjured her children to not speak of it to anyone! She recalled her children’s reaction when they returned home to the US, and how her daughter “thanked her for raising them in America.”  It was soon after the events of 9-11 that she began to realize that “She owed the USA so much. I must give back and say the truth, to pay back for giving me freedom and dignity as a woman.”

From southern California, she began to write and speak out. She told about the things she had known, seen and experienced. Honor killing, genital mutilation, polygamy, kidnappings and the hate.  She gave an example of a soccer game where there was an incident and 79 people were hurt. “Parliament [Egyptian], blamed the US and Israel.” Nonie says, “Islam conquers the state, not the hearts and minds. Control is total. Under Sharia, seizure of power by force is the law, and we see the friction now between Islam and Democracy. The term, Jihad” she explained, “is warfare to establish religion, a permanent war institution against Christians, Jews and pagans. It is a duty to perform. A head of state is an apostate if they are not making Jihad.”

She expressed concern that in Egypt, “There was a day of mourning when Bin Laden was killed.” She also noted that there is “an underground group and movement to enforce Sharia law that was affirmed by 45 countries by treaty in Cairo.” She adamantly believes that she has a ‘Fatwa’ against her and that she is under threat of death for being a convert.

She spoke to a gathered group of students, faculty and the public for about 45 minutes, relating many of the topics and details she had given earlier that evening to The Times Examiner.

There was a small number of dissenting voices gathered prior to the event and they generally were respectful in their disagreement with the speaker and her views. One of those did ask a particularly germane question when he asked, “What are her credentials that she should come here and lecture about this?” When contacted by The Times Examiner, the Faculty Advisor for the CSBT, Thomas Smythe, stated, “She was vetted by the Cultural Life Program Committee, and that her authorship, experience and regular contributions to the national and international media gave her credence.”

Conservative Students for a Better Tomorrow (CSBT) works to provide a conservative vision by educating the Furman community and contributing to the vibrant discussion of ideas.  Since its founding in 2006, CSBT has tripled in size and is recognized as the dominant student-led political organization at Furman University.  For more information: http://furmancsbt.org/default.aspx.

 

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