CAIRO: Raised as a Muslim, Nonie Darwish, a strident critic of popular contemporary Islam and its role in Arab societies, not only married a Christian, but also converted from Islam to Christianity. Fearing for her life, Darwish left Egypt for America in 1978, accusing the country's "Muslim culture of leaving her with no choice. Islam, in its current form, she says, is manipulated by leaders who use it as a means of control to stifle free expression and promote a single Islamic agenda above all others. My criticism is not directed at the Quran itself, she writes in one of her articles, but at the current Muslim culture that has handed over Arab society to the most extreme Wahabi Islamic sect. You are born a Muslim and remain a Muslim by force. If you say something critical of Islam ... you could end up dead, or if you're lucky, in jail. According to Darwish, restrictions on religious beliefs and lifestyle choices in Arab societies breed terrorism. Where such freedoms are not protected, she says "people are only left with anger and frustration, and disrespect for differing opinions. Darwish goes as far as to hold "Middle Eastern Islamic culture" as responsible for the death of her father, Lt. General Mustafa Hafez, who commanded the fedayeen, the armed Palestinian unit that fought Israel in the aftermath of 1948. After he was assassinated by Israel in 1956, Palestinians glorified Hafez's heroism, even renaming a square in Gaza after him. Her mother though, Darwish recalls, saw little to celebrate in the martyring of her husband, and struggled to raise Darwish and her siblings alone. On a trip to Israel, Darwish famously told a gathering: I have come to say that I forgive you for killing my father, and ask you to forgive us for the terrorism and killing on our part. Her views regarding the Middle East's other major political issues also fall far from those of the Arab, and indeed much of the Western, mainstream. Regarding Iraq, Darwish commends America for attempting to "bring a better life to the Iraqi people, especially when all the Arab countries stood by doing nothing to stop Saddam s brutal regime. She contends that the Arab media do not genuinely believe that America wants to occupy Iraq, but rather use American failings there to engender hate for the country. "They never miss an opportunity to give the raging masses their daily dose of anti-America rhetoric, she says. Similarly, Darwish accused Islamic leaders throughout the Muslim world of capitalizing on popular anger following the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed [PBUH] in Denmark. An article she wrote at the time for the British Daily Telegraph attacked those who "defame Islam by holding Qurans in one hand while murdering innocent people with the other. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is dismissed as an "Islamofascist . His politics, Darwish says, amount to no more than rhetoric about nuclear power, Holocaust denials and threats to destroy Israel, in order to maintain control over a divided Iran. "Ahmadinejad should resolve the problems of Iran, not of the Arabs, she asserts. Her main concern however is to introduce more debate into the Arab world and give a voice, through her organization, to the considerable number of Arabs in both the Middle East and the West, who she insists believe in peaceful coexistence with Israel. A wider acceptance of Israel, Darwish believes, would greatly improve the image of the Muslim and Arab world. "Can you believe the stature and status that would bring to Islam and Muslims in the eyes of the world, and how that will make Islam truly a religion of peace? Though the greatest benefits, she argues, would be felt from within. "Arabs must put [this] conflict behind them in order to move to better and more important things like economic prosperity, freedom and democracy. "Muslims, Nonie Darwish once wrote, "need jobs, not jihad. Part 2 of a two-part interview
