Walid Shoebat and Kamal Saleem, self-described (former) Palestinian terrorists, spoke at the University of Colorado here in Boulder the other night. I had the opportunity to attend.
It was interesting timing. On Sunday, after a couple of days of web surfing, I had ordered Walid Shoebat’s book “Why I Left Jihad.” On Monday, I happened to open the local paper while waiting for an oil change on my car (no irony intended). The front page article was about Walid Shoebat. I discovered he would be speaking at the University that evening.
All (free) tickets were gone, but they did have about 200 tickets available at the door. I arrived early, anticipating quite a turn out.
Indeed, the hall was full, and security was tight.
Kamal Saleem spoke first. He described his life growing up in Palestine. It was a mostly unsurprising account: the education his family and school gave him about how the Jews were the enemy, the Holocaust was a hoax, America was the ‘Great Satan,’ Israel was the ‘small Satan,’ and one day Islam would be the one true religion displacing all the others, worldwide. At that time, he became resolute for jihad. Obviously, at a very early age. I found particularly humorous how, given the education he had at the time (which, again, said the Holocaust had been a hoax), he asked his teachers in his school “how did they get the Jews to be so skinny? What diet were they on?”
Walid Shoebat was next. I might call him “the headliner.”
His descriptions of his childhood were similar. He emphasized the impact it had on him at a very early age. He held and fired an AK47 at the age of 6. At 7, he ran his first bomb supply mission from Syria through the Golan Heights. Like Saleem, he was instilled with the desire to fulfill jihad; to become a martyr.
“In my right hand, I had the Koran. In my left, the AK47″
Walid Shoebat is a darling of conservatives, particularly among Christians (since, of course, he converted to Christianity).
He is a self-described member of the “far right.” A quick search on YouTube will turn up many of his appearances in prophecy-oriented Christian discussions. I haven’t bothered to watch all of those (I pretty much know what to expect). But I know he is often a speaker in such arenas.
Walid Shoebat is also a focal point of controversy. Some say his story of being a (former) terrorist is unverified, even perhaps fabricated. Some say he is simply a mouthpiece for the Christian Right. He is never a critic of the current administration. From him I found not the slightest criticism of the invasion of Iraq.
Boulder being “liberal” (albeit mostly “limousine liberal”), and this being a presentation at a university, you can imagine the reception.
Actually, it was somewhat mixed. The members of the Arab Student Association were none too pleased. He was heckled a few times, and during the Q&A session the discomfort of Arabs in the room was palpable. A few people were escorted out by rather well-armed police.
On the other hand, he received a huge applause for describing what he wanted to see from American Muslims if, indeed, they loved America: “I want to see you with headbands in Arabic and with signs in English: ‘Allah bless America.’” There were other points in his presentation where he aroused substantial emotional support. Again, please keep in mind I’m referring to the notoriously “libral” Boulder, Colorado.
Mr. Shoebat invoked many of the well-known passages in the Koran that support what we today call terrorism. “What part of ‘kill’ do you in the West not understand?” he said.
Koran: 9:5
But when the forbidden months are past, then fight and slay the unbelievers wherever ye find them, an seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem (of war); but if they repent, and establish regular prayers and practise regular charity, then open the way for them: for Allah is Oft-forgiving, Most Merciful.
This Sura in the Koran is oft quoted by both critics of Islam and terrorists themselves. In fact, Muslim terrorists cite it to justify their violent jihad. Critics of Islam claim that it commands Muslims to act with aggression towards the non-Muslims (polytheists) of that period, and contributes to Islam’s final theological doctrine of aggression towards all non-Muslims of all times. Apologists for Islam claim that this passage is purely defensive.
Personally, I find the apologists’ argument to be simply ludicrous. Of course, when I say that, I find more than one Muslim telling me that, since I can’t read Arabic, I have read a mis-translation. Also, it seems, even if I had a proper translation, I wouldn’t understand the context.
Y’know … I have to say….I don’t read German. But I don’t think I need to be fluent in German and German history to get the overall gist of “Mein Kampf.”
I had the opportunity to chat with Mr. Shoebat (briefly) after the event, before he was whisked off by his handlers. I pointed out to him that, during his presentation, he had mis-quoted Mr. Richard Dawkins. He invited me to engage in a discussion with him over email. I have started that discussion — we will see where that leads.
To be honest, I am not expecting much. He has a great gig going, and he doesn’t need some pinko like me confusing him with the facts. On the other hand, he apparently admires Christopher Hitchens, which I found quite ironic.
If you would like a taste of Mr. Shoebat’s lecture, this series on YouTube is pretty much the script he followed at CU Boulder.
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=RWNAlL9NXy0[/youtube]
Enjoy.
Interesting. Walid Shoebat just spoke at HSU and he misquoted Dawkins and Hitchens again. He tried to state that they only attack Christians, which is obviously untrue to anyone who is willing to take the time and at least read the chapter titles, let alone the actual books. How did your email chat go with Shoebat?
@Deric:
He never replied to me, so we didn’t have much of an email chat.
Generally, I have problems with his take on things. I think he is either insincere, or simply has a somewhat warped perception. It’s also possible he’s filtering those things he reads (for example, Dawkins) to “fit” what he wants to hear. I would be interested to see him debate Hitchens!
I will comment only re Kalam Saleem. I recently met him, and found him to be filled with love and concern for the U.S. As for the Qur’an (and the Hadith), you are correct … even if the English translation one reads is not perfect, the central message is clear: Islam is the one true religion and its faithful adherents are obligated to spread it by many means until it dominates the world. Many belief systems have produced waves of violence against other peoples, but Islam stands alone as the foundation of 1400 years of assumed and dedication to eradicating other religions by force.
I finished Saleem’s book only a couple of weeks ago, after perusing a few pages of it previously in a library and being awed by Saleem’s description of his early childhood on the mean streets of Beirut, bullied , beaten and shaken down by young thugs of various religions and backgrounds such as Kurds, Armenians, Shias …even when I borrowed the book and got into it fully, it only then dawned on me what a powerful counter-jihadist work this was. Id never even heard of him b4, although I was familiar with other former muslim speak-outs such as Wafa Sultan and Hirsi Ali (the latter gets a mention from Kamal) , British and Italian wake-up calls to the West such as Melanie Phillips, and the Little Green Footballs and Jihadwatch websites.
It is an awesome book-I wont say “frightening” as of course the loony-lefty Polyanna denialists like to smugly assure us that the threat of Islam is all “fear-mongering” and Id be playing into their eager hands.One of the great things about people like Kamal, is try as they might to smear him as a fake who was never a jihadist fighter and terrorist, never a hard-core muslim bigot bent on the complete victory of islam and downfall of all non-muslims..
one thing they cant at least dismiss him as is the ever-popular “racist”..
Even the author of this board seems to almost grasp that the excuses and apologism about the Koran itself is odious.
As a footnote, one of the stark episodes of the book concerns Kamals time at a camp in Libya sponsored and funded by Ghaddafi, and two typical-sounding IRA ‘heroes” he calls Bobby and Patrick (that might have even been their actual names) …like many Irish, Bobby and Patrick thought Kamal and his jihadist buds were their linked-hands brothers in oppressed violent struggle…and wanted to be their hangers-on..running to Libya and them for refuge after apparently murdering some civilians on a train in the UK..
that move did “bobby and Patrick” a great deal of good.
Oh, yes, and BTW, TonyV, I am not in any way religious or the US Christian-right, much more than someone like Hitchens is.
Believe it or not, and I know liberals have trouble with this, you dont need to be religious to see the burgeoning threat of Islam of ALL religions to the west…it never really needed to be any kind of my God/Prophet vs Your God/Prophet at all…all this is to me is Western values, ideals, civilisation and decency vs the world as muslims/militants/jihadists see it…
A far darker , madder thousand year nightmare in prospect than Adolf Hitler ever had in mind for us.