Nonie DarwishRecensioner

Very informative. Had to take a break from it for a bit because I got bogged down in the details. A lot of good information here though

Being a student of Egyptian Arabic and having a number of Egyptian internet friends, I can tell you that everything written is the truth.

As a young woman I dated a lot of Egytian men who act and do things here that they would not dare over there.

Honor killing is still happening. Sex before marriage is both against the state religion and the law, so you are condemned twice, plus your family's decision on what to do about it, and whatever they choose is bad news for the girl.

One of my teachers who left Islam said living in Egypt was like living in the 'Dark Ages '.

This is a fascinating book whatever you think about what she has to say. It's a memoire as well as her own personal statement.

Overall: some interesting insights into Egyptian culture and definitely worth a read. However, not as strong as Ayaan Hirsi Ali's "Infidel".

Strengths: Reveals how Muslim politicians manipulate populace into blind hatred of Israel, America and the West. Also shows how poorly women are treated in modern Muslim society and attempts to provide answers as to why moderate muslims in the west don't speak up against the Wahabbists. The most powerful part is how she's able to forgive and love those who killed her father. She's also able to objectively evaluate his role in this whole process.

Weaknesses: Like I said, definitely not as riveting or moving as Ayaan Hirsi Ali's "Infidel" nor as well written. Overall, the book didn't flow as smoothly as I would have hoped and also more religious theory/background would have been useful.

They say that there are two sides to every story. When it comes to terrorism, there are many more than two sides. Nonie Darwish's father was a Muslim Shahid who was the head of Egyptian military intelligence in Gaza when he was killed in 1956. She grew up in Gaza and then Egypt and was educated in British and American schools there and moved to the US at age 30. She shares about the extreme poverty in Egypt and the many problems caused by the government, the Muslim religion and the culture of the Arabs. She calls for a change in the way Arabs conduct themselves and how they react to the terrorism that arises out of their culture. This book is very revealing and enlightening and I highly recommend it.

The author is billed as a woman who converted from Islam to Christianity; if so, that isn't reflected in the book. The author left Egypt for the United States, and has joined the ranks of conservative Republicans. It's an interesting book, but the author gets so much wrong about America and Christianity that it's hard to be sure if she is equally wrong about Islam and Egypt. Worth reading, if it's not the only book you read on Islam. Much less than the books by Ayaan Hirsi-Ali, because this author seems much less willing to reach down inside herself and put herself into the story as thoroughly as Hirsi-Ali.

Darwish has important points to make for an American audience. She points out how major mainstream media outlets do little more than repeat Islamist propaganda. Organizations such as CNN put little time into research and uncritically repeat Middle Eastern Arab sources. She issues a warning in this volume that Muslim elements in the U.S. are aggressive and seek to supplant Western political traditions and the Christian religion.

America is in severe need of a wake up call that will allow it to focus on defeating the Islamist thought process that is a threat to our very way of life. Our politicians and our society have become so dependent on a steady flow of relatively cheap oil that we don’t want to recognize what countries like Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are really doing with all of that American cash. But despite the way that America’s media outlets and universities try to disguise it, more and more people are coming to realize that the Saudi royal family is spending hundreds of million dollars here building mosques and staffing them with some of the most violently radical imams it can find in the Middle East. And those imams are here for only one reason: to preach the very anti-West, anti-American, anti-Semitic hate filled sermons that have brainwashed the youth of their own countries. They seek to take this country, and the West, from within.

It’s easy to discount this kind of warning when it comes from the mouth of a conservative American politician or writer. However, when someone like Egyptian Nonie Darwish in her book Now They Call Me Infidel exposes this well-funded plot to Islamize America, alarm bells should go off everywhere.

Nonie Darwish spent her first 30 years living in Egypt and Gaza. Her father, Mustafa Hafez, was hand-picked by Egypt’s President Nasser in 1955 to launch the Palestinian freedom movement from Gaza. He put together, and operated, a small army of terrorists whose task was to cause as much death and destruction inside Israel as possible. He was ultimately killed by an Israeli explosive delivered to his office, and he is still a hero to Palestinians who have named a street and a school after him. Nonie Darwish was a young girl when her father died but she has vivid memories of those days and of the doubts she already had about the failure of Arab culture to do much more than blame its own shortcomings on everyone but themselves.

Those are her credentials and we should all take her words to heart.

“I soon discovered that rabid anti-American feeling is rampant in the majority of
U.S. mosques, where Muslims are encouraged to stand out as mujahadeen in America. In these mosques, America’s generosity was met with demands for more generosity and concessions from people who never lived a day under democracy in their countries of origin.” Page 140

“Those who stay in America should be open to society without melting, keeping Mosques open so anyone can come and learn about Islam. If you choose to live here, you have a responsibility to deliver the message of Islam…Islam isn’t in America to be equal to any other faiths, but to become dominant. The Koran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on earth.” – Omar Ahmad, cofounder of the Council on American-Islamist Relations (CAIR) as quoted on page 140

“I truly believe that Arab men have been spoiled rotten as children by their parents; they were brought up to think of themselves as the best, of their religion as the best, and their lifestyle the best. When they finally grow up and are confronted with the confidence and competence of Western men they simply cannot stand it. Then the culture of pride, envy, and hate kicks in, and they begin to indulge in the blame game. Rather than examining their own system, culture, or religion, they say it must be colonialism, imperialism, past injustice, Israel’s existence, or a worldwide Zionist conspiracy that has caused their system to fail. Thus deep-seated feelings of inferiority create marching jihadists who have nothing else to aspire to than either claim the West for Islam or destroy it.” – Page 147-148

“Many devout Muslims hold at heart a dream of an Islamic Caliphate, a totalitarian political system encompassing the whole Muslim world – and eventually the entire world –which functions under one constitution (the Koran) and one law, Islamic sharia law. This is not some crazy notion espoused by some lunatic fringe Islamists. Conquering the world for Islam is the stated goal that emanates from powerful, ruling Islamic clerics throughout the Middle East…This is also the goal of many Islamic organizations operating under false pretences in America and financed and supported by radical Muslim states.” – Page 149

“There is nothing America or the non-Muslim West can do that will be met with gratitude and appreciation…To the contrary, good deeds on non-Muslims toward Muslims only deepen their sense of dependency and inferiority in the context of the macho and pride-driven Muslim culture. In the end, the culture of envy and shame always dominates.” – Page 175

“America’s Islamic enemies and critics – even those who love living in the United States – are nothing more than pirates…Instead of building their own society as a model of what Islam should be, they leave it in ruins and look to conquer hard-working successful lands. To do to Europe and America what they did to Muslim countries? To ruin them the same way they ruined our own culture? They cannot stand to live in a Muslim culture, and they have their eyes set on beautiful and welcoming democracies, not to blend in, but to rob those democracies of their soul and ruin the value system and culture that made them great.” - Page 185

“Why do I speak out, and what do I say? I try to help Americans face the truth about the terror threat they are up against, help them understand the mind-set of the jihadists who wish to destroy America. I realize there is fire in my heart. I do not deny it. I am angry at my culture. What arrogance and ingratitude. Who gave my people the right to destroy the world in the name of Allah? No religion should advocate that. Who gave my people the right to destroy people of other religions, cultures, and beliefs? Who gave them the right to declare a fatwa of death on Muslim critics who speak out against Islamist tyranny? Some say this is a clash of civilization. The truth is that this is an attack on civilization itself by haters of civilization.” - Page 197

Nonie Darwish is telling us things that we need to comprehend and, because she is an Arab herself, she understands exactly what we are faced with today. She knows that the Arab culture of lies and deceit is the perfect match for our own culture which so highly values freedom of speech and religious tolerance.

She knows that if we lose what is almost destined to become World War III that it will be only because our tolerance proves to be the Achilles heel that keeps us from fighting back before it is too late. She knows that the enemy is already here and that he is being supported by our own oil money returned here by the Saudi royal family and others like them who support the terrorists in our midst.

This book should be required reading at all high schools and universities but there is no chance that will happen while so many universities are openly accepting Saudi cash to build and operate campus “Islamist Study” centers. Will we wake up in time to save ourselves? Only time will tell, and that scares me to death.

Rated at: 4.0

This book contains information that may not be suitable for young readers.