Telling the Truth by Nonie Darwish

i was born and raised as a Muslim in

Cairo Egypt but I grew up as a child in

the 50s in the Gaza Strip and uh the

reason I was in Gaza was because Gaza at

that time was part of Egypt i attended

Gaza elementary schools where we learned

hatred vengeance retaliation peace was

never an option the concept of peace was

something foreign actually the word

peace was never even mentioned in the

services of any mosque we recited poetry

every day in the school wishing up upon

ourselves to die as martyrs i used to

see girls reciting this poetry while

they're crying they would wish upon

themselves to die as a martyr see our

value system was about victimhood

thinking of ourselves as victims or to

be a martyr to go kill everybody and die

as a martyr either a victim or a martyr

there is nothing in between women don't

go to mosques but we used to hear the

service of the mosque either on radio or

on TV and I remember every Friday prayer

the sheh would be at the end of the

sermon he would curse may God destroy

the Jews and the infidel and the even

the Christians and non-Muslims and he

would call non-Muslims the enemies of

Allah if you grow up with cursing as a

form of prayer it can feel and sound

normal hatred can be normal because who

am I to judge i never noticed that this

is not holy so this is how I grew up 22

Arab countries did everything they could

to make life impossible for Israel to

exist the Arab League forbade absorbing

the so-called Arab Palestinians rejected

to give them citizenship in any Arab

country so you could see an a

Palestinian born in Cairo for instance

and never get the citizenship and die in

Cairo they born and die in Syria a a

Palestinian and they never get a

citizenship why because the Arab League

wanted the Palestinian problem never to

be solved this is not their agenda the

agenda is to keep them refugees from

birth to death the culture was so for

sacrificing they encouraged women to

stand up in front of the cameras and say

"I gave my son to the jihad and I want

my other children to die in the jihad."

Women who are for life for peace were

looked down upon women who would be

radical if not more radical than men who

will promote jihad for their children

were lifted up as honorable women to be

respected in society so for a woman to

be respected in Islamic society you have

to be as radical if not more radical

than men and that is why a lot of women

are silent they are proud to give their

children to jihad and many people told

that to my mother to my grandparents

after my father died that your boy

you're lucky he's in heaven now it's the

only way to go to heaven is to go and

kill the infidel and die in the process

the Arabs of Israel were pushed

constantly they are rejected from being

absorbed and constantly pushed against

the borders with Israel in order to keep

the problem alive the Arab world doesn't

have a shortage of land if you look at

the Arab world from the Atlantic Ocean

Morocco all the way to Persia from

Turkey all the way to Sudan at that time

when I was a child the Sinai was

practically empty desert nobody lived in

the Sinai like today there is Sharmishek

you know all the nice beaches this was a

military zone and there is absolutely no

need no pressing need for Arabs to be so

dwelled on wanting to throw the Jews in

the sea you know this international

conflict called the Arab-Israeli

conflict really is a fabrication this is

not a conflict over land and anybody who

thinks it's a conflict over land is

misguided because we don't see the truth

the truth is Arabs there is something in

Islam anti-Jewish anti-Christian

especially anti-Jewish and I will tell

you why those people calling themselves

Palestinians who live in the Gaza and

the West Bank are the pawns of the Arab

world i don't believe that they care

about their happiness or welfare they

are set up to live a miserable life on

purpose in order to show the world that

we're victims do you think Saudi Arabia

with all the money they have the Gulf

countries all these oil money they can't

give them good roads and good homes and

good police and turn it into a

productive area of of the Middle East

they can but that is not their objective

there is a hidden objective and I don't

understand why Western culture doesn't

get it why Western media doesn't get it

it's so obvious so the unemployed people

in Gaza and the West Bank all this high

unemployment where do they go to work do

they stand on the border of Egypt to get

a job do they stand on the border of

Syria or Jordan no they line up on the

borders of Israel the very people they

are supposed to kill it's a very

unnatural way of living and nobody sees

it but they go and blame Israel they

compare the living standard of the West

Bank and Gaza with Israel a democracy

the only democracy in the Middle East

why don't they compare the living

conditions of Gaza and the West Bank

with Egypt with Syria with Jordan and if

they do they will find that the standard

of living is even higher than many areas

of the Arab world but Western media are

too lazy to compare apples with apples

they want to compare apples and oranges

i don't know how can I call Western

media ignorant they should not be

ignorant and then they go and ask Israel

why don't you do some concessions for

the Palestinians i never hear them stand

up to Arab leaders and ask Western media

why don't they ask Arab leaders how

about some concessions to the Israeli

people and it's very convenient to blame

all of this terrorism on after 911

especially they blame the terrorism oh

it's because we have this terrorism

everywhere by Muslims it's all because

of the occupation if it wasn't for the

occupation of Gaza if it's not for the

occupation of the West Bank we wouldn't

have a problem the problem all is

because of Israel that's what they want

to give the impression and this is a big

lie because I lived in Gaza as a child

and I witnessed the terrorism against

Israel before the occupation of Gaza and

before the occupation of the West Bank

and our media here doesn't even know

that there was terrorism against Israel

before the occupation so people who are

Arabs who claim that they are doing

terrorism now because they want freedom

democracy no there is no freedom and

democracy in any Arab country let alone

the West Bank or Gaza so we have to

really call a spade a spade now this is

too serious to just take all these lies

and look the other way because it's very

very hard to know the truth if you rely

on Arab media if you rely on the culture

around you and because of life in an

oppressive society I moved to America I

moved to America in the end of

7879 and my life completely changed and

one time I wanted to go to attend a

synagogue and a church because I was

curious ious i thought they were going

to curse the Arabs the same way we

cursed them in our mosque the holiness

of the place they were praying for

everybody they were praying for peace on

earth how can we leave this earth a

better place it was a totally different

way of thinking the opposite of what I

grew up with and that's when I went to a

mosque here also in Los Angeles and I

thought that because they allowed women

that it was going to be different here

within America i am so glad that Islam

in America must be so different so I

went to the mosque and I heard

anti-semitism again in the mosque and I

was told "Don't assimilate in America

we're here to Islamize America." They

were looking down at American culture

they were looking down at this society

and I felt very uncomfortable i said "Oh

my god there is an agenda here." And I

never went back again it hit me how

could we do this how could we lie and

accuse people of something we Arabs know

very well we have done ourselves how

could this happen what kind of value

system allows a person or allows a

culture or a religion to lie and accuse

their enemies of something that they

know they've done themselves they know

that Abin Laden did that they know that

he was financed with Arab money with oil

money until today how could they accuse

the Jewish people of that look at the

map of the Middle East look at the map

you can hardly see Israel it's

impossible to convince any person who

has an IQ of a child that this problem

is over the land called Israel it's time

for the West to understand this because

it's not just not good for Israel it's

not good for the Arab world they are

collapsing a lot of people think that

the Arab world is so strong and so

powerful it's rotting from the core but

they don't know the religious leaders

are telling them to keep continue the

hate instead of telling them to repent

and find the true God the love and the

friendship in the eyes of many Muslims

in the eyes of Islam itself Jews and

non-Muslims they call them the kafir the

infidels they don't deserve the truth

they don't deserve justice and they

don't deserve mercy how can this happen

and we accept it and we don't say no the

Arab world will never have freedom and

democracy when the hatred is number one

when the jihad is number one when

killing your enemy is number one when

you're fixated on lies and slander you

will never have peace and democracy

nobody asks this question why all this

these lies and slander against the

Jewish people against America they call

America the great Satan and Israel the

little saint why do you know that on

Syrian TV on Arabic TV on Egyptian TV

the constant day and night lies about

the Jewish people is unbelievable there

was a show that was saying and in it was

not just religious leaders some of them

were scientists Arab scientists saying

that "Oh do you know why Israel went to

Haiti to help with the earthquake?" You

know why because Israel really wanted to

harvest the organs of the Haitian people

these are the

intelligencia of the Arab world when the

intellectuals of the Arab world say that

what do you expect from the man on the

street and you wonder why they hate

because day in and day out they are told

this i was told horrific things about

the Jewish people it took me years to

extract it out of my mind my heart and

my consciousness