Free Republic

SNIPPET: "I. When considering the matter of jihadis online, remember that most of what we think we know is based on analyses of the comments made by an handful of vocal activists. The vast majority of jihadis online, be they on forums or social networking sites[i], say nothing. Skillful translations and insightful analyses by definition tell us little about this potentially lethal yet silent majority."

President Barack Obama issued a special Ramadan message to the Muslim world. The president emphasized the importance of what the United States and the Muslim world hold in "common." This is a great approach and concept to bridge the gap between civilizations ONLY if the areas of difference are not destructive. For example, emphasizing common values between the free world and the Nazi regime, such as the building of a strong economy, would not have bridged the gap between the two systems unless the latter had denounced its barbaric and anti-Semitic values. The same principle applies to the current friction...

Dr. Tawfik Hamid, 47, was born in Egypt into a secular Muslim family. As a student at Cairo University medical school in the late 1970's, Hamid joined the Jihadist-Muslim group-Jamaat Islamiyah. He was deeply influenced by an older fellow student named Ayman al-Zawahiri, destined to become al-Qaida's No.2 and Osama Bin Laden's lieutenant. Hamid described al-Zawahiri as "One of the fiercest speakers I had ever heard...His rhetoric inspired us to want to engage in a war against the infidels, Allah's enemies." Through the influence of his atheist father who had honed his son's critical thinking, Hamid eventually rejected his Jihadi...

Ending terrorism won’t happen until radical Islam is reformed, a former terrorist-in-training said Monday night ... Born in Egypt to a secular Muslim family, Tawfik Hamid joined the extremist Islamic group Jemma Islamiya while a student in medical school, and said he remembers being preached to by a doctor named Ayman al-Zawahiri, now second-in-command in al-Qaida. “They suppressed my critical thinking and transformed me into a beast from an innocent child,” ... “I regret I became a beast that thought of burning churches and mosques. Fortunately, my conscience and upbringing made me realize what they were teaching was violence and...

Charles Lindbergh and Senator Kennedy’s father, Joe Kennedy, changed their minds about Adolph Hitler and Nazi Germany when their true nature became obvious. I guess I have to say that, reluctantly, I am changing my mind about the dangers posed to the future of America by Muslims who seem determined to impose their Sharia and their beliefs on the rest of us. We cannot any longer ignore what has happened and is happening in Great Britain and in continental Europe as the tide of “peaceful” Islam rolls over their culture and their citizens. And it is happening here.

What Drives Jihad?By Andrea JacobsInternational Jewish News | October 24, 2006 Dr. Tawfik Hamid holds a boxed lunch in one hand and offers me his book, The Roots of Jihad, with the other. A Muslim, he wears Western clothing. Still, I refrain from extending my hand. We walk back to the conference room. No photographs of Dr. Hamid are allowed. “For security reasons,” says the doctor, who looks younger than his 45 years.Dr. Hamid fled his native Egypt because he espouses a peaceful interpretation of Islam based on the Koran. Today he is one of the leading authorities on the...