Mr. Speaker, I submit insightful and compelling testimony given by Dr. Qanta A. A. Ahmed before the House Homeland Security Committee last month. I commend Chairman Peter King for continuing this series of hearings looking at the challenge…
Mr. Speaker, I submit insightful and compelling testimony given by Dr. Qanta A. A. Ahmed before the House Homeland Security Committee last month. I commend Chairman Peter King for continuing this series of hearings looking at the challenge of radicalization in the U.S. and how it impacts the American Muslim community.
I urge all of my colleagues to read Dr. Ahmed's testimony, especially given her first-hand experience with radicalized youth in Pakistan and her recent series of columns and editorials on the threat of radicalization in the West.
The American Muslim Response to Hearings on Radicalization within their Community--Congressional Testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives
Committee on Homeland Security, Washington DC, June 20th 2012
Qanta A. A. Ahmed MD, FACP, FCCP, FAASM, Associate Professor of
Medicine, The State University of New York, USA
Good morning. Thank you Chairman King and Ranking Committee
Member Congressman Thompson and distinguished members of the
Committee for the opportunity to testify today on such an
important issue.
My Muslim identity
I am a British citizen, and a Permanent Resident in these
United States where I have made my home for fourteen years. I
am a practicing physician and a practicing Muslim. Religion
stems from the etymological Latin root relegere, meaning to
be gathered or bound together. An individual's narrative of
his or her religious experience is often a catalogue of
relationships and my Islam is no different, beginning with
the gift of Islam from my parents.
There is no divide between any of my multiple roles as I
have learned following the example of my parents, both of
whom remain true to their faith without encroaching upon the
public space yet always espousing pluralism and tolerance.
They raised me to observe Islam in the same manner.
I pray, I fast during Ramadan, I find worship in my work
and I have also completed the Hajj--the Muslim pilgrimage to
Mecca. Each year I am fortunate to be able to exceed the
Islamic duties of charity required of me annually. My parents
support my views which I express here in this chamber today
and all of my actions which have led me to this moment. As a
family, for generations, we have explicitly repudiated all
forms of violence--including those conducted in the name of
Islam--long before the specter of radical Islamism ever
blighted these United States.
My Vantage as an Internationally Experienced Muslim Physician
In my 21 years since qualification, I have practiced on
three continents; here in the Americas in the United States--
in both South Carolina and New York, in Europe, chiefly in
London, and in Asia, namely when I practiced medicine for two
years, from November 1999 to November 2001 in Riyadh, Saudi
Arabia.
This peripatetic path has allowed me to engage intimately
with Saudi Muslims as I attended them in their critical
illnesses, and later work for many years to improving their
public health and that for all Muslim pilgrims to Mecca; and
with British Diaspora Muslims as I attended them in Britain's
capital. I functioned in these roles as a treating physician,
a physician-educator, a physician colleague, a mentor to
training doctors. My work has led to numerous publications
both in the medical academe and the mainstream media.
For over a decade, I have also been invited to teach and
speak at numerous conferences in the Muslim Majority world
including for the Saudi Arabian National Guard Health
Affairs, for the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Health, for the US
Consulate in Jeddah, for the Saudi Arabian Soccer Federation,
the American University of Sharjah and other settings. I have
also been asked to visit hospitals and meet physician
colleagues in Pakistan. Most recently in November 2011, as a
visiting professor I was invited by FIFA to the first
meetings evaluating impacts of Ramadan on the elite Muslim
footballer convening in both Doha, Qatar and in Riyadh, Saudi
Arabia.
I have therefore lived among, met, treated, taught, worked
with, published with, researched with, befriended and, on
occasion, been repudiated and abandoned, by many Muslims in
many dimensions.
My Experience of the burden of Radical Islamism on my American Patients
Currently, my work as an attending sleep disorders
specialist involves personally attending to the World Trade
Center First Responder patient population of Nassau County at
Winthrop University Hospital. Our hospital provides state-of-
the-art care to 2500 of these Americans without financial
burden each year through the provenance of the Zadroga Bill,
spearheaded by Chairman King and his colleagues.
Hence patients in my personal practice today include
multiple members of US law enforcement including active duty,
disabled and former NYPD, active duty FBI agents, active,
disabled and retired FDNY, former members of the New York
Federal Crime Bureau and others who are officially designated
as World Trade Center First Responders--6000 of the nation's
40,000 first responders live on Long Island. Many of these
patients have roles in counter terrorism task forces today.
I treat these men and women for sleep-related complications
developed as a result of their service to our nation
including obstructive sleep apnea syndrome, post-traumatic
stress disorder, anxiety, depression and other conditions.
Attending them gives me special insights into the
indiscriminate burden of radical Islamist acts born by our
community a decade after they assaulted humanity in my
adoptive home, New York City, an assault I witnessed from
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Understanding the work and the suffering of my patients and
the toll it takes on them makes clear to me the enormous
sacrifice they and their families make to safeguard us at
times of crisis and in between, a sacrifice much of the
nation has forgotten, or remains unaware of. As a Muslim
meeting these Americans reveals the devastating impact of
radical Islamism to which few others--Muslims or non-Muslim--
will ever be privy.
My experience with Contemporary Radical Islamist Ideology
In Spring 2010, in recognition of my academic work on Hajj
Medicine and health diplomacy, I was selected as the first
Muslim woman to complete a Templeton Cambridge Journalism
Fellowship in Science and Religion at the University of
Cambridge in England. Following a meeting with an
internationally recognized expert in counterterrorism, I
reviewed data exposing me to the brutality of contemporary
radical Islamists and decided to focus my fellowship on the
psychological manipulation of Islam into the service of
terror. I thus specifically evaluated the mechanisms of
martyrdom and jihadist ideology as expressed by contemporary
radical Islamists. This work both informed my specific
knowledge and the many publications I have authored since. My
experience of being a Templeton Cambridge Fellow adds special
academic context useful to me in interpreting the salient
findings of this series of investigative hearings.
As a result of my work at Cambridge, I have met with some
of the leading minds approaching counter terrorism studies.
One such meeting with one Pakistani neuropsychologist piqued
my interest sufficiently to travel to the North West frontier
Province of Pakistan (now renamed KPK) in March 2012 to visit
Malakand, now secured by the Pakistani military. There, I
spent three days at `Sabaoon', the Pakistani school founded
by civilians to deprogram child militant operatives engaged
in militancy with the Pakistani Taliban. There I treated
local villagers and traveled to nearby Mingora to see
rehabilitated child militants readjusting to community life
after successful deprogramming.
At Sabaoon, I met with doctors, teachers, psychotherapists,
military leaders and the child militant rehabilitees
themselves all boys aged between 10 and 20. I was also
invited to attend the relatives of these boys for a one day
traveling clinic to provide basic medical care during which I
met, interviewed, examined and treated the mothers, sisters,
grandmothers, siblings, children and spouses of convicted
militant operatives, suicide operation `martyrs' and suspects
currently in detention in Saudi Arabia. I recorded many
photographs of my visit which I can share in a classified
forum if the Committee determines there is a need.
During the visit, though I was not granted clearance to
question the students directly, under supervision of my
fellow physician colleagues and with the Pakistani Rangers
nearby, I was allowed to meet with one 15-year old Pakistani
boy in particular. I listened to him for about an hour as he
described his transition from a school boy of 13 walking to
school, his seduction by an older boy with tales of a
`purer', `more legitimate' Islam--that of the Taliban's--his
voluntary decision to run away and join a network of Taliban
militants, his deliberate and very labyrinthine confinements
in hiding centers called `markaz' (centers), his handlers'
persistent and successful maneuvering defeating the dedicated
efforts of his parents to retrieve him, his training and
preparation which he chillingly termed `Tarbiyyat' which
means `religious education' (consisting of advanced training
in the use of a handgun, the deployment of a grenade and the
successful detonation of a suicide jacket) and, finally, his
ultimate surrender to a police officer in the designated
target of attack--a nearby mosque. I have in my possession
his de-identified narrative which can be reviewed in a
classified forum but as is not available for disclosure in
this public record.
This young boy's naivete, his isolated and distorted world
view, his lack of knowledge of Bin Laden or 9-11 and his
indoctrination all revealed to me that Islamist ideologies
are active, alive and moving ahead far beyond the reach of
20th Century Al-Qaedah ideology. Further, his halting and
unconfident Urdu reminded me much of the nascent transition
from boyhood to manhood of my own brothers when they were
younger, who fortunately have been sheltered from such
manipulations by opportunities our family could give them
because we are so attached to our native Britain and Islam,
not Islamism.
Further, the young boy also revealed his Islamist-
indoctrinated hatred of certain sects of Muslims, including
Shias who are a minority in Pakistan, his belief that anyone
collaborating with a western-dressed individual was an enemy
of Islam--including Pakistani troops who are usually dressed
in western trousers--and that any who engaged with US troops
was also an enemy to Islam.
Exactly these ideologies are being promoted in the United
States today, often through portals--whether via internet
portals, recurrent migration to Somalia, Sudan, Pakistan,
Yemen or other locations, circulated videos, or pockets of
extremism in numerous centers of gatherings including mosques
and this series of investigative hearings have revealed that.
The essential construct is the same--separation, supremacy
and unquestioning acceptance of nihilistic ambitions--
including the deployment of brutally violent measures--all of
which collude to eradicate any other diversity.
Since 2009, I have authored dozens of Opinion columns and
Editorials published in the
mainstream American, British, Dutch, Israeli and Pakistani
press examining the politics and theology of radical
contemporary Islamist ideologies.
Unsurprisingly, I have learned the consequences of opining
in the free press. I have been subject to personal attack and
abuse online. In my journalistic activities I also have
learned how difficult it is for American newspaper editors,
American network television producers and American media
bookers to approach either solicited or unsolicited opinion
pieces or television interviews concerning issues pertaining
to Islam. There has been a distinct chill in the public
discourse including here in the United States which is driven
by the rising cries of Islamophobia, the advancing grip of
Islamist claims of defamation of Islam which they advance
through Islamist Lawfare, the internationalization without
protest of Blasphemy laws and the general fear of political
`incorrectness' which leads to an enormous loss of counter-
arguments in the debate about Islamism and its distinctions
from Islam.
The reaction to the Hearings in the Muslim community
My community begins with my family who not only supports
these hearings but have welcomed them. We have a large family
thriving in the United States from coast to coast, settled in
this country since the 1960s. One of my family members, my
cousin, has served in the United States Navy. Earlier than
that, some of my maternal Uncles trained and studied in 1950s
America as invited scholars. Many of us are American
citizens. We are also very well acquainted with the abuses
and discrimination that pass for `official Islam' as
expressed in Islamist Pakistan and are extremely aware of the
hazards of empowering those who espouse a supremacist
ideology born of Islamism but masquerading as Islam. To my
surprise not a single member of my family discouraged me from
participating in these investigative hearings even though
they remain aware of the risks this can pose to me in my
every day life.
I also have a vibrant Muslim readership among my almost
100,000 readers of my book, who communicate with me through
social network platforms, letters and emails or respond on
line to articles I have authored in almost every major
mainstream publication in the United States. Many of my self-
identifying Muslim readers express fear that the
investigative hearings will misrepresent Islam and fuel
Islamophobia while also expressing excitement that this
discussion is entering the public space in such an auspicious
arena. Their sentiment about the investigative hearings
revolve more around the scrutiny of activities of some Muslim
Americans rather than the actual findings of the
investigative hearings which few of them could cite.
For my support of these investigative hearings and for my
writings sympathetic to the concerns of these investigative
hearings I have also been subject to intimidation on Twitter
often from self-identifying Muslims who clearly denounce
these hearings. Their abusive hostility is largely centered
on the claim that my views supportive of these investigative
hearings as unrepresentative of Muslim Americans.
On a professional level many of my former academic Muslim
colleagues now eschew contact with me as my political voice
has become more widely heard, some because of the personal
affront it causes them and others because they are beholden
to theocractic Muslim states and now see their relationship
with me as a risk. It is significant that only one member of
my circle of academic Muslim colleagues in the Middle East
wrote to me with encouragement. They see my support of
America in general as `collusion'.
A recent publication on Huffington Post is more encouraging
of the Muslim American reaction. In it I wrote about my
Evolution as an Anti Islamist Muslim and I found it generated
an overwhelming response many of them very positive from self
identified Muslims who commented my views to be ahead of the
public awareness and supported my endeavors and views
including my call for the exposure of the imposter of
Islamism to be distinguished from Islam.
It is however important to add that as an Anti-Islamist
Muslim my community IS America, as Islam demands it, not an
enclave within America, but the entire nation. These
investigative hearings while entitled to examine the reaction
of American Muslims within their communities might be better
expressed as our reaction within America because this is what
Islam teaches us--that we must collaborate, cooperative,
enhance and contribute to the community surrounding us, and
not remain in insular, disengaged groups which engender and
then empower silos of disconnection and disaffection.
Unfortunately the reaction in wider America to these
investigative hearings has been initial vilification and
later disdain as manifested by the extraordinary disinterest
of the mainstream media in the hard findings of these
hearings. This uninformed response has not been redirected by
informed motivated media coverage despite the opportunity to
redress the balance, revealing the wider media may itself
have some discomfort denouncing Islamism.
How I interpret the findings of the hearings
These investigative hearings reveal radicalization is
ongoing in multiple sectors right here in the United States,
in our civilian community, in our military community and in
our prison community. Muslims in America can be radicalized
despite the best efforts of their parents or mentors. We also
have learned radicalization in America is usually facilitated
by handlers and Islamist seducers who operate on multiple
planes using multiple forms of media and are facile at
identifying or exploiting the vulnerable. This is exactly how
Pakistani Taliban Islamists operate in Pakistan and elsewhere
based on what I have seen in person and my extensive reading
of, and meetings with, counter terrorism experts. We cannot
ignore the domestic risks here and threat both to our
national security, and by extrapolation, to international
security. I cite a few examples revealed by these
investigative hearings:
On December 7th 2011, Daris Long, father of a son murdered
by radical Islamists testified ``the political correctness
exhibited by the government over offending anyone in
admitting the truth about Islamist extremism masked alarm
bells that were going off. Warnings were ignored, Major Nidal
Hassan was able to openly praise the Little Rock shootings in
front of fellow army officers and then commit his own
jihad''. This is consistent with the shortcomings of language
and the paralysis of political correctness that I identify as
one of the barriers to examining radical Islamism in the
United States.
On March 12th, 2011, Melvin Bledsoe testified that his son
Abdul Hakim Muhammad was `brainwashed' by Nashville Muslims
leading to his terrorist training in Yemen to return to
murder one soldier and injure another at a US military
recruitment center. This confirms the same forces seducing a
Pakistani schoolboy in the SWAT are at work in the American
heartland.
On July 27th 2011, Ahmed Hussen, President of the Canadian
Somali Congress recognized our vulnerability in this
ideological battle of Islamism with Islam and Islamism's
exploitation of victimhood `There has not been a parallel
attempt to counter the toxic anti Western narrative that
creates a culture of victimhood in the minds of members of
our community.' This confirms the utility to Islamists of
cultivating a manufactured sense of victimhood among
vulnerable Muslims.
My motivation to enter the public discourse: to combat Islamism
In the years since 9-11, every Muslim has been compelled to
confront his or her identity. This has been a direct function
of the martyrdom terrorism acts of 9-11. Since then, the lay
audience and much of expert opinion has been unable to
separate Islamism from Islam. Today this is our greatest
challenge. Distinguishing Islam and Islamism requires nuance
and care, which few in the media are prepared to provide or
even qualified to identify.
Some, while well intentioned but deeply uninformed,
retaliate against the sound intelligence and counter measures
that must be taken, including mechanisms such as these
investigative hearings, and instead unwittingly collude with
the non violent manifestations of the Islamists which have
long since evolved to new elements masquerading as the
`peaceful' translators and `owners' of Islam. I am here to
tell you non-violent Islamists are not the owners of Islam
nor is their intent peaceful.
I was in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia when the Towers fell. Within
hours, I discovered my sentiments of loss and sorrow were not
widely shared, either by Saudi physician colleagues or by
fellow non Saudi Muslim expatriate workers, many of whom had
been trained by Americans in New York City like myself or
other cities in the United States--some of us even shared the
same professors of medicine.
This discovery came as a terrible shock to my naiveties at
the time and I was patronizingly ridiculed for being so `pro-
American'. I realized the version of Islam my parents had
given, and our reverence for the nations who had sheltered
and reared me--Britain and the United States--wasn't widely
accepted. That fellow physicians, as highly trained and as
privileged as I, could be elated at the loss of life and the
transient bowing of America's spirit utterly displaced me to
a new, harsher reality.
In the wake of 9-11, I saw Osama bin Laden feted as a hero
in Pakistan, nation of my matrilineal and patrilineal
heritage. On one trip I recall a Pakistani driver in Karachi
explaining to me why 7 years after 9-11, Pakistani families
were still naming their newborns Osama in his honor. He was
still deified, recognized by many as a `defender' of Islam, a
`warrior savior'. Nothing could be more offensive to my
beliefs as a Muslim or my principles as a human being. This
was extraordinarily difficult to reconcile with the knowledge
that Islam condemns all murder, and particularly the
execution of non-combatant civilians in any setting. In my
mind Bin Laden and his sympathizers had renounced Islam by
their acts and represented nothing more than violent
terrorists and those who named their firstborns after Osama
were lionizing nothing more than a mass murderer.
Soon after my return from Saudi Arabia, I began to record
my experiences in a manuscript that would become my first
book, In the Land of Invisible Women now in its 10th edition
and published in 13 countries including Muslim majority
Senegal, Indonesia, Turkey, Pakistan and Mauritius. Realizing