[5]
By Oregon Faith News Note,
A former Portland State University student writes in Newsweek about his time in the Muslim Brotherhood and offered tips for defeating terrorism. Ali al Nuaimi, chair of the Defense Affairs, Interior and Foreign Relations Committee of the UAE’s Federal National Council, shared his opinion piece in the wake of the fatal stabbing of a British lawmaker, Sir David Amess, by a 25-year-old man known by British security services as a terrorist.
He described the threat posed by terrorism as a perversion of religion into a specific ideology infecting vulnerable minds and recounts his experience in 1979 at PSU where he was recruited by the Muslim Brotherhood.
He states [6], “It was while I was still a university student in the American West, at Portland State University in Oregon, that the Muslim Brotherhood succeeded in recruiting me. Like many who are recruited, I was full of the enthusiasm of youth…I have to be honest: It was thrilling. I believed that the Brotherhood was the true voice of Islam, and I can hardly describe how powerful it felt to be connected to that center, to be invited into its innermost circles.But as I matured, I discovered the fragmentation and divisiveness among Muslims. I realized that besides the Muslim Brotherhood, there were other groups—the Salafi and Tablighi, for example—all claiming to be “the true voice of Islam.” It made me question the Brotherhood’s claims to superiority, and I resolved to put some distance between myself and all people who see or sell themselves as guardians or speakers on behalf of Islam. I made up my mind to be independent in my thinking and rejected any kind of guardianship or custody over my mind or my will in the name of Islam.”
To read his op-ed, “I Used to Be in the Muslim Brotherhood. Here’s How You Defeat Terrorism,” go here [6].