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Political analyst Dr. Tawfik Hamid said in a May 7, 2019 interview on Al-Jazeera TV (Qatar) that Muslims in the U.S. have been able to practice their religion freely, and that it is therefore a "superficial perspective" to accuse the U.S. of fighting against Islam and of having created ISIS. Instead, Dr. Hamid suggested that ISIS was created by radical Islamic ideology, and he said that the American designation of the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization is to Muslims' benefit because it "removes the political aspect that has corrupted Islam." He criticized the Muslim Brotherhood for wanting to re-establish an Islamic Caliphate and said that its "removal" from Islam would "give moderate, rational, and merciful Islam a chance to finally defeat those ideas." He added that Muslims should "look at themselves in a mirror" regarding the rights they give to other people.
Following are excerpts:
Dr. Tawfik Hamid: We see that during the recent decades in America, thousands of mosques, Islamic libraries, and Islamic schools have been built, and the Muslims safely practice their religious faith in this country. So blaming America for fighting Islam constitutes a very superficial perspective. Your other guest said that America created ISIS, but I believe that we are the ones who created ISIS and its ilk through our radical ideology, which we taught in our curricula, and which created minds that accept the use of violence, brutality, and bloodshed. So it is not America that created ISIS. It may have exploited it or allowed it to grow, whether intentionally – in the time of Obama – or by mistake.
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The Muslims here enjoy exactly the same rights as Jews and Christians. So I cannot say that this country fights [Islam].
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Host: If the Muslim Brotherhood is designated a terrorist organization in the U.S. – what would your status as a Muslim be? Wouldn't they target you by targeting this group? Wouldn't this constitute a grave danger to the Muslims in the West and for the mosques in America that you are boasting about?
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Dr. Tawfik Hamid: I believe that such designation would benefit the Muslims, because it would remove the political aspect that has corrupted Islam. You are talking about the Muslim Brotherhood that wishes to restore the Caliphate. Did the Caliphate set such a wonderful example of democracy and humanity? Christians were treated as second-class citizens, there were slave markets in the streets, and violent punishments were the norm. Is this a model for humanity we should follow? Is the restoration of the Caliphate by the Muslim Brotherhood our greatest hope, and we should all just follow them? Quite the opposite. Removing the Muslim Brotherhood from Islam would give the moderate, rational, and merciful Islam a chance to finally defeat those ideas.
Host: By "moderate Islam" you mean what Sayyid Qutb called "the American Islam," right? Isn't "American Islam" what you want?
Dr. Tawfik Hamid: No. I mean the moderate Islam that respects human rights, which the Muslims all over the world demand. When someone violates the freedom of the Muslims, like what is happening in China to some Muslims, everyone is furious over the violation of their religious rights, and because they are not allowed to build mosques. But at the same time, they do not look at themselves in the mirror, in order to see that they themselves do not give equal rights to others.
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