WEBVTT

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Could I protect my father

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from the Armed Islamic Group with a paring knife?

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That was the question I faced

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one Tuesday morning in June of 1993,

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when I was a law student.

NOTE Paragraph

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I woke up early that morning

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in Dad's apartment

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on the outskirts of Algiers, Algeria,

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to an unrelenting pounding on the front door.

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It was a season as described by a local paper

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when every Tuesday a scholar fell

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to the bullets of fundamentalist assassins.

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My father's university teaching of Darwin

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had already provoked a classroom visit

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from the head of the so-called
Islamic Salvation Front,

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who denounced Dad as an advocate of biologism

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before Dad had ejected the man,

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and now whoever was outside

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would neither identify himself nor go away.

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So my father tried to get the police on the phone,

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but perhaps terrified by the rising tide

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of armed extremism that had already claimed

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the lives of so many Algerian officers,

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they didn't even answer.

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And that was when I went to the kitchen,

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got out a paring knife,

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and took up a position inside the entryway.

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It was a ridiculous thing to do, really,

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but I couldn't think of anything else,

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and so there I stood.

NOTE Paragraph

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When I look back now, I think
that that was the moment

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that set me on the path was to writing a book

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called "Your Fatwa Does Not Apply Here:

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Untold Stories from the Fight
Against Muslim Fundamentalism."

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The title comes from a Pakistani play.

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I think it was actually that moment

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that sent me on the journey

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to interview 300 people of Muslim heritage

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from nearly 30 countries,

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from Afghanistan to Mali,

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to find out how they fought fundamentalism

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peacefully like my father did,

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and how they coped with the attendant risks.

NOTE Paragraph

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Luckily, back in June of 1993,

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our unidentified visitor went away,

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but other families were so much less lucky,

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and that was the thought
that motivated my research.

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In any case, someone would return

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a few months later and leave a note

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on Dad's kitchen table,

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which simply said, "Consider yourself dead."

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Subsequently, Algeria's
fundamentalist armed groups

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would murder as many as 200,000 civilians

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in what came to be known

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as the dark decade of the 1990s,

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including every single one

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of the women that you see here.

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In its harsh counterterrorist response,

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the state resorted to torture

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and to forced disappearances,

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and as terrible as all of these events became,

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the international community largely ignored them.

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Finally, my father, an Algerian
peasant's son turned professor,

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was forced to stop teaching at the university

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and to flee his apartment,

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but what I will never forget

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about Mahfoud Bennoune, my dad,

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was that like so many other Algerian intellectuals,

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he refused to leave the country

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and he continued to publish pointed criticisms,

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both of the fundamentalists

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and sometimes of the government they battled.

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For example, in a November 1994 series

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in the newspaper El Watan

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entitled "How Fundamentalism

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Produced a Terrorism without Precedent,"

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he denounced what he called

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the terrorists' radical break with the true Islam

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as it was lived by our ancestors.

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These were words that could get you killed.

NOTE Paragraph

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My father's country taught me

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in that dark decade of the 1990s that

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the popular struggle against Muslim fundamentalism

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is one of the most important

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and overlooked human rights struggles

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in the world.

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This remains true today, nearly 20 years later.

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You see, in every country

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where you hear about armed jihadis

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targeting civilians,

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there are also unarmed people

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defying those militants that you don't hear about,

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and those people need our support to succeed.

NOTE Paragraph

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In the West, it's often assumed

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that Muslims generally condone terrorism.

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Some on the right think this because they view

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Muslim culture as inherently violent,

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and some on the left imagine this

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because they view Muslim violence,

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fundamentalist violence,

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solely as a product of legitimate grievances.

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But both views are dead wrong.

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In fact, many people of Muslim heritage

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around the world are staunch opponents

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both of fundamentalism and of terrorism,

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and often for very good reason.

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You see, they're much more likely to be victims

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of this violence than its perpetrators.

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Let me just give you one example.

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According to a 2009 survey

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of Arabic language media resources,

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between 2004 and 2008,

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no more than 15 percent of al Qaeda's victims

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were Westerners.

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That's a terrible toll, but the vast majority

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were people of Muslim heritage,

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killed by Muslim fundamentalists.

NOTE Paragraph

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Now I've been talking for the last five minutes

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about fundamentalism, and you have a right to know

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exactly what I mean.

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I cite the definition given by the Algerian sociologist

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Marieme Helie Lucas,

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and she says that fundamentalisms,

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note the "s," so within all of the world's

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great religious traditions,

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"fundamentalisms are political
movements of the extreme right

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which in a context of globalization

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manipulate religion in order to achieve

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their political aims."

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Sadia Abbas has called this the radical politicization

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of theology.

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Now I want to avoid projecting the notion

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that there's sort of a monolith out there

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called Muslim fundamentalism
that is the same everywhere,

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because these movements
also have their diversities.

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Some use and advocate violence.

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Some do not, though they're often interrelated.

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They take different forms.

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Some may be non-governmental organizations,

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even here in Britain like Cageprisoners.

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Some may become political parties,

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like the Muslim Brotherhood,

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and some may be openly armed groups

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like the Taliban.

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But in any case, these are all radical projects.

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They're not conservative or traditional approaches.

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They're most often about changing
people's relationship with Islam

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rather than preserving it.

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What I am talking about is the Muslim extreme right,

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and the fact that its adherents are

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or purport to be Muslim

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makes them no less offensive

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than the extreme right anywhere else.

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So in my view, if we consider ourselves

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liberal or left-wing,

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human rights-loving or feminist,

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we must oppose these movements

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and support their grassroots opponents.

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Now let me be clear

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that I support an effective struggle

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against fundamentalism,

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but also a struggle that must itself

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respect international law,

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so nothing I am saying should be taken

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as a justification for refusals

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to democratize,

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and here I send out a shout-out of support

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to the pro-democracy movement 
in Algeria today, Barakat.

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Nor should anything I say be taken

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as a justification of violations of human rights,

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like the mass death sentences

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handed out in Egypt earlier this week.

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But what I am saying

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is that we must challenge these
Muslim fundamentalist movements

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because they threaten human rights

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across Muslim-majority contexts,

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and they do this in a range of ways,

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most obviously with the direct attacks on civilians

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by the armed groups that carry those out.

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But that violence is just the tip of the iceberg.

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These movements as a whole purvey discrimination

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against religious minorities and sexual minorities.

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They seek to curtail the freedom of religion

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of everyone who either practices in a different way

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or chooses not to practice.

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And most definingly, they lead an all-out war

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on the rights of women.

NOTE Paragraph

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Now, faced with these movements

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in recent years, Western discourse

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has most often offered

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two flawed responses.

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The first that one sometimes finds on the right

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suggests that most Muslims are fundamentalist

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or something about Islam is
inherently fundamentalist,

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and this is just offensive and wrong,

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but unfortunately on the left
one sometimes encounters

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a discourse that is too politically correct

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to acknowledge the problem of
Muslim fundamentalism at all

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or, even worse, apologizes for it,

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and this is unacceptable as well.

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So what I'm seeking is a new way

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of talking about this all together,

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which is grounded in the lived experiences

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and the hope of the people on the front lines.

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I'm painfully aware that there has been

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an increase in discrimination
against Muslims in recent years

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in countries like the U.K. and the U.S.,

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and that too is a matter of grave concern,

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but I firmly believe

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that telling these counter-stereotypical stories

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of people of Muslim heritage

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who have confronted the fundamentalists

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and been their primary victims

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is also a great way of countering that discrimination.

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So now let me introduce you

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to four people whose stories

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I had the great honor of telling.

NOTE Paragraph

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Faizan Peerzada and the Rafi Peer Theatre

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workshop named for his father

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have for years promoted the performing arts

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in Pakistan.

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With the rise of jihadist violence,

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they began to receive threats

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to call off their events, which they refused to heed.

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And so a bomber struck their 2008

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eighth world performing arts festival in Lahore,

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producing rain of glass

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that fell into the venue

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injuring nine people,

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and later that same night,

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the Peerzadas made a very difficult decision:

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they announced that their festival

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would continue as planned the next day.

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As Faizan said at the time,

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if we bow down to the Islamists,

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we'll just be sitting in a dark corner.

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But they didn't know what would happen.

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Would anyone come?

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In fact, thousands of people came out the next day

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to support the performing arts in Lahore,

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and this simultaneously thrilled

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and terrified Faizan,

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and he ran up to a woman

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who had come in with her two small children,

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and he said, "You do know there
was a bomb here yesterday,

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and you do know there's a threat here today."

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And she said, "I know that,

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but I came to your festival

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with my mother when I was their age,

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and I still have those images in my mind.

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We have to be here."

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With stalwart audiences like this,

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the Peerzadas were able to conclude

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their festival on schedule.

NOTE Paragraph

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And then the next year,

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they lost all of their sponsors

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due to the security risk.

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So when I met them in 2010,

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they were in the middle of the first subsequent event

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that they were able to have in the same venue,

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and this was the ninth youth performing arts festival

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held in Lahore in a year when that city

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had already experienced 44 terror attacks.

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This was a time when the Pakistani Taliban

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had commenced their systematic targeting

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of girls' schools that would culminate

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in the attack on Malala Yousafzai.

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What did the Peerzadas do in that environment?

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They staged girls' school theater.

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So I had the privilege of watching "Naang Wal,"

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which was a musical in the Punjabi language,

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and the girls of Lahore Grammar School

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played all the parts.

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They sang and danced,

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they played the mice and the water buffalo,

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and I held my breath, wondering,

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would we get to the end

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of this amazing show?

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And when we did, the whole audience

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collectively exhaled,

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and a few people actually wept,

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and then they filled the auditorium

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with the peaceful boom of their applause.

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And I remember thinking in that moment

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that the bombers made headlines here

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two years before

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but this night and these people

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are as important a story.

NOTE Paragraph

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Maria Bashir is the first and only

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woman chief prosecutor in Afghanistan.

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She's been in the post since 2008

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and actually opened an office to investigate

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cases of violence against women,

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which she says is the most important area

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in her mandate.

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When I meet her in her office in Herat,

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she enters surrounded by

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four large men with four huge guns.

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In fact, she now has 23 bodyguards,

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because she has weathered bomb attacks

00:12:06.870 --> 00:12:08.548
that nearly killed her kids,

00:12:08.548 --> 00:12:11.899
and it took the leg off of one of her guards.

NOTE Paragraph

00:12:11.899 --> 00:12:14.009
Why does she continue?

00:12:14.009 --> 00:12:16.663
She says with a smile that that is the question

00:12:16.663 --> 00:12:18.710
that everyone asks—

00:12:18.710 --> 00:12:22.535
as she puts it, "Why you risk not living?"

00:12:22.535 --> 00:12:24.174
And it is simply that for her,

00:12:24.174 --> 00:12:27.643
a better future for all the Maria Bashirs to come

00:12:27.643 --> 00:12:29.127
is worth the risk,

00:12:29.127 --> 00:12:30.837
and she knows that if people like her

00:12:30.837 --> 00:12:32.752
do not take the risk,

00:12:32.752 --> 00:12:35.049
there will be no better future.

00:12:35.049 --> 00:12:36.776
Later on in our interview,

00:12:36.776 --> 00:12:39.139
Prosecutor Bashir tells me how worried she is

00:12:39.139 --> 00:12:40.658
about the possible outcome

00:12:40.658 --> 00:12:43.157
of government negotiations with the Taliban,

00:12:43.157 --> 00:12:45.551
the people who have been trying to kill her.

00:12:45.551 --> 00:12:47.303
"If we give them a place in the government,"

00:12:47.303 --> 00:12:50.520
she asks, "Who will protect women's rights?"

00:12:50.520 --> 00:12:52.886
And she urges the international community

00:12:52.886 --> 00:12:55.518
not to forget its promise about women

00:12:55.518 --> 00:12:59.345
because now they want peace with Taliban.

00:12:59.345 --> 00:13:01.550
A few weeks after I leave Afghanistan,

00:13:01.550 --> 00:13:04.425
I see a headline on the Internet.

00:13:04.425 --> 00:13:08.030
An Afghan prosecutor has been assassinated.

00:13:08.030 --> 00:13:10.166
I google desperately,

00:13:10.166 --> 00:13:11.840
and thankfully that day I find out

00:13:11.840 --> 00:13:13.926
that Maria was not the victim,

00:13:13.926 --> 00:13:16.149
though sadly, another Afghan prosecutor

00:13:16.149 --> 00:13:18.180
was gunned down on his way to work.

00:13:18.180 --> 00:13:21.175
And when I hear headlines like that now,

00:13:21.175 --> 00:13:23.473
I think that as international troops

00:13:23.473 --> 00:13:26.521
leave Afghanistan this year and beyond,

00:13:26.521 --> 00:13:28.427
we must continue to care

00:13:28.427 --> 00:13:29.860
about what happens to people there,

00:13:29.860 --> 00:13:32.886
to all of the Maria Bashirs.

00:13:32.886 --> 00:13:35.499
Sometimes I still hear her voice in my head

00:13:35.499 --> 00:13:38.580
saying, with no bravado whatsoever,

00:13:38.580 --> 00:13:41.185
"The situation of the women of Afghanistan

00:13:41.185 --> 00:13:43.091
will be better someday.

00:13:43.091 --> 00:13:45.326
We should prepare the ground for this,

00:13:45.326 --> 00:13:48.269
even if we are killed."

NOTE Paragraph

00:13:49.854 --> 00:13:51.502
There are no words adequate

00:13:51.502 --> 00:13:53.478
to denounce the al Shabaab terrorists

00:13:53.478 --> 00:13:55.740
who attacked the Westgate Mall in Nairobi

00:13:55.740 --> 00:13:59.202
on the same day as a children's cooking competition

00:13:59.202 --> 00:14:01.620
in September of 2013.

00:14:01.620 --> 00:14:06.119
They killed 67, including poets and pregnant women.

00:14:06.119 --> 00:14:08.218
Far away in the American Midwest,

00:14:08.218 --> 00:14:10.565
I had the good fortune of meeting Somali-Americans

00:14:10.565 --> 00:14:13.413
who were working to counter
the efforts of al Shabaab

00:14:13.413 --> 00:14:15.637
to recruit a small number of young people

00:14:15.637 --> 00:14:17.581
from their city of Minneapolis

00:14:17.581 --> 00:14:21.279
to take part in atrocities like Westgate.

00:14:21.279 --> 00:14:23.239
Abdirizak Bihi's studious

00:14:23.239 --> 00:14:26.128
17-year-old nephew Burhan Hassan

00:14:26.128 --> 00:14:28.776
was recruited here in 2008,

00:14:28.776 --> 00:14:30.536
spirited to Somalia,

00:14:30.536 --> 00:14:33.906
and then killed when he tried to come home.

00:14:33.906 --> 00:14:35.500
Since that time, Mr. Bihi,

00:14:35.500 --> 00:14:39.753
who directs the no-budget Somali
Education and Advocacy Center,

00:14:39.753 --> 00:14:42.204
has been vocally denouncing the recruitment

00:14:42.204 --> 00:14:44.060
and the failures of government

00:14:44.060 --> 00:14:46.279
and Somali-American institutions

00:14:46.279 --> 00:14:49.304
like the Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center

00:14:49.304 --> 00:14:51.535
where he believes his nephew was radicalized

00:14:51.535 --> 00:14:53.641
during a youth program.

00:14:53.641 --> 00:14:55.794
But he doesn't just criticize the mosque.

00:14:55.794 --> 00:14:57.373
He also takes on the government

00:14:57.373 --> 00:14:59.158
for its failure to do more

00:14:59.158 --> 00:15:01.656
to prevent poverty in his community.

00:15:01.656 --> 00:15:03.945
Given his own lack of financial resources,

00:15:03.945 --> 00:15:06.256
Mr. Bihi has had to be creative.

00:15:06.256 --> 00:15:08.150
To counter the efforts of al Shabaab

00:15:08.150 --> 00:15:10.535
to sway more disaffected youth,

00:15:10.535 --> 00:15:12.970
in the wake of the group's 2010 attack

00:15:12.970 --> 00:15:15.564
on World Cup viewers in Uganda,

00:15:15.564 --> 00:15:18.904
he organized a Ramadan basketball tournament

00:15:18.904 --> 00:15:21.436
in Minneapolis in response.

00:15:21.436 --> 00:15:24.120
Scores of Somali-American kids came out

00:15:24.120 --> 00:15:25.508
to embrace sport

00:15:25.508 --> 00:15:28.000
despite the fatwa against it.

00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:29.745
They played basketball

00:15:29.745 --> 00:15:33.612
as Burhan Hassan never would again.

00:15:33.612 --> 00:15:36.262
For his efforts, Mr. Bihi has been ostracized

00:15:36.262 --> 00:15:39.334
by the leadership of the Abubakar
As-Saddique Islamic Center,

00:15:39.334 --> 00:15:41.899
with which he used to have good relations.

00:15:41.899 --> 00:15:44.285
He told me, "One day we saw the imam on TV

00:15:44.285 --> 00:15:46.343
calling us infidels and saying,

00:15:46.343 --> 00:15:49.912
'These families are trying to destroy the mosque.'"

00:15:49.912 --> 00:15:51.323
This is at complete odds

00:15:51.323 --> 00:15:53.856
with how Abdirizak Bihi understands

00:15:53.856 --> 00:15:55.656
what he is trying to do

00:15:55.656 --> 00:15:58.062
by exposing al Shabaab recruitment,

00:15:58.062 --> 00:16:00.484
which is to save the religion I love

00:16:00.484 --> 00:16:03.610
from a small number of extremists.

NOTE Paragraph

00:16:04.938 --> 00:16:07.499
Now I want to tell one last story,

00:16:07.499 --> 00:16:10.513
that of a 22-year-old law student in Algeria

00:16:10.513 --> 00:16:12.459
named Amel Zenoune-Zouani

00:16:12.459 --> 00:16:14.338
who had the same dreams of a legal career

00:16:14.338 --> 00:16:17.040
that I did back in the '90s.

00:16:17.040 --> 00:16:18.969
She refused to give up her studies,

00:16:18.969 --> 00:16:20.938
despite the fact that the fundamentalists

00:16:20.938 --> 00:16:23.468
battling the Algerian state back then

00:16:23.468 --> 00:16:27.090
threatened all who continued their education.

00:16:27.090 --> 00:16:31.200
On January 26, 1997, Amel boarded the bus

00:16:31.200 --> 00:16:33.122
in Algiers where she was studying

00:16:33.122 --> 00:16:35.305
to go home and spend a Ramadan evening

00:16:35.305 --> 00:16:36.994
with her family,

00:16:36.994 --> 00:16:39.380
and would never finish law school.

00:16:39.380 --> 00:16:40.840
When the bus reached the outskirts

00:16:40.840 --> 00:16:42.615
of her hometown, it was stopped

00:16:42.615 --> 00:16:44.757
at a checkpoint manned by men

00:16:44.757 --> 00:16:47.051
from the Armed Islamic Group.

00:16:47.051 --> 00:16:48.780
Carrying her schoolbag,

00:16:48.780 --> 00:16:50.766
Amel was taken off the bus

00:16:50.766 --> 00:16:53.355
and killed in the street.

00:16:53.355 --> 00:16:54.491
The men who cut her throat

00:16:54.491 --> 00:16:56.341
then told everyone else,

00:16:56.341 --> 00:16:58.235
"If you go to university,

00:16:58.235 --> 00:17:00.789
the day will come when we will kill all of you

00:17:00.789 --> 00:17:04.020
just like this."

NOTE Paragraph

00:17:04.020 --> 00:17:06.720
Amel died at exactly 5:17 p.m.,

00:17:06.720 --> 00:17:09.568
which we know because when she fell in the street,

00:17:09.568 --> 00:17:11.345
her watch broke.

00:17:11.345 --> 00:17:12.574
Her mother showed me the watch

00:17:12.574 --> 00:17:14.575
with the second hand still aimed

00:17:14.575 --> 00:17:16.071
optimistically upward

00:17:16.071 --> 00:17:19.507
towards a 5:18 that would never come.

00:17:19.507 --> 00:17:20.656
Shortly before her death,

00:17:20.656 --> 00:17:22.511
Amel had said to her mother of herself

00:17:22.511 --> 00:17:24.398
and her sisters,

00:17:24.398 --> 00:17:28.015
"Nothing will happen to us, Inshallah, God willing,

00:17:28.015 --> 00:17:29.885
but if something happens,

00:17:29.885 --> 00:17:32.768
you must know that we are dead for knowledge.

00:17:32.768 --> 00:17:36.978
You and father must keep your heads held high."

NOTE Paragraph

00:17:36.978 --> 00:17:40.960
The loss of such a young woman is unfathomable,

00:17:40.960 --> 00:17:42.515
and so as I did my research

00:17:42.515 --> 00:17:45.769
I found myself searching for Amel's hope again

00:17:45.769 --> 00:17:48.706
and her name even means "hope" in Arabic.

00:17:48.706 --> 00:17:51.957
I think I found it in two places.

00:17:51.957 --> 00:17:54.252
The first is in the strength of her family

00:17:54.252 --> 00:17:57.518
and all the other families to
continue telling their stories

00:17:57.518 --> 00:18:00.583
and to go on with their lives despite the terrorism.

00:18:00.583 --> 00:18:03.865
In fact, Amel's sister Lamia overcame her grief,

00:18:03.865 --> 00:18:05.236
went to law school,

00:18:05.236 --> 00:18:07.990
and practices as a lawyer in Algiers today,

00:18:07.990 --> 00:18:09.591
something which is only possible

00:18:09.591 --> 00:18:10.780
because the armed fundamentalists

00:18:10.780 --> 00:18:13.658
were largely defeated in the country.

00:18:13.658 --> 00:18:16.505
And the second place I found Amel's hope

00:18:16.505 --> 00:18:18.977
was everywhere that women and men

00:18:18.977 --> 00:18:21.672
continue to defy the jihadis.

00:18:21.672 --> 00:18:24.930
We must support all of those in honor of Amel

00:18:24.930 --> 00:18:27.563
who continue this human rights struggle today,

00:18:27.563 --> 00:18:31.560
like the Network of Women
Living Under Muslim Laws.

00:18:31.560 --> 00:18:34.187
It is not enough, as the victims rights advocate

00:18:34.187 --> 00:18:36.074
Cherifa Kheddar told me in Algiers,

00:18:36.074 --> 00:18:39.139
it is not enough just to battle terrorism.

00:18:39.139 --> 00:18:41.683
We must also challenge fundamentalism,

00:18:41.683 --> 00:18:44.120
because fundamentalism is the ideology

00:18:44.120 --> 00:18:46.711
that makes the bed of this terrorism.

NOTE Paragraph

00:18:46.711 --> 00:18:50.150
Why is it that people like her, like all of them

00:18:50.150 --> 00:18:51.844
are not more well known?

00:18:51.844 --> 00:18:55.121
Why is it that everyone knows
who Osama bin Laden was

00:18:55.121 --> 00:18:57.054
and so few know of all of those

00:18:57.054 --> 00:19:00.747
standing up to the bin Ladens in their own contexts.

00:19:00.747 --> 00:19:03.404
We must change that, and so I ask you

00:19:03.404 --> 00:19:05.172
to please help share these stories

00:19:05.172 --> 00:19:06.945
through your networks.

00:19:06.945 --> 00:19:09.044
Look again at Amel Zenoune's watch,

00:19:09.044 --> 00:19:10.704
forever frozen,

00:19:10.704 --> 00:19:13.066
and now please look at your own watch

00:19:13.066 --> 00:19:16.090
and decide this is the moment that you commit

00:19:16.090 --> 00:19:17.998
to supporting people like Amel.

00:19:17.998 --> 00:19:20.379
We don't have the right to be silent about them

00:19:20.379 --> 00:19:21.877
because it is easier

00:19:21.877 --> 00:19:24.738
or because Western policy is flawed as well,

00:19:24.738 --> 00:19:27.074
because 5:17 is still coming

00:19:27.074 --> 00:19:28.941
to too many Amel Zenounes

00:19:28.941 --> 00:19:30.911
in places like northern Nigeria,

00:19:30.911 --> 00:19:33.487
where jihadis still kill students.

00:19:33.487 --> 00:19:36.568
The time to speak up in support of all of those

00:19:36.568 --> 00:19:38.876
who peacefully challenge fundamentalism

00:19:38.876 --> 00:19:41.840
and terrorism in their own communities

00:19:41.840 --> 00:19:43.376
is now.

NOTE Paragraph

00:19:43.376 --> 00:19:45.659
Thank you.

NOTE Paragraph

00:19:45.659 --> 00:19:48.165
(Applause)