Former terrorists speak, draw criticism
- Former terrorist Kamel Saleem falls to his knees to emphasize a point during his speech on Thursday night in the Joe Crowley Student Union Ballroom. Walid Shoebat, another ex-terrorist, also spoke. Photo by Devin Sizemore.
Two ex-terrorists spoke about their experiences and views to a packed house in the Joe Crowley Student Union Ballroom last week.
First, Kamel Saleem spoke about his experiences with terrorism as a child. He said he remembers smuggling weapons to a terrorist organization and watching his friend die as a result. Then, Walid Shoebat spoke about his experience as a terrorist recruiter in Chicago. Together, they talked about their conversions to Christianity.
The two said terrorism is a much bigger part of Islam than most Americans think. Another main point the two speakers made was that a lot of university students are sympathetic to terrorists, painting them as revolutionaries or freedom fighters.
“It has always been that in the United States itself the youth have always been suckers for revolutionary agendas,” Shoebat said during a phone interview.
Shoebat said that isn’t a correct point of view on terrorism.People shouldn’t make excuses for their actions.
The two were brought to the University of Nevada, Reno by the club International Conservatives for Reno.
Though some protested the speech, titled “Why We Want to Kill You,” the crowd responded favorably with excited clapping and cheers at the end of the discussion. The lecture was interrupted only once by a heckler who accused Shoebat of being a “hate monger” halfway through.
Anthony Martha, a 23-year-old computer science major, said the two misrepresented the number of radical Islamic terrorists. He said the speakers used their lives to unfairly generalize Islam as a religion just for terrorists.
Martha said it was ironic that the two said a solution to the terrorist problem was to educate young would-be terrorists.
“I left that place not with an education about Islam, I left with a fear of it,” Martha said. “So they’ve just become fear mongers through the Christian side versus becoming fear mongers on the Islam side.”
Another student, Sam England, a 23-year-old biochemistry major, said he liked their message, especially that terrorism is self-perpetuated instead of caused by an outside source like American occupation. He enjoyed learning about the development of the terrorist mind-set he said.
England said he has spent some time in Iraq and though he didn’t mingle much with the population, Shoebat’s characterization of devout Islamists was fair.
Isaiah Prince, a 26-year-old international affairs and economics major, said he was hoping more for a conversation about the ideology, why Islamic terrorism has targeted the U.S. and how the country can reduce that.
Saleem did a good job of conveying what it was like growing up in a terroristic culture, Prince said. Shoebat seemed biased and anti-Islamic, he said.
Prince said he wished Shoebat did more to put fundamental Islam in the context of more peaceful Islamic philosophies. He thought the speech wasn’t fear mongering as much as it was a wake-up call.
“As far as blowing it out of proportion, no, they just didn’t show the other side, which nobody does,” Prince said. “In a Michael Moore (film) he doesn’t show the other side to his arguments; he just argues. Does that mean Michael Moore blows things out of proportion? Maybe. Does that mean you should discount everything they say? Definitely not.”
Clint Demeritt can be reached at cdemeritt@nevadasagebrush.com.
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