EX-MUSLIM CALLS ON HER PEOPLE TO REJECT HATRED.

Byline: Lisa Friedman Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - Nonie Darwish was 8 years old and living in Gaza when her father, an Egyptian military officer who led Arab attacks inside Israel, was killed by assassins.

``Which one of you will avenge your father's death and kill Jews?'' Darwish recalls friends, family and neighbors asking her and her siblings.

Her life could not have taken a more different path. Today Darwish, 56, makes her home in the San Fernando Valley and runs an ``Arabs for Israel'' Web site.

A Muslim who converted to Christianity, Darwish also is making a national name for herself as an outspoken critic of radical Islam, as well as of moderate Muslims whom she believes don't do enough to fight what she calls the ``culture of hatred'' in Arab countries.

``I might sound a little harsh talking and judging my culture of origin, but it is time for Arabs and Muslims to start doing some soul-searching,'' she said recently in Washington, D.C., where she was speaking to the Israel Project, a pro-Israel public relations group.

``The silent Muslim majority has to rise and end this insanity - teach children peace instead of war, teach them respect for other religions,'' she said. ``We need to promote that in the Arab world.''

Darwish's newfound role as an editorialist and public speaker has come at a price.

She writes under a pseudonym: ``Nonie'' is a family nickname, and ``Darwish'' is her grandfather's last name. She asked that the community where she lives not be printed because she receives periodic death threats.

Jennifer Laslo Mizrahi, president of The Israel Project, called Darwish ``courageous'' and asked her to kick off the group's newest initiative, Teach Kids Peace.

``If you do searches of courageous Muslim leaders willing to speak out, there aren't very many of them,'' Mizrahi said.

But Ibrahim Hooper, director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group in Washington, said he thinks Darwish is ``a notorious Muslim-basher.''

Referring to the story Darwish tells of growing up indoctrinated against Jews and other non-Muslims, Hooper said, ``If that was her experience, it's not the experience of the majority of Muslims worldwide.''

Born in Egypt and raised during the 1950s in Gaza - then under Egyptian control - Darwish spent her school days memorizing and reciting daily poetry about the pride of martyrdom. The lyrics of her playground songs referred to Jews as ``dogs.''

Her father was a high-ranking officer in the Egyptian military, and his job, Darwish said, was to lead undercover attacks inside Israel ``and cause as much damage and destruction and death inside Israel as possible.''

Even so, Darwish said, both anti-Semitism and strict Islamic followings were absent from her home life. Her father, she said, treated his job as an unwanted duty.

When her father was assassinated in 1956, Darwish said, he was hailed as a national hero and a square in Gaza was renamed in his honor. But her mother, Darwish said, saw no glory in the husband dying a ``martyr'' and struggled as a single parent.

A government pension afforded Darwish the ability to attend Catholic school, an education that led her on a path to the American University in Cairo and later to a position as an editor for the Middle East News Agency. Along the way, Darwish met and married a Christian, converted to Christianity herself and moved to Southern California in 1978.

The 9-11 terrorist attacks triggered something inside her, she said. Listening to Islamic leaders claim the terrorists were not truly Muslim, Darwish found herself furious that no one was taking responsibility for the glorification of cultural violence on Arab television and in schoolbooks.

Darwish began writing opinion pieces for newspapers, as well as for the conservative online journal FrontPage Magazine, criticizing what she saw as a dearth of Muslim outrage at Islamic fundamentalists.

``They just want to divorce themselves from being responsible for producing people like that,'' she said.

Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Sherman Oaks, who is pushing to divert at least $150 million of U.S. foreign aid to the Palestinian territories into creating new textbooks and school curricula that don't glorify suicide bombing, called Darwish's perspective valuable.

``We can't lie to ourselves and believe what she describes isn't happening,'' he said. ``A whole hate industry is operating in the Middle East.''

Kamal Nawash, a Palestinian native who was raised in the U.S. and who now runs a group in Washington called Free Muslims Against Terrorism, praised Darwish's work, but said her decision to leave Islam dilutes her message.

``She left the religion and now she's trying to reform it,'' Nawash said. ``We support her as much as possible, but the only people she can really speak to are the choir.''

Still, he said, Darwish's voice is an important one no matter who listens to it.

``The Muslim community needs the controversy,'' he said. ``For too long there has been a monopoly on who spoke for us.''

For her part, Darwish said, she has made peace with her role. And she believes her father's spirit is guiding her.

``Really inside me, I think he's directing me in what I'm doing,'' she said. ``I think my dad would be proud.''

Lisa Friedman, [phone]

lisa.friedman(at)langnews.com

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Photo:

Nonie Darwish, founder of Arabs for Israel, calls upon people in the Mideast, especially followers of Islam, to end the cycle of hatred. ``It is time for Arabs and Muslims to start doing some soul-searching,'' she says.

Tom Mendoza/Staff Photographer