Sue Lani Madsen: Nonie Darwish’s immigration tale embraces American culture

Immigrants bring fresh eyes to their adopted country. It’s not just about arriving in a new culture, but leaving another. Contrast sharpens the vision.

Nationally known speaker Nonie Darwish, an Egyptian-American immigrant, was featured at this week’s Spokane College Women’s Association luncheon.

She started elementary school in the 1950s in Gaza, where her father was stationed with the Egyptian army to direct covert operations against Israel. He was killed by an Israeli mail bomb and declared “shahid,” a martyr for the faith, by President Gamal Abdel Nasser. Losing her beloved father so suddenly shook the 8-year-old’s world.

Her mother was the honored widow of the shahid and returned to Cairo with her five children for better schooling. Darwish earned bachelor’s degrees in sociology and anthropology from American University in Cairo, worked for the Middle East News Agency as an editor and translator, and life was normal. Then it was shaken again.

As an Egyptian Muslim, Darwish’s road to immigration began when she wanted to marry an Egyptian Christian. It took seven years to obtain visas to emigrate from Cairo to Los Angeles, under threat as infidels, defilers of Allah. She and her husband eventually obtained U.S. citizenship.

Thirty years living in a culture based on Islamic values highlighted to her the differences from Western European and American values. She described it as the contrast between a culture of life shaped by the golden rule and a culture shaped by worship of violent jihad. Refugees may not know the reasons, but “that difference is why people throw themselves into the sea to come here,” she said. Her observations led Darwish to accept Christ as her savior.

In her latest book, “Wholly Different,” Darwish compares the Judeo-Christian values underlying American culture to the Islamic values she was taught from grade school through university. She finds the roots of American values actively denied among those who call themselves secular, nonreligious or atheist, but biblical values have shaped our culture in ways very different from Islam. Self-criticism and redemption are cornerstones of American culture, forbidden in Islamic culture. “There is no confession, apology and forgiveness in Islam,” Darwish said.

To assimilate or not to assimilate is the question facing every immigrant. Darwish chose to embrace her adopted culture. According to Darwish, multiculturalism sends an unhealthy message to immigrants, encouraging them to hold on to old loyalties and overlook new opportunities.

And sometimes to cynically use American fascination with the exotic to their advantage. Darwish told of bumping into a fellow immigrant who had worn sleeveless sundresses and never covered her hair in Egypt. When asked why the long sleeves and hijab now, the woman said, “The ethnic look works in America.”

It’s a lesson Darwish says the Muslim Brotherhood has learned. Banned in Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East as a terrorist group, it is legal in the U.S. According to Darwish, the Brotherhood has learned to manipulate the dynamics of minority power. In Egypt, being called “infidel” shuts down communication. She sees the word “racist” being used the same way.

This development scares her.

Darwish said Islam was born 600 years after Christ not as just another Abrahamic religion but as a “countermovement against the greatest ethical revolution in the world” under Christianity. Its goal then as now is to replace, not to coexist. She emphasized her fight isn’t with her family and friends in the old country, it is against Islamic values. They are anathema to biblically based American values.

Asked to comment on President Donald Trump’s blunt speech in Saudi Arabia before leaders of 50 Muslim countries, she said Arab leaders prefer Trump to former President Barack Obama. Obama gave legitimacy to the feared Muslim Brotherhood. President Trump’s blunt words spoke the Islamic language of self-respect and power.

Darwish traveled home to Egypt in 2001 at the request of her family, who wanted to know more about their mother’s culture. As they left Egypt on Sept. 10, her daughter said she would not have believed her mother’s stories if she hadn’t seen the culture. Then she thanked her mother for raising her to be an American.