Tag Archives: tawfik hamid

Air Force Paper on the Passive Terrorism of Hijabs

Writing at The Intercept, Murtaza Hussain took issue with a “US military white paper [describing] wearing hijab as ‘passive terrorism’.”

A policy paper issued by the Air Force Research Laboratory, titled Countering Violent Extremism: Scientific Methods & Strategies, includes a chapter setting forth controversial and unsubstantiated theories of radicalization, including the idea that support for militant groups is driven by “sexual deprivation” and that headscarves worn by Muslim women represent a form of “passive terrorism.”

In the interest of accuracy, it is worth noting the publication was not an Air Force policy paper, and it included the disclaimer that the views were expressly only the authors’.

It is also not unusual for the US military to publish academic Read more

Column: Use Koran to Control Afghan Anger

In a fascinating but brief column, Dr. Tawfik Hamid of the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies suggests the US military should use the Quran to influence the Islamic population’s reaction to their conduct [emphasis added]:

The Koranic text can actually be used in such situations to control the Afghan anger and prevent its spread. In fact, the religiosity of people in these parts of the world makes the use of religious text more effective in controlling people’s anger than using formal apologetic approaches.

(Dr. Hamid joins a chorus of other resources who have written on the issues of “apologies” in the Iraqi and Afghan cultures.  They are not viewed the same way a Western citizen would view an apology.)

Dr. Hamid suggests several Quranic texts that might be used to “defend” Read more