Former Muslim Speaks Out On Why The West Misunderstands Islam

Okay, first before we give you the facts of the day, run Hyde Fight Infadels is streaming now only on Daily Wire. It's an ode to the great action movies of the 80s and 90s. There is even a love story which nobody expected. And you can support Daily Wire's mission to continue making movies that people actually want to watch. Go check it out. Inspiring Bible Stories and messages created to strengthen your faith. Whether you need peace, encouragement, or a fresh start, pray.com helps you make prayer part of your everyday life. Download the Pray.com app today. Islam and its role in American political life has been a huge and growing part of the national discussion just in this past month with characters like Mayor Zoran Mamdani and Abdul El Sayed making regular headlines. But our guest today argues that most Americans don't actually understand what drives Islam, and that DC in particular needs to look at it in a different light. I'm Daily Wire executive editor John Bickley with Georgia Howl. This is a weekend edition of Morning Wire. Joining us now is Danny Burmawi, the CEO of the Ideological Defense Institute. Danny, thank you for coming on the show. Thank you for having me. So tell us about your story first, because I think this obviously is driving what you do at your institution. You're originally a Muslim. You have now converted. If I understand this correctly, tell us about your story. Yeah, I converted 20 years ago. And I know that many people, they get excited when they hear a story about someone converting from Islam to Christianity, and especially when Christians, you know, because oh, why goodness, this is great. But I want to be clear that what I do today has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I converted. It is based on knowledge, on research. But yes, I converted from Islam to Christianity almost 20 years ago. And I had to leave my country of urgent Jordan to Lebanon. Lebanon is the only country in the Middle East where you can practice your faith freely. Of course, if we don't mention Israel, because Israel is completely on a different level. But in the Arab world, Lebanon is different. At least it was different when I moved, but freedom has been deteriorating there. Anyway, I moved to the United States in 2023, just a couple of months before October 7, October 7 happened. And that's when I decided to, because I was shocked from the scenes on the streets of the West. So I started the Ideological Defense Institute. And this month we are leading this initiative, the Enfidel Awareness Month. So you actually formed this institute as a result of watching how, particularly in America, people responded to October 7. Yeah, in North America and in Europe across the West, there has been rebranding of Islamic jihad, Islamic jihad using the lexicon of the left, has been rebranded as liberation movements, response to imperialism, and so forth and so on. So it was everything, but not the real thing, which is a religious war to establish the rule of Allah over all the world. So that's why I decided to educate policymakers, the church, and the public about the real threat. And especially this Islamol left alliance, which is single-handedly, is going to take the West down if the West doesn't respond properly. Now, tell us about your organization. Where is it based and what kind of activities do you engage in to further this mission? The Ideological Defense Institute was a response, as I say, to October 7, but also a response to the vacuum in DC and among Christian ministries. We have political correctness completely made the West vulnerable. People are non-confrontational, they don't want, they want to be kind, but this kindness is toxic, and it's very harmful. And policymakers are not dedicated enough about them at least. The institutions in DC, the universities, for the past 50 years, there has been indoctrination, at least two generations of American have been indoctrinated to hate their countries, hate their civilizations. Instead of celebrating America, they are blaming America, the superiority, the excellence, the prosperity, the progress in America is seen as the result of exploitation instead of the result of great ideas. So in this environment, IDI was founded to educate the policymakers, as I say, the church and the public. But I want to focus on the Enfidel Awareness Month, this month between 9/11 and October 7, which IDI is part of, it's a month to remind Americans and starts on 9/11 to remind Americans that at a time when different institutions are preventing their employees from using the word terrorism to describe 9/11. At a time, schools are lying, whitewashing, Islamic jihad, completely revising history. At this time, we exist to tell the truth that 9/11 was not a response to American oppression or it was something America deserved. It was not because of the relationship between America and Israel. Absolutely not. The navy, the US navy, was established as a response to Islamic jihad in the 18th century. Because according to Jefferson's letter to the Congress, the leader of the Islamic army, the barbers, told him, we are waging war against you because in our Quran, we are told that you are Enfidel's. So this happened before the existence of Israel or before any foreign policy mistakes that America did. We should all be concerned by the rise in Marxist thought in our country to text the very foundation on which our freedoms are built. And it's already having dangerous effects. Alliance defending freedom is pushing back, protecting your god-given rights in courtrooms across America. They're scoring critical wins for free speech, religious freedom, the sanctity of life, and parental rights even at the US Supreme Court. But they rely on friends like you to keep up their work. Stand for freedom with a gift today. Your gift will be matched by a special grant while funds last. Visit joinadf.com/wire or text wire to 838-48 to make twice the impact. That's joinadf.com/wire or text wire to 838-48 for it. September is my favorite time to get dressed because I am so ready for fall clothes. Even if the weather hasn't entirely gotten the memo yet, right now I want pieces I can layer, mixed together, and wear when it's 60 degrees in the morning and somehow 82 by lunch. I've been finding so much of that at Fabletics. Their modal rib crop tank is the kind of basic I live in this time of year. It's so soft and it looks so good under a jacket or a sweater as it does on its own. And have you seen their twill barrel pull-on pants with the gorgeous turtis print? Those are fall. They're relaxed, cropped at the ankle, and they have this easy pull-on waist, which is basically my ideal combination of looking put together while secretly being extremely comfortable. And that's what I like about Fabletics lately. I can find the workout sets, the layering basics, and the pants I'll actually wear all in the same place. And they keep dropping new colors and styles. So my wardrobe gets a little seasonal refresh without having to start over. Shop now at fabletics.com/wire to get 70 to 80% off of everything when you sign up as a new VIP. Take a quick style quiz and make sure to select wire when prompted to unlock this offer. This is a limited time offer, so don't wait. Again, that's fabletics.com/wire for 70 to 80% off of everything as a new VIP. Now you mentioned how you had to move out of your own home country because you could not practice openly your faith. The idea that Islam is necessarily political, necessarily has a goal of political control. Do you believe that is true? Is that something that is openly discussed enough in DC? How much of an argument is that for your institute? So the argument should be if Islam is a religion, not if Islam is a political ideology because it is definitely a political ideology that has a religious component. So in the West, people project their understanding, their word of view, into other cultures. They think that the rest of the word function the same way they function in the West. No, every good thing in the West is exclusive, as exceptional, as invention. It's not the default state of the rest of the word. So this is what I'm Americans need to understand. Even the definition of religion. What is a religion? And Christianity and Judaism in the West, the founding fathers, when they penned that constitution or the Bill of Rights, they were not thinking about Islam. They were thinking about the Protestant church, different denominations. They were thinking about Catholicism. Islam is coming from a different word. And then Islam, there's no separation between the religious component and the political component. When you think of Islam, and I hope that your listeners pay attention to this. When you think of Islam, don't think of Christianity. Think of the United States of America. Think of France. Think of China. Islam is a state that has a constitution called Sharia. It is a constitution. It's not comparative to a Christian canon or a Jewish halakhah. That is not true. That is false comparison. Islam is a state with a constitution, with a foreign policy doctrine called Jihad, with a financial system called Zakat, and with population called Muslims. So a Muslim is analogous with American, not with a Christian. So that is something people still don't understand. And what we are calling for is a recategorization of what Islam is. Islam should not be protected under the First Amendment or the Religious Freedom Act because think of communism. Karl Marx is the prophet. The manifesto is the Holy Scripture and communism is the religion and the worship of God. That God could be anything, the state, that whatever, the workers or a God in heaven, a turtle. I don't know, I don't care. But I'm just, the example is, if communists today decide that they are a religion, they will have the same protection and just like Islam. But we know that's not true. The same thing with Islam. And the last thing I wanna say is that the difference between Islam and Christianity, for example, is that Christianity has a set of ideas that we desire everybody to follow. But we do not have a divine mandate to impose this set of belief on the rest of the word. In Islam, the commandment to seize power and impose that set of belief on the rest of the word is something central to Islam. - So given your experience living in a predominantly Muslim country, what do you think a lot of Americans, perhaps specifically, progressives don't understand about Islam and Muslim culture? Your previous answer may have tied in with this, but what do you think are the blind spots of Americans living here now? - Actually, I believe that Americans themselves don't understand the left. Because they think that the left care, the left cares about the content of Islam or the content of any violent ideology. They don't care. They believe that ideas are the result of social circumstances. They are social construct. So if Islam is violent, it's not because these ideas generated from the people, it was imposed on them by the Western hegemony, Western oppression. So that is the mentality of the left. So unfortunately, telling the truth about Islam is not enough to shift how the left thinks about Islam. They don't care. They want Islam as an ally now, because they share the same enemy. And that enemy is that Western Christian West, the capitalist West, that individualistic West, they want the collectivist idea, just like Mamdani said last year, he said, we want to replace the coldness of individualism with the warmth of collectivism. What does that mean? That means the end of personalization. So this is what I believe that American people need to pay attention to. And when it comes to Islam, do not project your understanding of the word on other cultures. There is no such a thing as cultural relativism. Not all cultures are equal, that is not true. Western culture is superior to the rest of the cultures and my evidence to that. This is not bigotry, this is with evidence. Here is the evidence. It was the Western produced human rights declaration that the rest of the world signed on to adopt. It was not the Chinese declared human rights. It was not the Islamic human rights. It was the Western biblical Judeo-Christian that was secularized and globalized. So that is something essential. - Well, a very important topic on our minds, particularly from 9/11, as you said, with October 7th coming just weeks away, we appreciate your time. And thank you so much for joining us. - Thank you so much. It's an honor. - That was Danny Burmawi, CEO and founder of the Ideological Defense Institute. And this has been a weekend episode of Morning Wire.