Egyptian Minister of Religious Endowment Mahmoud Hamdi Zaqzouq: Muslim Extremists Have Learned Their Terrorism from Europe

Following are excerpts from an interview with Egyptian Minister of Religious Endowment Mahmoud Hamdi Zaqzouq, which aired on Channel 1, Egyptian TV on May 28, 2009.

Interviewer: We are talking about an American nation that was attacked on 9/11, and whose image of Islam was shaped on that day.

Mahmoud Hamdi Zaqzouq: Right.

Interviewer: How can we change this image?

Mahmoud Hamdi Zaqzouq: This image does an injustice to the Islamic world. There are 1.5 billion Muslims around the world. As I've said in several lectures in European countries, even if there are extremists or terrorists in the Islamic world, they number no more than several thousand. Even if we say that there are 100,000 of them – should we believe them or the 1,5 billion Muslims? In addition, Muslims are not terrorists by nature, and Islam opposes terrorism. But if we wanted to argue with them, we could say that hey learned their terrorism from Europe.

Interviewer: Go ahead and argue!

Mahmoud Hamdi Zaqzouq: In what sense did they learn their terrorism from Europe? I'm addressing this to our European brothers: Who waged two world wars, with a death toll of more than 60 million, and with all the atrocities known to mankind?

Interviewer: The West.

Mahmoud Hamdi Zaqzouq: Was it Islam and the Muslims? No, it was the West. Who, only 14 years ago, killed 8,000 Bosnian Muslims, in full of view of the whole world, and under the supervision of U.N. soldiers, who were supposed to be protecting their lives? The Serbs [killed them], the West. 8,000 people were slaughtered – is that or is that not terrorism, bloodshed, and violence?