The religion of Islam needs to go through a reform process in order to weed out the radical portions of it, retired Navy Lt. Cmdr. Dr. Zuhdi Jasser told Newsmax TV.
Jasser appeared on “Newsmax Now” and spoke to hosts Bill Tucker and Ellis Henican about Tuesday’s terror attack in New York City that resulted in eight dead and 12 injured when a radical Islamic terrorist mowed down people on a bike path.
“Right now we’re at the 500-year anniversary of the Christian Reformation and 100 years after that began in 1517, you had the 30 Years War where eight million people died,” said Jasser, the president of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy.
“I think Islam is at that point right now in which we have major conflicts against theocrats happening, and we need to go through a reformation, and I think America can’t sit it out or it’s going to continue to be collateral damage, and we need to take the sides of free thinkers.
“The Islamic establishment of theocrats can be defeated as history has shown not only through other faiths but the rise of liberty, and those who want to be free will end up winning, I believe.”
The suspected terrorist in Tuesday’s attack admitted to being radicalized by watching ISIS videos of killings and other forms of propaganda. He even asked authorities to bring an ISIS flag to his hospital room, where he was being held after a police officer shot him to stop his rampage.
Jasser said most leaders of Islamic governments are in favor of a “Sharia state mentality,” something that needs to change.
“I will tell you that 90 percent of the people running Islamic governments and organizations believe in an Islamic state, Sharia state mentality, which is why most of those states from Iran to Saudi Arabia to Pakistan are all prisons that nobody would want to live in because our faith hasn’t gone through an individual reform for universal human rights,” he said.