This is one of the most brilliant and courageous things I’ve ever seen. Thanks to Ruby on Rails Guy for sharing this in the comments of another post.
In 2006 Wafa Sultan was named to Time Magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people “whose power, talent or moral example is transforming the world.” They had this to say:
“Sultan’s influence flows from her willingness to express openly critical views on Islamic extremism that are widely shared but rarely aired by other Muslims.”
Sultan believes:
“The trouble with Islam is deeply rooted in its teachings. Islam is not only a religion. Islam (is) also a political ideology that preaches violence and applies its agenda by force.â€Â
Personally, I would go so far as to say that Dr. Wafa Sultan is one of the most inspiring people I’ve ever seen in my life. I would have no problem comparing her to Dr. Martin Luther King.
About a year ago she appeared on Al Jazeera and debated some famous but foolish guy, and in the process she ripped him a new one. Watch this…
Following that debate, Dr. Sultan gave the following interview on Israel National Radio:
Part 1:
Part 2:
Here is some more background information regarding Dr. Wafa Sultan:
Sultan is a Syrian-American psychiatrist (from an Alawi family). She resides in Los Angeles, California. She emigrated to the US in 1989, and is now a naturalized citizen. Sultan has become notable since the September 11, 2001 attacks for her participation in Middle East political debates, with Arabic essays that circulated widely and some television appearances on Al-Jazeera and CNN.
On February 21, 2006, she took part in Al Jazeera’s weekly 90-minute discussion program The Opposite Direction. She spoke from Los Angeles, arguing with host Faisal al-Qassem and with Dr. Ibrahim Al-Khouli about Samuel P. Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations theory. A six minute composite video of her remarks was subtitled and widely circulated by http://www.MEMRI.org on weblogs and through e-mail. In this video she is scolding Muslims for treating non-Muslims differently and for not recognizing the accomplishments of non-Muslim society, while using its wealth and technology.
The New York Times estimated that the video of her appearance was viewed at least one million times as it spread via weblogs and email.
Sultan revealed to the Times that she is working on a book to be called The Escaped Prisoner: When God Is a Monster.
Recently, she sat in on a free-speech discussion at the University of California at Los Angeles, organized by the Ayn Rand Institute with Yaron Brook and Daniel Pipes as speakers.
Sultan describes her thesis as witnessing “a battle between modernity and barbarism which Islam will lose”, has brought her telephone threats, but also praise from reformers. Her comments, especially a pointed criticism that “no Jew has blown himself up in a German restaurant”, brought her an invitation to Tel Aviv, Israel by the American Jewish Congress.
Sultan believes that “The trouble with Islam is deeply rooted in its teachings. Islam is not only a religion. Islam (is) also a political ideology that preaches violence and applies its agenda by force.”
Sultan said she was shocked into secularism by the 1979 atrocities committed by Islamic extremists of the Muslim Brotherhood against innocent Syrian people, including the machine-gun assassination of her professor, Dr. Yusef al Yusef, an ophthalmologist renowned beyond Syria, in her classroom in front of her eyes at the University of Aleppo where she was a medical student.
“They shot hundreds of bullets into him, shouting, ‘Allah is great!’ ” she said. “At that point, I lost my trust in their god and began to question all our teachings. It was the turning point of my life, and it has led me to this present point. I had to leave. I had to look for another god.”
I am glad you enjoyed that movie. She is a person who worths respect.
Regards,
RoR guy!
Wow, what a powerful and courageous person, is the full debate of the al-jazeera available? I want to see how the muslim extremist answered her!
What she said – Sultan describes her thesis as witnessing “a battle between modernity and barbarism which Islam will loseâ€Â
- is absolutely spot on. I doubt this applies solely to Islam either.
Here is the other side of Wafa Sultan discussion on al Jazeera — part that was missing in mermi tv and hundreds of youtube videos of that discussion
Part1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRLWFKB30yk
Part2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4tKZv4THCA
Part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=us1dtTFHYjk&
Part4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpRPnwYHc9w
Of course there are extremist elements in all faiths. If you can think your way out of a paper bag, you’ll realize that Islam isn’t the only religion that preaches violence and pushes its agenda by force. I believe religious leaders throughout the history of Europe and the U.S. have used religion (the Christian faith…) to do evil, from Christopher Colubus to the present. George W. Bush has used religious connotations when discussing his reasons for invading Iraq, as well as using God as a justification for the war, saying that he’s doing it to be a “good messanger of His will,” etc.
Also, the Bible has so many passages that encourage violence, genocide, murder, etc. that it is ridiculous to act like the Quran is the only book to do such things. I don’t think it’s particularly couragous of Dr. Sultan to criticize an area (the Middle East) that Europe and the U.S. has done so much to disrupt since 1914 (when British troops occupied Basra).
Awareness,
I believe your points are all valid and I agree with you on principle.
Having read the Bible many times I believe you are technically incorrect in stating that it advocates genocide. Also on a technicality I would state that it does not advocate “murder”, though if you equate killing to murder then I can concede that point.
I would however like to point out that Islam is the only religion I am aware of where people actually openly preach and advocate the complete annihilation of any other religion. As an example of this please see this video: http://youtube.com/watch?v=yeB_1j4DsG0
Christians and others have done plenty of harm themselves, but Islamist extremists threaten to destroy the entire planet in the name of Allah.
John
Thank you Awareness for your points.
I would like to tell you that there is a HUGE difference between a leader who kills people just because he is a bad person (like the leaders you claimed) and between a person who kills because his GOD told him to do that. If killing order comes from GOD, this is a serious problem, that hard to be removed.
Be rational when you speak about Christianity. Read about it well, and try to differentiate between old and new testimonial. Jesus Christ came to fix what you mentioned.
Finally, compare nations in terms of human rights, women right, technology and another millions things to get feelings of whom are jailed in history prison because of their beliefs.
Thank you!
Glad you responded. You said,
Tell me, what do you think is the consequence of sending in the Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marines to Iraq? Just to let you know, our forces are very responsible for the killing of hundreds of thousands of innocent people, as was the known consequence for our invasion. If God told George W. Bush (the supreme leader of our armed forces) to attack, then G. W. Bush should also know that this is a “killing order from God.” You told me to be rational. I hope we’re all rational when we allow hundreds of thousands of innocent people, already devasted by years of U.S. supported Saddam Hussein and about ten years of sanctions, called genocidal by any one who bothered to look at what it was doing to the population (Denis Halliday, Hans VonSponeck, human rights and aid organizations).
You also said,
I have read it well. Went to church about every Sunday from ages 0-14. First, just because Jesus offered a less violent approach to Christianity, it doesn’t mean the Old Testament is gone. No matter what your version of the New Testament is, people will use it to justify their evil actions (like people use Islam). It is still used by Christians as a guide of spirituality and a way to live life (and, depending on your views, it is the sacred word of God; all truth). Ignoring, for now, the brutality of the Old Testament, let’s look at some examples of the New Testament, which the actual writers of betray, as they “interpret his life, death, and resurrection in light of violent images of God and expectations of history that Jesus himself rejected” (Pellmeyer: “Is Religion Killing Us?” 2003). Priestly writers say God orders disobidient children to be murdered (Lev 20:9, Deut 20:18-21) and a man who gathers sticks on the Sabbath to be stoned to death (Num 16:32-36) because they believe these actions are necessary to appease a violent deity. The book of Acts is a petty murder. God kills Ananias and Sapphria because they withhold part of the proceeds from a voluntary land sale (God wanted all the money…). The examples are numerous, and I can give you more if you’d like.
You lastly said,
You forget: the nations using Islam as a justification to commit atrocities have been/are/will be supported by the United States. King Hussein of Jordan, Mubarak of Egypt, Saddam of Iraq, Israel and their treatment of the Palestinians, the Saudi royal family in Saudi Arabia, and the list goes on and on. I think you’re right: we should compare nations on the terms you listed above. If we’re honest, we’ll look in the mirror and see which countries we support, then speak out against their crimes.
John, you said,
I don’t know what it’s called when all that don’t believe Jesus is the savior will be sent to everlasting Hell, Jews included. To show an example of genocide from the Old Testament, God allows Abram’s descendents to take land away from the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites (Gen 15:18-21). After taking the land, “You must utterly destroy them…show them no mercy (Deut 7:2). People were “massacred as an offering to Yahweh, as a form of human sacrifice” and a way of purging the land of “moral contaminants.” But I suppose it doesn’t count since there’s a New Testament…
You said,
Just as parts of the Old Testament are downplayed, the violent parts of the Quran can be downplayed. We should also remember that the Quran said: “We believe in Allah, and The revelation given to us, and To Abraham, Ismail, Issac, Jacob, and the descendants (children of Jacob) and that given to Moses and Jesus and that given to Prophets from their Lord: We make no difference Between one and another of them (Quran 2:136).” So we can take parts from the Quran and Bible to prove how nice or mean they are.
You also said,
First of all, which Islamist extremists? I’m pretty sure that we’ve killed more innocent people than al-Quaeda has killed in Iraq. We are also responsible for the killing of 500,000 to 1 million Iraqi children during our sanctions from August 6, 1990 to May 22, 2003. I think we can also say that most Islamists in the U.S./world do not want to destroy the entire planet. We should also ask ourselves:do no Christian extremists threaten to destroy the plant? I believe you can show me tons of websites that say “the end of times are coming,” “all non-believers will perish to hell,” etc. Also, our Christian leaders, military/civil, are continuing to increase the threat of “destroying the planet” by its confrontation with nuclear powers (by putting a new missile system so close to Russia/China, for example).
The only problem is, I believe there is enough historical “crime” in every direction that we look that it really doesn’t matter. :-) People in general are greedy bastards and we do horrible things to one another. Religion serves as a handy excuse, but I think we’d do it even without a belief that a divine being is behind us.