Arab woman blasts Islam on Al-Jazeera

SAMAS · Post by **SAMAS** » 2006-03-12 11:03am

Oh look, Death Threats! Who woulda thunk it?

For Muslim Who Says Violence Destroys Islam, Violent Threats

By JOHN M. BRODER
Published: March 11, 2006

LOS ANGELES, March 10 — Three weeks ago, Dr. Wafa Sultan was a largely unknown Syrian-American psychiatrist living outside Los Angeles, nursing a deep anger and despair about her fellow Muslims.
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J. Emilio Flores for The New York Times

“I have no choice. I am questioning every single teaching of our holy book.”

Today, thanks to an unusually blunt and provocative interview on Al Jazeera television on Feb. 21, she is an international sensation, hailed as a fresh voice of reason by some, and by others as a heretic and infidel who deserves to die.

In the interview, which has been viewed on the Internet more than a million times and has reached the e-mail of hundreds of thousands around the world, Dr. Sultan bitterly criticized the Muslim clerics, holy warriors and political leaders who she believes have distorted the teachings of Muhammad and the Koran for 14 centuries.

She said the world's Muslims, whom she compares unfavorably with the Jews, have descended into a vortex of self-pity and violence.

Dr. Sultan said the world was not witnessing a clash of religions or cultures, but a battle between modernity and barbarism, a battle that the forces of violent, reactionary Islam are destined to lose.

In response, clerics throughout the Muslim world have condemned her, and her telephone answering machine has filled with dark threats. But Islamic reformers have praised her for saying out loud, in Arabic and on the most widely seen television network in the Arab world, what few Muslims dare to say even in private.

"I believe our people are hostages to our own beliefs and teachings," she said in an interview this week in her home in a Los Angeles suburb.

Dr. Sultan, who is 47, wears a prim sweater and skirt, with fleece-lined slippers and heavy stockings. Her eyes and hair are jet black and her modest manner belies her intense words: "Knowledge has released me from this backward thinking. Somebody has to help free the Muslim people from these wrong beliefs."

Perhaps her most provocative words on Al Jazeera were those comparing how the Jews and Muslims have reacted to adversity. Speaking of the Holocaust, she said, "The Jews have come from the tragedy and forced the world to respect them, with their knowledge, not with their terror; with their work, not with their crying and yelling."

She went on, "We have not seen a single Jew blow himself up in a German restaurant. We have not seen a single Jew destroy a church. We have not seen a single Jew protest by killing people."

She concluded, "Only the Muslims defend their beliefs by burning down churches, killing people and destroying embassies. This path will not yield any results. The Muslims must ask themselves what they can do for humankind, before they demand that humankind respect them."

Her views caught the ear of the American Jewish Congress, which has invited her to speak in May at a conference in Israel. "We have been discussing with her the importance of her message and trying to devise the right venue for her to address Jewish leaders," said Neil B. Goldstein, executive director of the organization.

She is probably more welcome in Tel Aviv than she would be in Damascus. Shortly after the broadcast, clerics in Syria denounced her as an infidel. One said she had done Islam more damage than the Danish cartoons mocking the Prophet Muhammad, a wire service reported.

DR. SULTAN is "working on a book that — if it is published — it's going to turn the Islamic world upside down."

"I have reached the point that doesn't allow any U-turn. I have no choice. I am questioning every single teaching of our holy book."

The working title is, "The Escaped Prisoner: When God Is a Monster."

Dr. Sultan grew up in a large traditional Muslim family in Banias, Syria, a small city on the Mediterranean about a two-hour drive north of Beirut. Her father was a grain trader and a devout Muslim, and she followed the faith's strictures into adulthood.

But, she said, her life changed in 1979 when she was a medical student at the University of Aleppo, in northern Syria. At that time, the radical Muslim Brotherhood was using terrorism to try to undermine the government of President Hafez al-Assad. Gunmen of the Muslim Brotherhood burst into a classroom at the university and killed her professor as she watched, she said.

"They shot hundreds of bullets into him, shouting, 'God 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."

She and her husband, who now goes by the Americanized name of David, laid plans to leave for the United States. Their visas finally came in 1989, and the Sultans and their two children (they have since had a third) settled in with friends in Cerritos, Calif., a prosperous bedroom community on the edge of Los Angeles County.
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Related Video: Dr. Wafa Sultan on Al Jazeera (memritv.org)

After a succession of jobs and struggles with language, Dr. Sultan has completed her American medical licensing, with the exception of a hospital residency program, which she hopes to do within a year. David operates an automotive-smog-check station. They bought a home in the Los Angeles area and put their children through local public schools. All are now American citizens.

BUT even as she settled into a comfortable middle-class American life, Dr. Sultan's anger burned within. She took to writing, first for herself, then for an Islamic reform Web site called Annaqed (The Critic), run by a Syrian expatriate in Phoenix.

An angry essay on that site by Dr. Sultan about the Muslim Brotherhood caught the attention of Al Jazeera, which invited her to debate an Algerian cleric on the air last July.

In the debate, she questioned the religious teachings that prompt young people to commit suicide in the name of God. "Why does a young Muslim man, in the prime of life, with a full life ahead, go and blow himself up?" she asked. "In our countries, religion is the sole source of education and is the only spring from which that terrorist drank until his thirst was quenched."

Her remarks set off debates around the globe and her name began appearing in Arabic newspapers and Web sites. But her fame grew exponentially when she appeared on Al Jazeera again on Feb. 21, an appearance that was translated and widely distributed by the Middle East Media Research Institute, known as Memri.

Memri said the clip of her February appearance had been viewed more than a million times.

"The clash we are witnessing around the world is not a clash of religions or a clash of civilizations," Dr. Sultan said. "It is a clash between two opposites, between two eras. It is a clash between a mentality that belongs to the Middle Ages and another mentality that belongs to the 21st century. It is a clash between civilization and backwardness, between the civilized and the primitive, between barbarity and rationality."

She said she no longer practiced Islam. "I am a secular human being," she said.

The other guest on the program, identified as an Egyptian professor of religious studies, Dr. Ibrahim al-Khouli, asked, "Are you a heretic?" He then said there was no point in rebuking or debating her, because she had blasphemed against Islam, the Prophet Muhammad and the Koran.

Dr. Sultan said she took those words as a formal fatwa, a religious condemnation. Since then, she said, she has received numerous death threats on her answering machine and by e-mail.

One message said: "Oh, you are still alive? Wait and see." She received an e-mail message the other day, in Arabic, that said, "If someone were to kill you, it would be me."

Dr. Sultan said her mother, who still lives in Syria, is afraid to contact her directly, speaking only through a sister who lives in Qatar. She said she worried more about the safety of family members here and in Syria than she did for her own.

"I have no fear," she said. "I believe in my message. It is like a million-mile journey, and I believe I have walked the first and hardest 10 miles."

Can we give this woman the SLJ Badass award? It does my heart good to see this.

Zero · Post by **Zero** » 2006-03-12 12:00pm

I'm impressed. It's kind of sad, though, that her message is being largely ignored. Or not ignored, but.. certainly, the response isn't what one would hope for if she wishes to enact the changes necessary. I really hope she doesn't get killed over this, too.

Soontir C'boath · Post by **Soontir C'boath** » 2006-03-12 12:13pm

I really like the fact that they leave messages saying they want to kill her which blatantly proves her point further as if it wasn't enough with her professor.

Spice Runner · Post by **Spice Runner** » 2006-03-12 01:19pm

The video was posted in this thread: this thread right here

You can view the video itself Here

Kudos to Dr. Wafa Sultan. I would definately like to read that book that she's writing once it is published.

kheegster · Post by **kheegster** » 2006-03-12 03:16pm

Whatever the US has to claim about Al-Jazeera aiding and abetting terrorists etc., stuff like this shows that Al-Jazeera is, overall, a force for good in the ME.

Setesh · Post by **Setesh** » 2006-03-12 07:15pm

"Only the Muslims defend their beliefs by burning down churches, killing people and destroying embassies."

There are some KKK crackers in the US who do it to, but for much the same reason. They are unable to tolerate the simple fact they are wrong. And with infantile minds their first reation is to lash out. 'if I hurt everyone else should to.'

Justforfun000 · Post by **Justforfun000** » 2006-03-13 03:11am

This is the reason why I despise Islam more than any other religion. In this day and age to have people all over the world react with death threats because you speak out against it even in the mildest tones is absolutely loathable.

I'm sorry, but with the demands in Islam of making the world moslem and people being condemned so thoroughly and completely for choosing to turn away from it's brainwashed teaching, I think it is a totally intolerable religion that will never work in the global scheme of things. Christianity has it's flaws and they are major, but they at least can have a mindset of letting secular be secular and turning the other cheek. They can grudgingly evolve. But Islam? I see no potential there whatsoever if they are even remotely true to their teachings. It's hopeless. It's just too heavy-handed a religion.

drachefly · Post by **drachefly** » 2006-03-13 10:53am

It's not the specific religion, it's the fundamentalism. Islam just has a lot of fundamentalists in positions of power; and the rest are largely free to act without the constraint of law.

The only thing that keeps Phelps from being a blow-em-up style terrorist is that he is marginal.

brianeyci · Post by **brianeyci** » 2006-03-13 02:00pm

How is Christianity any better than Islam?

Ever take a look at the bible, the thing's full of hate. If Christains can ignore parts of it so can modern Islam. Drachefly's right.

If Pat Robertson was President of the United States and the US was a theocracy, we'd have the Tenth Crusade.

Brian

Justforfun000 · Post by **Justforfun000** » 2006-03-13 02:22pm

How is Christianity any better than Islam?

Well "better" isn't quite where I was going, but at least Christianity doesn't demand that the whole world MUST become Christian whether they like it or not. It's more like "Too bad, if you don't you'll burn in hell when you die, but that's your problem". So at least you can say fine, I'll take my chances.

Also I don't recall any automatic death sentence for someone who chooses to leave the faith.

In general you are correct however, it is more the fundamentalists that are the true problems. Still, they are unfortunately far more prevalent in statistical numbers than the fundamentalist Christians seem to be, and even those kinds of fundies are degrees of scale. Very very very few are similar to the ones doing suicide bombings and stoning people for breaking ancient laws.

Post by **Surlethe** » 2006-03-13 03:29pm

kheegan wrote:Whatever the US has to claim about Al-Jazeera aiding and abetting terrorists etc., stuff like this shows that Al-Jazeera is, overall, a force for good in the ME.

Any source of information which is relatively unbiased and widespread throughout the middle east is good for the region, at least at first.

brianeyci · Post by **brianeyci** » 2006-03-13 05:29pm

Justforfun000 wrote:Well "better" isn't quite where I was going, but at least Christianity doesn't demand that the whole world MUST become Christian whether they like it or not. It's more like "Too bad, if you don't you'll burn in hell when you die, but that's your problem". So at least you can say fine, I'll take my chances.

That was the whole point of the Crusades.

Also I don't recall any automatic death sentence for someone who chooses to leave the faith.

Not the point. If there is less fundamentalism there's less killing, less murdering, less looting, less raping.

In general you are correct however, it is more the fundamentalists that are the true problems. Still, they are unfortunately far more prevalent in statistical numbers than the fundamentalist Christians seem to be, and even those kinds of fundies are degrees of scale. Very very very few are similar to the ones doing suicide bombings and stoning people for breaking ancient laws.

That's only because the people preaching to the choir aren't in positions of power. Also there are more liberal democracies with separation of church and state and an independent judiciary in Christian countries.

You want Christian abuses, see African shitholes like Zimbabwe.

Brian

brianeyci · Post by **brianeyci** » 2006-03-13 05:42pm

JustForFun000, it's true that you can find more statistical numbers of Muslims being suicide bombers. But it's not enough and shouldn't convince you that Islam is inherently worse than any other religion. If Christians can ignore some parts of the Bible, Muslims can ignore some parts of the Koran. Using your logic you can show things like this,

Brian

Adrian Laguna · Post by **Adrian Laguna** » 2006-03-13 05:51pm

brianeyci wrote:
Justforfun000 wrote:Well "better" isn't quite where I was going, but at least Christianity doesn't demand that the whole world MUST become Christian whether they like it or not. It's more like "Too bad, if you don't you'll burn in hell when you die, but that's your problem". So at least you can say fine, I'll take my chances.
That was the whole point of the Crusades.

Wrong. The Crusades, all of them, were always about taking back the Holy Land. Many Kings and Nobles realized that the Holy Land, aside from having religious significance, was also quite valuable in many respects. The Pope wanted it to gain prestige (Christians pwnorz all! Bow to Me ye Mortals!), the Kings and Nobles wanted the get on the Pope's good side and carve-up some land for themselves. Some common footmen went because they believed in taking back the Holy Land (reward in later in the afterlife and all that), the rest went because their leaders ordered them to do so.

Justforfun000 · Post by **Justforfun000** » 2006-03-13 05:55pm

JustForFun000, it's true that you can find more statistical numbers of Muslims being suicide bombers. But it's not enough and shouldn't convince you that Islam is inherently worse than any other religion. If Christians can ignore some parts of the Bible, Muslims can ignore some parts of the Koran. Using your logic you can show things like this,

I guess you are right. The roots of Christianity are just as reprehensible in many ways. I guess my point should have been tailored to say that I dislike Islam more than Christianity because unfortunately it is still relatively common for it to be believed and acted upon with the same mentality the Christians used to have in the dark ages. Certainly in much greater numbers that even include entire countries and their internal laws.

My biggest question to every single religious believer could probably round up my frustration best if they could get this point into their mind...

If "God" is so powerful, caring and loving, and interested in saving every single human being in the world, WHY is he/she not doing any current appearances, updated prophets, televised miracles, evidential fucking ANYTHING that could demonstrate to everyone in the world that there is something to believe in?

Don't people wonder why they all have to rely on millenium old stories instead of new and convincing material that an all-powerful and eternal God can supposedly provide?

brianeyci · Post by **brianeyci** » 2006-03-13 06:05pm

Adrian Laguna wrote:Wrong. The Crusades, all of them, were always about taking back the Holy Land. Many Kings and Nobles realized that the Holy Land, aside from having religious significance, was also quite valuable in many respects. The Pope wanted it to gain prestige (Christians pwnorz all! Bow to Me ye Mortals!), the Kings and Nobles wanted the get on the Pope's good side and carve-up some land for themselves. Some common footmen went because they believed in taking back the Holy Land (reward in later in the afterlife and all that), the rest went because their leaders ordered them to do so.

Tell me this then--what would happen if they were Christian? The point isn't that the Crusades were all about conversion, but rather that because they were not Christian they were open to attack. Do you think Bin Laden is honestly thinking of converting America, or killing them because they do not follow Islam? The logic is the same, you're not part of our club so we can fuck with you if we want.

Brian

brianeyci · Post by **brianeyci** » 2006-03-13 06:10pm

Laguna it looks like I'm moving the goalpost, but I'm not. I replied with "that was the whole point of the crusades" rather than explaining my position (I thought it was obvious) that because they were not Christian, they were not left alone (that is the context if you look at the point I'm replying to, "Too bad, if you don't you'll burn in hell when you die, but that's your problem").

Brian

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2006-03-13 06:24pm

Reminds me of a Far Side comic with Elvis and Salman Rushdie taking a peek at the outside world. You really can't say anything about these people without someone declaring a jihad or fatwa against you.

TheBlackCat · Post by **TheBlackCat** » 2006-03-13 07:27pm

Justforfun000 wrote: If "God" is so powerful, caring and loving, and interested in saving every single human being in the world, WHY is he/she not doing any current appearances, updated prophets, televised miracles, evidential fucking ANYTHING that could demonstrate to everyone in the world that there is something to believe in?

What, you've never heard of Rev. Moon?

Justforfun000 · Post by **Justforfun000** » 2006-03-13 08:16pm

that because they were not Christian, they were not left alone (that is the context if you look at the point I'm replying to, "Too bad, if you don't you'll burn in hell when you die, but that's your problem").

But in truth, Christianity does not actually demand its followers to forcibly convert anyone. That was still the decision of the church, not its source material.

CmdrWilkens · Post by **CmdrWilkens** » 2006-03-14 12:34am

brianeyci wrote:
Adrian Laguna wrote:Wrong. The Crusades, all of them, were always about taking back the Holy Land. Many Kings and Nobles realized that the Holy Land, aside from having religious significance, was also quite valuable in many respects. The Pope wanted it to gain prestige (Christians pwnorz all! Bow to Me ye Mortals!), the Kings and Nobles wanted the get on the Pope's good side and carve-up some land for themselves. Some common footmen went because they believed in taking back the Holy Land (reward in later in the afterlife and all that), the rest went because their leaders ordered them to do so.
Tell me this then--what would happen if they were Christian? The point isn't that the Crusades were all about conversion, but rather that because they were not Christian they were open to attack. Do you think Bin Laden is honestly thinking of converting America, or killing them because they do not follow Islam? The logic is the same, you're not part of our club so we can fuck with you if we want.

Brian

The Crusades weren't about being Christian. While the nature of the attack being a "Crusade" would certianly not have occured had Christianity not risen to dominate Western Europe you can be sure that whoever was running things would eventually look on the region with lustful eyes and go a conquering. There is a reason why the Greeks and Romans (before becoming Christian themselves) both went off and conquered thsoe lands...they we're valuable. Both in resources but moreover in terms of strategic value and trade lanes. The Holy Lands comprise some of the best anchorages in the Eastern Mediterranean so if you want to trade into Arabia and thence on into India you can either go the real long way around Africa OR you can control the Eastern Med. In the 10th-14th centuries the former wasn't an option so even without Christianity whoever the dominate player was in Western Europe would have almsot certainly gone after the Holy Lands.

Also the whole "Christian" thing ignores the ransacking of the Byzantine Empire that occurred occasionally despite the fact that they were Christian (just not Catholic). Basically even with Christianity there would be nothing stopping attacks on the Holy Lands, christ look at the wars between what is now France and Germany from the end of Charlemagne onward and they were both predominately Catholic. Political leaders have ALWAYS utilized religion or ignored religion just as much as neccessarry to allow them to acheive the goals they want.

Stuart Mackey · Post by **Stuart Mackey** » 2006-03-14 12:42am

I read an article like this, and I can but hope that maybe the media can be a cathedral door.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2006-03-14 04:15am

Justforfun000 wrote:
that because they were not Christian, they were not left alone (that is the context if you look at the point I'm replying to, "Too bad, if you don't you'll burn in hell when you die, but that's your problem").
But in truth, Christianity does not actually demand its followers to forcibly convert anyone. That was still the decision of the church, not its source material.

Anyone who says there is only one way to interpret the Bible is full of shit. I can just as easily argue that the Bible says the opposite of what you're saying.

As for this woman, I hope she doesn't get killed. That's a real possibility, unfortunately.

Justforfun000 · Post by **Justforfun000** » 2006-03-14 04:28am

Darth Wong wrote:

Anyone who says there is only one way to interpret the Bible is full of shit. I can just as easily argue that the Bible says the opposite of what you're saying.

Yeah, I guess I can't argue with that either. I have seen so many contradictions in that book I've probably forgotten more than I remember.

When it comes down to it, I'm really not a fan of any of the religions anyway. Personally I think everyone should start over.

brianeyci · Post by **brianeyci** » 2006-03-14 10:44am

While the nature of the attack being a "Crusade" would certianly not have occured had Christianity not risen to dominate Western Europe you can be sure that whoever was running things would eventually look on the region with lustful eyes and go a conquering.

Ah ok Wilkens, Laguna, thanks. You're right, the People's Crusade and Children's Crusade didn't really do much, so if there wasn't a pilgrimage it wouldn't have really mattered. And you're right I did ignore the sack of Constantinople. The Crusades might have been more successful if peasants didn't get in the way.

Brian