Wafa Sultan
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The Seductive and Blinkered Belligerence of Wafa Sultan
By Stephen Julius Stein, Los Angeles Times
STEPHEN JULIUS STEIN is a rabbi at Wilshire Boulevard Temple, where he also directs inter-religious programming.
June 25, 2006
RECENTLY I WAS one of about 100 L.A. Jews invited to attend a fundraiser for a Jewish organization that seeks to counteract anti-Israel disinformation and propaganda.
The guest speaker was Wafa Sultan, the Syrian American woman who in February gave a now legendary interview on Al Jazeera television, during which she said that "the Muslims are the ones who began the clash of civilizations" and "I don't believe you can reform Islam."
The audience warmly greeted Sultan, a psychiatrist who immigrated to Southern California in 1989. One of Time magazine's 100 "pioneers and heroes," she said she was neither a Christian, Muslim nor Jew but a secular human being.
"I have 1.3 billion patients," she quipped early in her remarks, referring to the global Muslim population. Sultan went on to condemn inhumane acts committed in God's name, to denounce Islamic martyrdom and to decry terror as a tool to subjugate communities. Those statements all made perfect sense.
Then this provocative voice said something odd "Only Arab Muslims can read the Koran properly because you have to speak Arabic to know what it means ? you cannot translate it."
Any translation is, by definition, interpretation, and Arabic is no more difficult to accurately translate than Hebrew. In fact, the Hebrew of the Bible poses many more formidable translation problems than Arabic. Are Christians and Jews who cannot read it ill-equipped to live by its meanings?
Another surprising remark soon followed "All Muslim women ? even American ones, though they won't admit it ? are living in a state of domination." Do they include my friend Nagwa Eletreby, a Boeing engineer and expert on cockpit controls, who did not seek her husband's permission to help me dress the Torah scroll?
Or how about my friend Azima Abdel-Aziz, a New York University graduate who traveled to Israel with 15 Jews and 14 other Muslims ? and left her husband at home?
There is no subjugation in the homes of these and other American Muslim women I know. They are equal, fully contributing members of their families.
The more Sultan talked, the more evident it became that progress in the Muslim world was not her interest. Even more troubling, it was not what the Jewish audience wanted to hear about. Applause, even cheers, interrupted her calumnies.
Judea Pearl, an attendee and father of murdered journalist Daniel Pearl, was one of the few voices of restraint and nuance heard that afternoon. In response to Sultan's assertion that the Koran contains only verses of evil and domination, Pearl said he understood the book also included "verses of peace" that proponents of Islam uphold as the religion's true intent.
The Koran's verses on war and brutality, Pearl contended, were "cultural baggage," as are similar verses in the Torah. Unfortunately, his words were drowned out by the cheers for Sultan's full-court press against Islam and Muslims.
My disappointment in and disagreement with Sultan turned into dismay. She never alluded to any healthy, peaceful Islamic alternative. Why, for example, didn't this Southern California resident mention the groundbreaking efforts of the Islamic Center of Southern California, the leading exemplar of progressive Muslim American life in the United States?
Why didn't she bring up the New Horizon School-Pasadena that the center started, the first Muslim American school honored by the U.S. Department of Education as a National Blue Ribbon School?
You might wonder why a rabbi is so uneasy about Sultan's assault on Muslims and Islam. Here's why Contrary to practically every mosque in the U.S., the Islamic Center has a regulation in its charter barring funding from foreign countries.
As a result, it is an American institution dedicated to propagating an American Muslim identity. Maher and Hassan Hathout are the philosophical and spiritual pillars of the mosque. They also have been partners of Wilshire Boulevard Temple rabbis and others throughout L.A. for decades.
The Hathouts' mosque has twice endorsed pilgrimages to Israel and the Palestinian territories, its members traveling with fellow L.A.-area Jews and Christians. It invites Jews to pray with them, to make music with them, to celebrate Ramadan with them.
This is the mosque whose day school teaches students about Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and Hanukkah alongside lessons in Arabic and the Koran. Recently, the Islamic Center joined the food pantry collective of Hope-Net, helping feed the hungry and homeless.
Make no mistake I am not an Islamic apologist. But Sultan's over-the-top, indefensible remarks at the fundraiser, along with her failure to mention the important, continuing efforts of the Islamic Center, insulted all Muslims and Jews in L.A. and throughout the nation who are trying to bridge the cultural gap between the two groups. And that's one reason why I eventually walked out of the event.
Here's another As I experienced the fervor sparked by Sultan's anti-Muslim tirade and stoked by a roomful of apparently unsuspecting Jews, I thought What if down the street there was a roomful of Muslims listening to a self-loathing Jew, cheering her on as she spoke of the evils inherent in the Torah, in which it is commanded that a child must be stoned to death if he insults his parents, in which Israelites are ordered by God to conquer cities and, in so doing, to kill all women and children ? and this imagined Jew completely ignored all of what Judaism teaches afterward?
In a world far too often dominated by politicians imbued with religious fundamentalism of all flavors ? Jewish, Christian, Muslim ? we need the thoughtfulness, self-awareness and subtlety that comes from progressive religious _expression. We have that in Judaism, in Christianity ? and in Islam, right in our backyard. If only Sultan, applauded in many quarters yet miscast as a voice of reason and reform in Islam, were paying attention.
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She's a facety little one. But speaks many truths. I really do think terrorism has no place in Islam and what is misleading muslims are the belief in other sources of law other than the great reading (Quran).
She quoted from the hadith i assume, saying kill them or fight them all until they believe in Allah and the messenger. Yet the Quran tells us very clearly
2256 There is no compulsion in the system; the proper way has been
clarified from the wrong way. Whoever rejects evil, and believes
in God, indeed he has taken grasp of the strongest hold that will
never break. God is Hearer, Knower.Peace
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The problem is that she decides to associate herself with European and American parasites such as Robert Spencer, Pamella Geller and so many other European/American right-wing morons. If I hated Islam I can assure you I would NEVER associate myself with European right-wingers (e.g Geert Wilders) nor would I support Israel. I think it's great that somebody decides to criticise Islam but to join sh'tty European groups makes you no different than the religion you are criticising. Remember that these European right-wingers are worshipping their own religion which is no different. They want to also attract supporters to for example Israel especially people who are hateful of Islam and Muslims. These Europeans and Americans have a history of a carpet and has absolutely no right to talk about another religion when they are a part of a religion that is ten times worse especially to their own region. Read Western history.
The rule number one is even if you hate Islam do not associate yourself with Europeans especially the right-wingers as they are hypocrites trying to promote their own religion or ideology. Americans are the same garbage. Thankfully not all Europeans or Americans are this stupid and hypocritical infact some Europeans criticise Islam yet they also are against right-wingers in Europe and even Israel as well. Israel's supporters are mostly by people that have a strong hatred towards Islam and hilariously many of them are radical Christians and Jews whose religion is ten times worse. The best part is that none of them are able to provide any intellectual argument on why Israel should exist. The only 'argument' they can provide is the fact that Israel is somehow 'democratic' and this is coming from Europeans and Americans that are a part of a religion that is a contradiction towards democracy and secularism. Hilarious. Why are they using things that no Christian managed to come up with? If anything European Christians only brought dictatorship to Europe. In short words Christianity ruined Europe. Why does Wafa Sultan not mention that as well? Why doesn't any European right-winger mention that especially when Christianity is the number one religion on destroying Europe? Stop being hypocrites, and most of all stop trying to pretend being 'civilized' by using democracy and secularism to sugarcoat your own fascist European ideology. YOUR country has absolutely nothing to do with democracy letalone secularism.
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Anything done against somebody can be done against everybody. The division of people by making some of them think that what happens to the unfortunate (or failed) ones cannot be done to them is a trick tha gives a lot of dividends and it is always consistentely played by the powerful to divide and destroy.
Salaam
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The Rabbi is concerned that the same attacks Wafa is doing on Islam can be done to Jews and Judaism.
Yup good. I really don't understand why people are attacking Islam and Christianity while excluding Judaism. Judaism is the first Abrahamic religion whom all other Abrahamic religion orginated from. Without Judaism there would be no Christianity letalone Islam. These religions copied their content from Judaism. One could argue that Judaism has indirectly killed more people than Hitler ever did and I'm talking about the attrocities being committed by right-wing Christian morons and 'Muslims' added up all together. Timur was a Mongolian Islamist tool AKA warmongerer that annilihated the South-Asian population. He reduced their population by five percent through mass-killing. If Qur'anists are going to criticise Sunnism then don't forget to mention Judaism, a religion whom Sunnism copied its own content from including its ethics and morals. The Hadiths and the Talmud are very similar.
As a Muslim I'm not bound to respect Jewish prophets or Christian prophets. Sure I myself can make fun of religion too. I'm not a slave to Judaism nor Christanity. I believe in freedom of speech and attacking religion is a part of freedom of speech. Attacking Islam, Christianity and Judaism should be legal in the Arab countries once the regimes and Islamists are removed for good.
To cooperate with Muslim haters is typical Israeli mentality. Israel for example has no problems in cooperating with fascist European right-wing political parties. As long as they target Muslims, Israel seeks a cooperation. Whenever it starts to attack Jews that is when Israel begins to play the anti-semite card. Israel has many fans that are Nazis and Fascists. It is not a joke. An example is Breivik that is a huge supporter of Hitler as well as Israel. He does this mainly due to his hatred towards Muslims. Many of Israels fanbase consist of people similar to Breivik. These Europeans are nothing but scum and terrorists. Hilariously the main reason to why they support Israel is because they hate Muslims and not because they care about the Jews. They have forgotten what Saladin did to their own cowardly European leader i.e Raynad Chattalon AKA Al-European Al-Hmar Al-Irhabi. The Arab countries use an Eagle as their coat of arms. This is to serve as a middle-finger to these same Europeans. Ironically these European right-wingers pretend to be 'civilized' but they are the opposite of civilization. Countries such as Iraq, Syria and even Palestine has a much older civilization than all these idiotic Europeans combined will ever do. It is not suprising to why they oppose Palestine, the country whom several ancient civilizations took place in.