Wafa Sultan: Muslim Woman Speaking Out

I was forwarded this article from the New York Times about Dr. Wafa Sultan, a Syrian-born American whose bold condemnation of Islamic violence has garnered her death threats.

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. . . .

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."

Source:

Jim Broder, "For Muslim Who Says Violence Destroys Islam, Violent Threats." New York Times. March 11, 2006. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/11/international/middleeast/11sultan.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5070&en=d8a7947221000a9f&ex=1142830800&emc=eta1