Wafa Sultan

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Wafa Sultan on Al Jazeera February 2006
Wafa Sultan on Al Jazeera February 2006

Wafa Sultan (Arabic: وفاء سلطان) (born 1958, Baniyas, Syria) is a secular activist [1] and vocal critic of Islam.

In a video interview, Wafa Sultan stated, "I am not a Christian, a Muslim, or a Jew. I am a secular human being. I do not believe in the supernatural, but I respect others' right to believe in it."[2] In a recent Time interview she still described herself as a Muslim though ... "I even don't believe in Islam," she says, "but I am a Muslim."[3]

Contents

[edit] Life and career

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 MEMRI on weblogs and through e-mail. In this video (easily available on Google Video[8] and YouTube[9] 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.[4]

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 Southern California, organized by the Ayn Rand Institute with Yaron Brook and Daniel Pipes as speakers.

[edit] Political views

Sultan describes her thesis as witnessing "a battle between modernity and barbarism which Islam will lose", has brought her telephone threats,[5] 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. Other Jews, such as Judea Pearl (father of murdered journalist Daniel Pearl), have strongly criticized Sultan's polemics. In an op-ed piece published in the Los Angeles Times (June 25, 2006) and titled "Islam’s Ann Coulter," Rabbi Stephen Julius Stein at Wilshire Boulevard Temple, who attended a fundraiser for a local Jewish organization where Sultan was a speaker, wrote "Sultan’s over-the-top, indefensible remarks at the fundraiser, along with her failure to mention the important, continuing efforts of the Islamic Center (of Southern California), 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."[6]

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."[7]

Discussing with Ahmad bin Muhammad, she said: "It was these teachings that distorted this terrorist and killed his humanity[8]

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." Investigative journalists, however, have discovered that no assassination had actually taken place on the campus of the University of Aleppo.[9]

[edit] Awards and recognitions

In 2006 Wafa Sultan was named on Time Magazine in a list of 100 influential people in the world "whose power, talent or moral example is transforming the world."[10] The Time Magazine stated that "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."[11]

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[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ [1]
  2. ^ There is No Clash of Civilizations but a Clash between the Mentality of the Middle Ages and That of the 21st Century Feb. 2006
  3. ^ [2]
  4. ^ [3]
  5. ^ John M. Broder. "For Muslim Who Says Violence Destroys Islam, Violent Threats", The New York Times, March 11, 2006. Retrieved on March 11, 2006.
  6. ^ [4]
  7. ^ Wafa on Danish Television
  8. ^ LA Psychologist Wafa Sultan Clashes with Algerian Islamist Ahmad bin Muhammad over Islamic Teachings and Terrorism
  9. ^ [5]
  10. ^ [6]
  11. ^ [7]

[edit] External links

[edit] Interviews and speeches

[edit] Opinions

[edit] Photos

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