Breaking the Silence (Wafa Sultan profiled in Reader's Digest)

Reader's Digest ^ | December 2006 | Kerry Howley

[blitzgig]

Wafa Sultan and her husband, David, were jolted awake by the sound of a ringing telephone. It was just before dawn on a summer morning in 2005, and Wafa couldn't help feeling nervous as she hurried to take the call. Two of their three children had moved to a nearby suburb of Los Angeles to attend college. Were they okay? A voice on the line identified himself as working for Al Jazeera television, the Arabic-language network based in Qatar which, in ten years, had become the most influential news channel in the Middle East.

-snip-

Sultan woke up to the reality of her first appearance on live television: This wasn't just a conversation, but an all-out debate. She drew in a breath and opened her mouth, and the words burst forth like water through a sprung levy. She ran through a catalog of atrocities committed by radical Muslims against innocent victims: "Can you explain the killing of 100,000 children, women and men in Algeria? [Or] the death of 15,000 civilians in Syria? How can you explain the awful crime in the artillery school in Aleppo [where radicals murdered Alawite cadets]? Was this a revenge against America or Israel, or was it to satisfy the savage and barbarian instincts aroused by teachings that call for refusing the other, killing him?"

The two sparred intensely for nearly 50 minutes, sometimes shouting over each other. "He must let me finish!" she implored at one point.

The program, Sultan later found out, was watched by millions in the Middle East. When the taping ended, she left immediately with her husband for the drive back home. "You were great!" he said, beaming. Neither had any idea how drastically their lives would now change.

-snip-

[blitzgig]

Great article about a very courageous woman.

[Spacewalker]

Great article! Great woman! She dares to say the truth!

[VOA]

I haven't read the article yet.
But I will just to see if I'm incorrect in assuming this will be about
death-threats to Wafa Sultan by all those tolerant practitioners
of The Religion of Peace.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

If the Islamic world can find enough people like this, there is some hope for reform.

[usurper]

Excellent,

I loved this quote:

"You can believe in stones, brother, as long as you don't throw them at me."

Thanks for posting

[Mordacious]

If the Islamic world can find enough people like this, there is some hope for reform.

They can't. Islam is beyond reform.

[Waco]

Been to Turkey in the 60's. I said then, "these people haven't changed in the last 1000 years and won't in the next 1000 years."

[VOA]

I finally got the third page of the article to load.
And (sadly) I wasn't wrong...nothing but death threats for the lady that
simply speaks the truth.

As a sidebar, I found this paragraph very interesting given our current debate
over illegal immigration:

"To make it through their first few years in Los Angeles, she
and her husband worked a variety of service jobs, including
trading shifts as cashiers at a Texaco station. Still, being out
of Syria made them "so happy," Wafa says."

I got to respect that. For a couple to go from jobs as a university professor
and an M.D. to working McJobs in order to attain a dream for some freedom...
another reason I am all for rational legal immigration.
(and in this case, I'm even for it despite my general apprehension
about an influx of Muslims).

[maine-iac7]

bttt