Posted on 03/17/2006 5:32:09 AM PST by Dark Skies
An amazing and courageous Arab woman has gotten little attention here in the United States, even though she is now an American. But Dr. Wafa Sultan got plenty of attention in the Middle East when she appeared on Al Jazeera a few weeks ago.
Dr. Sultan did the unthinkable: She appeared on Arab television and condemned Islam. She was there to “debate” not one, but two Islamic scholars. One was an Egyptian professor of religious studies identified as Dr. Ibrahim al-Khouli and the other was an unidentified Algerian cleric. They were so furious that both men quickly labeled her a “heretic.” Viewers who see the segments now posted on the Internet will observe one man waving his arms around in frustration and the other nervously shuffling papers as though he is searching for an answers that he can’t seem to find.
The very fact that a woman dared to speak out against Islam was insult enough for them, but when she left them speechless with her undeniable logic, their anger and hatred came through like a tidal wave. The refusal to respond to her charges spoke volumes.
Dr. Sultan was born to devout Muslim parents and raised in Syria. She herself was a practicing Muslim until she experienced a life-changing event as she was working towards her medical degree at the University of Aleppo in Syria. Masked gunmen entered her classroom and as they shouted, “God is Great!” they riddled her professor’s body with bullets. It was that day that she began to question Islam and its claim that it is a religion of peace.
Dr. Sultan did what Muslims are forbidden to do: She began to question the teachings of Islam, Mohammed, and the Quran. Once a Muslim begins to question Islam it can be like a dam bursting, and threats from Islam cannot hold it back. This onslaught of questions is what Islamic leaders fear. Once unleashed, this desire for answers about Islam’s teachings cannot be put aside--and they cannot be answered. The threat of death and eternal hell is Islam’s only of control over the masses.
Within Islam, there is no greater sin than to question the teachings of Islam or Mohammed, and to do so is considered heresy and blasphemy and is punishable by death. Dr. Sultan is now a marked woman and no one is more aware of this than she. She now receives daily death threats but takes them all in stride. She is a woman at peace with her decision to speak out.
As she put forth one accusation after another, the two Islamic scholars had no answers. Their only response was that they didn’t have to respond to her because she was blaspheming Islam.
There is no logical response that the two Islamic religious leaders could have given when a strong and defiant Dr. Sultan tore into them with statements such as this: “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. 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.”
Dr. Sultan finished her opening salvo with: “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.”
The two Islamic scholars were not only bowled over by a strong woman’s words against Islam, but by the double insult of comparing Muslims to Jews.
What must concern the leaders of Islam is that the taped interview was seen by millions of Muslims in the Arab world. That interview is now available on the Internet and according to a report in the New York Times has already been viewed over a million times. Muslims are seeing a strong and successful woman orally challenge two male Islamic leaders and their only response was that they didn’t have to respond. These arrogant men looked like children being scolded by their mother.
Dr. Sultan went on to demand that the clerics explain a religion that encourages its young people to commit suicide and murder in the name of God. In a clear voice she declared to the two angry men: “It [the war] 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.”
Who is better to put the War against Islam in its simplest terms than a woman who has witnessed its brutality and oppression first hand? This words of this amazing woman are not just important to Muslims but to Americans who still believe in the fantasy that Islam is a religion of peace.
Dr. Sultan was raised to be a good and obedient Muslim. Without realizing it, Muslims all over the world are mentally imprisoned by the teachings of Islam. By means of lies, threats, extreme physical punishment, and brainwashing, the hierarchy of Islam orders the followers of Islam to commit the most heinous acts of violence and terrorism in the name of God.
When forced to explain this violent “religion” called Islam, the scholars have no answers. The experts wave their hands and bellow “blasphemy and heretic” and send their obedient followers out to the streets to burn and riot to deflect attention from their own inability to answer questions about their own beliefs. Death threats to the perceived “heretic” soon follow.
There is no forgiveness within Islam for believers who have chosen the path of enlightenment and freedom from the chains of Islam. “Verily, those who disbelieved after their Belief and then went on increasing in their disbelief--never will their repentance be accepted.” (3:90-91) Islamic law states that according to Allah’s apostle Mohammed, there are only three accepted reasons to shed the blood a Muslim: One who has shed the blood of another Muslim without cause, one who has committed adultery, and a Muslim who becomes an apostate. (Abandons Islam) Anyone who decides no longer to abide by the tyrannical laws of Islam is put in the same category as a murderer and an adulterer.
Dr. Sultan should be invited to speak on as many American television talk shows as possible to explain to her fellow Americans the danger of the enemy this country faces. She has put her life on the line to try and save other Muslims from the mass suicide they are engaging in, on the orders of men who know the truth but refuse to speak it. The power and prestige given to these “scholars” by Islam is far more important to them than the lives of ordinary Muslims.
To those threatening Dr. Sultan with death, she says only this: “I have no fear. I believe in my message. It is like a million-mile journey, and I believe I have walked the first and hardest 10 miles.”
Indeed, the hardest thing in the life of any Muslim may be realizing that Islam is a lie. Only then is freedom realized. Like a drowning man who reaches the surface and takes that first breath of air, realizing the truth about Islam is the first and most difficult step for a Muslim, but the journey of life now free is worth the struggle.
Islam fears people like Dr. Sultan. If ten Muslims listen to her and question, the number will grow exponentially and Islam will be forced to evolve and join the modern world or Islam as we know it will perish. Free people will not mourn Islam’s passing and the world be a better place for it.
Please point out where I've tried to equivocate the actions and words of Jesus with the deeds ot Muhammad. I've compared the deeds of historical Christians with the deeds of Muslims that were being critiqued to point out that the deeds of a religious group do not necessarily reflect the tenants of the underlying religion. I've compared the way Christians have interpreted certain passages of the Bible to point out that the way a religion's followers might interpret certain passages does not mean there is only one way to interpret those passages. And, in one instance, I responded to the claim that Jesus only preached a message of peace and never hurt anyone by pointing out that he preached some less-than-peaceful messages and, among other things, whipped the money changers to drive them out of the Temple. That was to point out that I see plenty of people telling at least white lies in order to win their argument against Islam, the exact thing they fear Muslims doing -- saying anything to win.
I'm not claiming that Jesus and Muhammad are equal. I'm claiming that the arguments being raised against Islam are also raised against Christianity (as I've pointed out, some of the anti-Islam web sites draw their inspiration from anti-Judeo-Christian atheist web sites -- consider that) and that they aren't terribly good arguments when applied to either.
Much more useful would be to identify the lines and schools of Islamic thought that do profess certain interpretations of the Koran, much as certain sects of Christianity read certain parts of the Bible in specific ways. Saying that all Muslims believe that the Koran requires them to lie to and kill infidels is like saying that all Christians believe that full submersion baptism is required to be Saved. Some Christians sects do believe that, and cite Biblical passages to support it. Others don't, and read those passages differently or ignore them. Some sects of Islam do believe in lying to and killing infidels. By all means, identify them and argue against them. It might be possible that all Muslims believe in certain things but then you need to show Muslims saying that's what they believe, not a few passages from the Koran, often lacking any context.
Agreed. And this will be a good test of the government leaders of Afghanistan to prove that they want to be part of the 21st Century instead of the 7th Century. But I would still guess that there are plenty of Muslims in Afghanistan who wouldn't lose any sleep if this guy is left alone. The fanatics who want him dead, however, should be condemned as barbarians.
And before you tell me that the Koran demands the death of apostate Muslims, tell me why the Bible can call for the death of homosexuals, mediums, and even disobedient children yet most Jews and Christians manage to refrain from calling for the death penalty for those offenses. If Muslims can't help but killing apostate Muslims because the Koran tells them so, that's certainly a serious problem. But I see some evidence that at least some Muslims can.
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