Posted on 03/04/2006 6:25:31 AM PST by Dark Skies
Sometimes I am brought up short by the clarity and courage with which someone else -- with more to lose than I have -- states a truth. I am a Catholic Christian, who often dismisses “secular humanists”. But I’m in awe of people like Canada’s Irshad Manji, the “Muslim refusenik”, who had the courage in her book The Trouble with Islam to directly confront the horrors done in Allah’s name -- in, as she put it, “Pick a country, any Muslim country.”
Another is Wafa Sultan, an Arab woman practising psychology, now living in the States. A self-professed “disbeliever in the supernatural”, she has posted essays on the Internet in Arabic, including research into the fate of women under various Islamic regimes. She has willingly and ably confronted Muslim fanatics on Arab TV, most recently on Feb. 21st, when she debated Dr Ibrahim Al-Khouli on Al-Jazeera. A transcript and video clips with English subtitles were made available this week by the Middle East Media Research Institute (“Memri”) -- an indispensable institution, based in Israel, that distributes hard information and accurate translations of documents from the Arab world. (It is useless to condemn it as “Zionist” -- everything Memri publishes is sourced and checkable.)
With great bravery, Dr Sultan confronts the “tu quoque” (“you too”) arguments of the apologists for Islamic terror -- refusing to let them change the subject from what they have done, said, and approved, to misty rhetoric against Zionists, Yankees, Imperialists, Crusaders. Boldly on Al-Jazeera, last week, she said what our Western politicians, media flaks, and academic celebrities won’t say, from cowardice in its many forms. Excerpt:
“The clash we are witnessing around the world is not a clash of religions, or a clash of civilizations. ... It is a clash between civilization and backwardness, between the civilized and the primitive, between barbarity and rationality. It is a clash between freedom and oppression, between democracy and dictatorship. It is a clash between human rights, on the one hand, and the violation of these rights, on the other. It is a clash between those who treat women like beasts, and those who treat them like human beings. What we see today is not a clash of civilizations. Civilizations do not clash, but compete.”
The sparkling TV host interrupts to ask if Dr Sultan insinuates the clash is, “between the culture of the West, and the backwardness and ignorance of the Muslims”. Dr Sultan replies, “Yes, that is what I mean.”
The host reminds her that this phrase, “clash of civilizations”, came from Samuel Huntington, not Osama bin Laden. Dr Sultan reminds him that Islamic books and curricula, going back to the Koran, are full of calls for “fighting the infidels”.
When her opponent, Dr Khouli, claims he never offends people, Dr Sultan reminds that among other things he calls Westerners “al-Dhimma” (i.e. the Muslims’ natural slaves), that he routinely compares them to apes and pigs, that he calls Christians “those who incur Allah's wrath”, and so forth.
He asks if she is a heretic. Dr Sultan says, he can call her what he likes. He continues, “If you are a heretic, there is no point in rebuking you, since you have blasphemed against Islam, the Prophet, and the Koran!” She replies, “These are personal matters that do not concern you. ... Brother, you can believe in stones, as long as you don't throw them at me.”
And after the usual banter about Zionism, she notes that since the Holocaust, the Jews have made the world respect them by their work and knowledge, not 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.” Likewise, though professing Muslims turned ancient Buddha statues into rubble, “We have not seen a single Buddhist burn down a mosque, kill a Muslim, or torch an embassy.”
Since the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington, many thousand other barbaric acts have been reported, around the world, each one performed explicitly in the name of Allah. This is fact, not prejudice, and our refusal to make Islam an issue plays directly into the fanatics’ hands.
It is not our business to “define Islam”, as so many Muslims aver. It is the Muslims’ duty to define it, in such a way that we will not mistake it for a sword held to our own throats. For when it is presented as a sword, it becomes our business.
Great article. Thanks for posting it.
EXACTLY!
It's something the p.c. crowd can't seem to grasp, or outright refuses to acknowledge...It is not racism nor is it intolerant, to simply state the truth.
Do you think it’s possible that clear-thinking comments like the ones Dr.Sultan made on Al-Jazeera could change any minds, opinions, or positions? Or has the die been cast?
Thanks for posting a great article.
My guess is that good muslims will dismiss her as an apostate and will ignore her statements.
No islam, Know Peace......mosquewatch.com
See http://www.julianjaynes.org/bicameralmind.php
Great book!
I read it many years ago, and still have it in my library.
An excellent article!
Any news on Jill Carroll? Maybe when her conversion is complete, her captors will let her debate this woman.
Great article! Thanks for posting.
Unfortunately, it will take a LOT before the majority of the world wakes up to the truth about the followers of Mohammed.
Some of us are already awake, but we are a minority.
The vast majority of the people of the world fervently wish to to "live and let live". The passionately held belief is that if we ignore the followers of Mohammed, the followers of Mohammed will ignore us.
The people who believe this are convinced that anyone who dares fight back is simply making the problem worse. Hence, these deluded souls believe the only problem with TROP is that George Bush is fighting back.
These deluded souls are willfully blind. They cannot be educated because they simply refuse to even consider things that challenge their passionately held core beliefs. They must admit evil is possible before they will be able to see that evil. The truth is obvious and cannot be missed by those with eyes to see, but these people are blind.
Articles can not awaken these people.
Only the actions of the followers of TROP will awaken these people, and that will not be easy. Their entire world view must change before they will be able to see the barbarian knife at their throat.
Perhaps a single attack with WMD that kills a million people would be enough to change these deeply held world views, but I doubt it. It would be too easy to blame the attack on a small group of deluded fanatics goaded into desperation by the "evil" George Bush (and vile people like me).
A series of spectacular attacks (NOT small scale suicide bombings) that are widely celebrated in the Mohammedan world might awaken a few. But I doubt even that will awaken those whose entire world view would have to change.
If all of Islam unites against the rest of the world, PERHAPS these deluded souls would awake. Some will NEVER awake, of course, and others would cower in fear and submit even if they awoke. But PERHAPS enough of the world would awaken in time to save civilization.
Islamic terrorists have carried out more than 4386 deadly terror attacks since 9/11.
http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/index.html#Attacks
I suspect you are right, but maybe she will have the credibility to awaken some of the somnolent fools in the West who ignore the adversary preparing to cut their throats.
"David Warren" PING!
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