Posted on 01/23/2008 10:22:26 PM PST by shibumi
This links to an outstanding commentary (and a brief attempt at refutation) by a lucid, articulate woman who now, no doubt, has a price on her head.
http://switch3.castup.net/cunet/gm.asp?ai=214&ar=1050wmv&ak=nul
Please delete if duplicate - I checked as best I could!
Wow.... that was riveting, I wish we had more women like that in the USA.
Although I, as a Christian cannot espouse her secularism, I could not agree more with her “Live and Let Live” approach to other people’s religions and beliefs.
Her lucid contrast of the backward nature of the Islam dominated Middle Eastern societies and the technological and cultural advance of the West is spot on.
.
Me Too.
Here is a link to a YouTube video that I'm guessing is the same one (holler if you can see otherwise):
YouTube: Arab-American Psychologist Wafa SultanAnd here is a transcript of that video from some guys blog Arab-American psychologist Wafa Sultan tells it like it is. :
MEMRI TV - Arab-American Psychologist Wafa Sultan: There Is No Clash of Civilizations but a Clash between the Mentality of the Middle Ages and That of the 21st Century
Following are excerpts from an interview with Arab-American psychologist Wafa Sultan. The interview was aired on Al-Jazeera TV on February 21, 2006
Wafa Sultan: The clash we are witnessing around the world is not a clash of religions, or a clash of civilizations. It 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. 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 other hand. 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.
[...]
Host: I understand from your words that what is happening today is a clash between the culture of the West, and the backwardness and ignorance of the Muslims?
Wafa Sultan: Yes, that is what I mean.
[...]
Host: Who came up with the concept of a clash of civilizations? Was it not Samuel Huntington? It was not Bin Laden. I would like to discuss this issue, if you don’t mind…
Wafa Sultan: The Muslims are the ones who began using this expression. The Muslims are the ones who began the clash of civilizations. The Prophet of Islam said: “I was ordered to fight the people until they believe in Allah and His Messenger.” When the Muslims divided the people into Muslims and non-Muslims, and called to fight the others until they believe in what they themselves believe, they started this clash, and began this war. In order to start this war, they must reexamine their Islamic books and curricula, which are full of calls for takfir and fighting the infidels.
My colleague has said that he never offends other people’s beliefs. What civilization on the face of this earth allows him to call other people by names that they did not choose for themselves? Once, he calls them Ahl Al-Dhimma, another time he calls them the “People of the Book,” and yet another time he compares them to apes and pigs, or he calls the Christians “those who incur Allah’s wrath.” Who told you that they are “People of the Book”? They are not the People of the Book, they are people of many books. All the useful scientific books that you have today are theirs, the fruit of their free and creative thinking. What gives you the right to call them “those who incur Allah’s wrath,” or “those who have gone astray,” and then come here and say that your religion commands you to refrain from offending the beliefs of others?
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.
Dr. Ibrahim Al-Khouli: Are you a heretic?
Wafa Sultan: You can say whatever you like. I am a secular human being who does not believe in the supernatural…
Dr. Ibrahim Al-Khouli: If you are a heretic, there is no point in rebuking you, since you have blasphemed against Islam, the Prophet, and the Koran…
Wafa Sultan: These are personal matters that do not concern you.
[...]
Wafa Sultan: Brother, you can believe in stones, as long as you don’t throw them at me. You are free to worship whoever you want, but other people’s beliefs are not your concern, whether they believe that the Messiah is God, son of Mary, or that Satan is God, son of Mary. Let people have their beliefs.
[...]
Wafa Sultan: The Jews have came from the tragedy (of the Holocaust), and forced the world to respect them, with their knowledge, not with their terror, with their work, not their crying and yelling. Humanity owes most of the discoveries and science of the 19th and 20th centuries to Jewish scientists. 15 million people, scattered throughout the world, united and won their rights through work and knowledge. 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. The Muslims have turned three Buddha statues into rubble. We have not seen a single Buddhist burn down a Mosque, kill a Muslim, or burn down an embassy. 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.
Yes, That’s the one.
The transcript is good, but watching her face and hearing the conviction in her voice as she stands up to the old mullah is what makes this exceptional.
She wouldn’t be eligible for the Presidency, but I would support this woman as Senator in a New York minute.
She has what almost no one has in Congress - a clear perspective and understanding of history.
After listening to her, all I can say is, “Wow.” She really has put herself in danger. Prayers for her from any religion.
She may call herself “secular” but she obviously has an open heart and a fair mind.
My prayer for her is that she may be the beneficiary of Apokatastasis.
Thanks for the bump. More people need to hear this voice of reason speaking in Arabic.
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Related thread A Response to Feminists on the Violent Oppression of Women in Islam
I would not be surprised to learn that they use the words for “strange” and “modern” interchangeably.
Gharb doesn’t come from the word gharib. Rather, they come from the same root. Semitic words are derived from triconsonantal roots that have meanings that influence the words that develop from them. Gharb comes from the gh-r-b root, which gives words that mean west, sunset, desert, mingle, stranger, foreigner. The Arabic word Maghreb (place of sunset/west), which refers to North Africa, & gharaba (to set - as in the sun setting), comes from this root. So do the Hebrew words ‘arav (desert) ‘erev (mix of people/strangers), maariv (evening), ma’arav (west) & others.
The word Arab itself comes from this root.
The west was named al-Gharb because of the western/setting sun meaning of the root. Not because of the cognate word strange.
Likewise, the word hadith comes from a root that gives words meaning news, statement, report, narration, story, new.
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