Wafa Sultan

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Wafa Sultan
Born Baniyas, Syria
Residence Los Angeles, California
Occupation Psychiatrist
Known for Criticism of Islam

Wafa Sultan (Arabic: وفاء سلطان‎; born June 14, 1958, Baniyas, Syria) is an author and well known critic of Muslim society and Islam.[1] trained as a psychiatrist in Syria and is a US naturalized citizen.

Contents

[edit] Life and career

Sultan was born into a large traditional Muslim[2] family in Baniyas, Syria.[3][4][5] She emigrated to the United States in 1989, and is now a naturalized citizen and resides in Los Angeles, California. 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 45-minute discussion program The Opposite Direction. She spoke from Los Angeles, arguing with host Faisal al-Qassem and with 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 blogs and through e-mail; The New York Times estimated that it has been seen at least one million times.[6] In this video she criticised Muslims for treating non-Muslims differently, and for not recognizing the accomplishments of Jewish and other members of non-Muslim society while using their wealth and technology.

Sultan's latest book, A God Who Hates: The Courageous Woman Who Inflamed the Muslim World Speaks Out Against the Evils of Radical Islam, was released on October 13, 2009. [7]

[edit] Political views

Sultan describes her thesis as witnessing "a battle between modernity and barbarism which Islam will lose". It has brought her telephone threats,[6] 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 Jerusalem by the American Jewish Congress.

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."[8] In a discussion with Ahmad bin Muhammad, she said: "It was these teachings that distorted this terrorist and killed his humanity".[9] Sultan stated that she was shocked into secularism by the 1979 atrocities committed by Islamic extremists of the Muslim Brotherhood against innocent Syrians, including the machine-gun assassination of her professor, Yusef al Yusef,[10] an ophthalmologist from the University of Aleppo, renowned beyond Syria, in front of her eyes, when she was a medical student. "They shot hundreds of bullets into him, shouting, 'God 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."[11]

[edit] Controversy

Sultan's account of some aspects of her life is disputed by others. According to Abdussalam Mohamed, staff writer for the Southern California Muslim newspaper InFocus, an anonymous Syrian expatriate who met and got to know the Sultans when they first came to the United States told him (Mohamed), that the assassination of Yusef al Yusef took place off-campus, and at a time when Sultan wasn't even around. InFocus says this was confirmed by Dr. Riyad Asfari, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine in Aleppo Syria and by another Syrian expatriate Ghada Moezzin, who attended the University of Aleppo in 1979 as a sophomore.[12]

[edit] Recognitions

In 2006 Wafa Sultan was named in Time Magazine in a list of 100 influential people in the world "whose power, talent or moral example is transforming the world."[13][14] Time 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."[13]

[edit] Religious sentiment

In the same Time interview, Sultan described herself as a Muslim who does not adhere to Islam: "I even don't believe in Islam, but I am a Muslim."[13] However, in a recent conference associated with conservative writer and activist David Horowitz, Sultan said:

“ I have decided to fight Islam; please pay attention to my statement; to fight Islam, not the political Islam, not the militant Islam, not the radical Islam, not the Wahhabi Islam, but Islam itself...Islam has never been misunderstood, Islam is the problem....(Muslims) have to realize that they have only two choices: to change or to be crushed.[15] ”

[edit] References

  1. ^ For Muslim Who Says Violence Destroys Islam, Violent Threats NY Times
  2. ^ John M. Broder. "For Muslim Who Says Violence Destroys Islam, Violent Threats". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/11/international/middleeast/11sultan.html?ex=1299733200&en=d13886daba5e586f&ei=5090&partner=rssus. Retrieved 2010-02-15. 
  3. ^ Ruthie Blum Leibowitz. "One on One: A woman's work in progress". The Jerusalem Post. http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1159193523009&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull. Retrieved 2008-03-01. 
  4. ^ Gerard Henderson. "Welcome to all who pass the test". The Sydney Morning Herald. http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/welcome-to-all-who-pass-the-test/2007/08/27/1188067035595.html. Retrieved 2008-03-01. 
  5. ^ womensenews.org
  6. ^ a b John M. Broder. "For Muslim Who Says Violence Destroys Islam, Violent Threats". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/11/international/middleeast/11sultan.html?ex=1299733200&en=d13886daba5e586f&ei=5090&partner=rssus. Retrieved 2008-02-24. 
  7. ^ http://www.amazon.com/God-Who-Hates-Courageous-Inflamed/dp/0312538359/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1244553350&sr=8-1
  8. ^ "A "crack in the wall" - Wafa Sultan on the mohammed cartoons". http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Negt6IzxPTo. Retrieved 2008-10-14. 
  9. ^ "LA Psychologist Wafa Sultan Clashes with Algerian Islamist Ahmad bin Muhammad over Islamic Teachings and Terrorism". Middle East Media Research Institute. http://www.memritv.org/clip_transcript/en/783.htm. Retrieved 2008-02-24. 
  10. ^ Kerry Howley. "Breaking the Silence: One woman is risking her life to speak the truth about radical Islam.". Readers Digest. http://www.rd.com/stories/inspiration/a-woman-speaks-out-against-radical-islam/article.html. Retrieved 2008-09-20. 
  11. ^ John M. Broder. "The Saturday Profile; For Muslim Who Says Violence Destroys Islam, Violent Threats". New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9507E6D71331F932A25750C0A9609C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all. Retrieved 2008-09-20. 
  12. ^ Abdussalam Mohamed. "WAFA Sultan: Reformist or opportunist?". Southern California InFocus. http://www.infocusnews.net/content/view/4009/135. Retrieved 2008-09-20. 
  13. ^ a b c Asra Nomani. "Wafa Sultan". Time. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1187385,00.html. Retrieved 2008-02-24. 
  14. ^ "The People Who Shape Our World". Time. http://www.time.com/time/2006/time100/. Retrieved 2008-02-24. 
  15. ^ "Panel:Women in Islam". YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up3yuQDAWKQ. Retrieved 2008-02-24. 

[edit] Book

Sultan, Wafa. A God Who Hates, St. Martin's Press, New York (2009)

[edit] External links

Search Wikiquote Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Wafa Sultan

[edit] Wafa Sultan's articles

[edit] Interviews and speeches

(MEMRI transcript)

[edit] Opinions

[edit] Critical opinions

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