Saturday, December 5, 2009
Thursday night I drove down to Stoughton to see the courageous Wafa Sultan speak at Ahavath Torah Congregation, brought in by courageous Rabbi Jonathan Hausman:
An Evening with Dr. Wafa Sultan: A Profile in Courage, a Woman of Conviction Speaks her mind publicly about Muslim culture and treatment of women
..."Most Muslims, if not all of them, will condemn me to death when they read this book." These words were written by Wafa Sultan, author of A God Who Hates
And speak out she did. For those who need a reminder, here is the initial Al Jazeera appearance that made her famous:
Security was extra tight -- no cell phones or cameras allowed -- and there were approximately 150 people in attendance. Here is a write up of some of my notes and impressions. I did not record the event, so nothing should be considered a direct quote, though some of this should come pretty close:
She started with a bang, stating that 'Tonight I am going to replace the Rabbi for a short time, but my real dream is one day to replace the Imams and become the real voice of the Islamic World.' Our enemy is working tirelessly to destroy all we have created, and 9/11 showed that no spot on Earth is immune to Islam. As long as there are Muslims trying to apply shariah to us, we must be educated about it.
[Update: JStreetJive has posted video of Sultan's opening remarks: And Now for Something Completely Crucial: Wafa Sultan, Worth a Price Beyond Rubies]
This was the theme of the evening...NOT terrorism per se, but shariah, Islamic Law and the culture that it swims in. When Sultan talks about Islam, she is talking about the culture, about the imposition of Islamic law, the misogyny and the intolerance that comes with it on an everyday basis. That is the danger, not the momentary flare-ups of violence that make the news.
Sultan said she was not there to incite people against Muslims. Muslims are her people. She was there to show that Islam is not just a religion, but also a philosophy, a way of life that teaches submission to shariah. That is the danger, not Muslims, but Islam and its shariah.
The way her niece lived and died was a turning point in her personal development. 11 years old, she was forced to marry a cousin who was over 40. Here she says she (we?) "must fight shariah to the last drop of life." Her niece had no right to a divorce. The husband was abusive, and she could not escape. She committed suicide at 28 by setting herself on fire (Sultan became choked-up talking about it). How can women raise a fair-minded child when she is oppressed herself? she asks.
Another formative incident: A woman came to her (Sultan is a physician), three months pregnant. The woman wanted help in obtaining an abortion. Why? The woman, it turns out, was a widow, and her deceased husband's brother had been raping her every night in exchange for feeding her four children. So now she didn't want her 15 year old son to have to kill her. [An honor killing.] The woman ended up getting the abortion, but when she saw Sultan later, she said that she almost died from the pain since the procedure was done without a sedative since she didn't have the money to pay for it.
Why the name of her book, "A God Who Hates"? Man internalizes the God he envisions, and eventually becomes that God. She has decided to challenge and bring Allah to justice.
Americans have been educated to accept multiculturalism so they won't judge the religious practice of others. Americans wil never win the War on Terrorism until Americans translate and read the Islamic texts without whitewashing or distortion.
The infiltration of Islamic Ideology into our schools, including the universities, is an issue of equal import to 9/11.
Quoting Thomas Paine she said, "If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace." So let us face this problem now and not leave it for our children.
That concluded her initial address, which only lasted about 20 minutes. The Q&A took up the bulk of the rest of the time. While it went well with no real interruptions, the event did break down a bit into one of those group therapy sessions where people started to get up to make speeches rather than just ask questions. Here are some of the more interesting questions and her answers.
The first question asked how she ended up on Al Jazeera in the first place.
According to Sultan, they thought they would get her on in order to destroy her. She had already been writing some things that were making her well known, and they thought that over a decade in America would have caused her Arabic speaking ability to suffer. Apparently the ability to speak in Classical Arabic is very difficult, and it's easy to expose someone if they don't speak well. They called her the day before to come on, not giving her much notice, and then she wound up on the air in a "debate with a human beast" (see video above).
Another question: How can you stay a Muslim?
A: "I'm not a Muslim!" But she considers the Muslims her people. She's still culturally a Muslim. The problem is not with Muslims, it is with Islam, the doctrines. She's trying to cleanse her consciousness of these ideas that she was raised with. It is difficult.
[Following are notes jotted from the answers to questions, without the questions recorded.]
She gets death threats against herself and her children on a daily basis. It's very difficult for people like her to step forward, though there are many more out there.
Things are more severe today than when she was growing up due to Saudi money [This was a frequent theme: Saudi money and influence has made everything worse.] She left Syria in 1989. At that time there were no dedicated religious schools (madrassas), now there are 5000, built with Saudi money. When she left there were two mosques in her small town, now there is one on every corner.
We must stop Saudi money from infiltrating America. She believes the Saudi King could reform Islam overnight with enough pressure on him. In Islamic culture, "If you need me, I own you" [not just Islamic culture]. As long as we need him, he owns us.
She sees the Swiss minaret ban as a very small sign (like a guy wiggling his toe) that Europe is waking up, though it's not enough to stop the building of the minaret, you must also take an interest in what's going on inside the mosque.
She's having more difficulty penetrating the American mind than the Arab and Muslim minds. Millions of them are looking for help.
Shelters are necessary to help women abused under shariah, the same as we do for all abused women. She's never heard from women's groups (like NOW, etc...) on these issues. They are not interested.
She was not happy with the Obama Cairo speech, it was "full of lies." She didn't appreciate the way he bowed to the Saudi King. Why did he bow to the Japanese Emperor? To cover the first one. [Big laughs]
'In order to understand how much I love America, you would have to be a young woman who lived 30 years under shariah.
"I don't care how they see me, I care about how I see myself."
--
One issue that kept coming up, and keeps coming up, is the matter of "moderates," and what they think. This is where Sultan, I think, is very interesting and is misunderstood by many. As I mentioned briefly above, she is not talking simply about the dangers of terrorism -- momentary eruptions of horrific violence -- she is talking about the day to day functioning of an Islamic, particularly Arab/Islamic, societies. The day to day violence against the bodies of women and the spirit of mankind that this sort of all-encompassing totalitarian lifestyle brings with it is something that even the "moderates" (the people who don't themselves blow things up and claim to be against such things) must answer for and confront.
This cultural matter -- a form of cultural colonization and spiritual imperialism -- is of fundamental importance to a West that wishes to protect itself and continue to offer hope to millions of women and minorities suffering under this evil abroad.
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Wafa Sultan in Stoughton: Report.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.solomonia.com/cgi-bin/mt4/mt-renamedtb.cgi/17156
Another courageous Arab woman (see also: Wafa Sultan), Nonie Darwish, has been having trouble on her latest speaking tours. First it was Princeton and Columbia, now, it's actual arson at Boston University: Arson Fire Started as Nonie Darwish Set to... Read More
Here are some ideas what we should do with Islam. Any thoughts?
http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2006/10/recommendations-for-west.html
http://www.amnation.com/vfr/archives/006854.html
http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2008/05/counterjihad-vienna-2008.html
http://www.vdare.com/Sailer/060813_disconnect.htm
http://townhall.com/columnists/DianaWest/2006/07/14/connecting_the_dots_on_islam
I think the above suggestions are outrageous.
This alone (from the first Gates of Vienna link) flies in the face of everything we stand for:
"We need to create an environment where the practice of Islam is made difficult. Muslim citizens should be forced to either accept our secular ways or leave if they desire sharia. Much of this can be done in a non-discriminatory way, by simply refusing to allow special pleading to Muslims. Do not allow the Islamic public call to prayer as it is offensive to other faiths."
Tolerance for others, respect for others, freedom of religion, are cornerstones particularly of American democracy.
Anybody flogging this stuff is lobbying for the end of Western civilization, not its preservation. The "suggestions" are framed in such a way that they appear to support tolerance, equality etc but in fact they imply the exact opposite.
Frankly I think this stuff is reminiscent of Nazi and other European proscriptions against Jews and Judaism and for that reason alone it is disgusting.
And, it's assuming that the majority of Muslims in our midst desire to live under sharia law. In fact a great many have come to the west precisely because a) we have secular law and b) they are fleeing oppressive governments and regimes, both secular and religious.
Shall we now become oppressive and tyrannical ourselves? Shall we stereotype Muslims the way Jews were stereotyped (and expelled, punished, robbed, raped and exterminated?)
Please.
What if you accepted my premise, what would you do.
"I've met moderate muslims but there is no such thing as moderate islam"
By the way - I think women, feminists, all of us should stand up for human rights around the world regardless of where we are and regardless of who is being oppressed.
I admire Sultan for her courage. I think other feminists should stand up more for women in other countries and other cultures, this goes also for children and migrants and people who are enslaved.
Slavery is a huge problem even today - human trafficking enslaves people in the sex trade but also in certain industries like shrimping.
However, in regard to comments like "what should we do about Islam" I suggest people read this, which is about the struggle for women's rights in Australia.
http://www.abc.net.au/ola/citizen/women/women-home-vote.htm
It shows us not only how recently women were granted basic suffrage in oh so advanced and civilized Western culture (except of course for aboriginal women who didn't get THEIR rights until later - of course that's a whole 'nother story - ) but also the fact that anti-woman movements were active and we still see traces of those in the West. In fact I'd say anti-feminist movements, sexism etc are still very potent. And we're also seeing a resurgence of fascist, racist, neoNazi movements in the West and those are hardly about human rights:
http://www.hurryupharry.org/2009/12/05/bnp-life-member-promotes-rabid-neo-nazism/
Indeed, fear of Muslims and of course "International Jewry" or "The International Zionist Conspiracy" is feeding into this and it's a far greater threat to our civilization than Islam. Islam didn't tear the world apart only a few decades ago - the Nazis did. And they're still with us, using fear of Islam and Jews and people of color as their driving force.
Fear itself (to paraphrase Churchill) is indeed our enemy. If we don't get a grip on it we're going to see a resurgence of the 1930's.
These movements have already acquired a certain amount of political power in Europe, they have many, many adherents even in the US, and we must realize that bigotry against Muslims and Jews as well as people who aren't "white" has the potential to destroy our culture from within.
Regarding shari'a - the world is evolving along different time lines but hopefully in the direction of universal human rights - Christianity and Judaism have both evolved and so have other political systems.
I do think it's important to realize that we in the West were still owning slaves relatively recently and women and people of color - even people of the "wrong" religion - are still struggling here for equality.
Mal, your premise is unacceptable because it is false on its face.
I suggest you do some studying of Islamic history, theology and philosophy as well as learn more about Muslim people.
It is true there are strains of Islam which are fundamentalist and extreme.
This is not unique to Islam.
I suggest you doing some reading. I don't agree with your premise. However I hope you are right.
Andrew Bostom
Ibn Warraq
Serge Trifkovic
Bill Warner.
I forgot one other author Raymond Ibrahim
http://armedservices.house.gov/pdfs/TUTC021209/Ibrahim_Testimony021209.pdf
In a front page story, The Tennessean discusses at considerable length a topic that not only is normally forbidden, but for the most part is never even thought:
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20091206/NEWS06/912060340/Is+Islam+a+threat+to+America
if she really cared about the muslims she left back home....she will right a real book with a real respectfull title. not a title that 100% wont make it to the muslim world......and few stories .
the title will make two things:
1) $more money$......more perfumes and spa visits
2) integration with the jewish and anti-islamist community...the new waves.
17 Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man,
18 but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.
Numbers 31:17-18.
I disagree with these attempts to cast Islam as evil, as by extension Muslims are evil but also this is a dreadful oversimplification and misreading of a complex ideology.
This is also the same thing that's been done to the Jews.
Arabian points out that, back about 3,000 years ago (or more), things were written in the Jewish holy books that are offensive to us today and which, if followed, would be utterly anathema to modern Jews (and everybody else). It's also possible in more recent history to find bad Jews, people who are violent and bigoted, and Christians similarly have done dreadful things in the name of Christ.
Therefore, it isn't hard to find comments and behaviors that could be used to characterize entire peoples and religions as "evil".
This trend in regard to Islam, illuminated by Mal, is disturbing. Do we need to study the Shoah some more to understand why? But also - whatever happened to critical ability, to the ability to study, think and understand complexities and resist the temptation to see only one side of an argument or ideology?
Also, people evolve and so do ideological belief systems, hopefully in the direction of greater wisdom and compassion. I am sure that Islam, which in many ways was progressive - for example, in regard to women's rights to inherit directly from their fathers - will also evolve, as Judaism has.
Even in the US women only recently acquired the right to vote and much of our nation was built by slaves so let's bear in mind our own slow awakening to human rights.
In fact, the Civil Rights Act was passed when I was young, I remember the arguments against it and a time when African-Americans had to ride in the back of the bus and restaurants and hotels were segregated.
It's an interesting point also about the sensationalism of critiques. I hadn't thought of that but upon reflection I'm positive there are many Muslims who are seeking modernization and moderation of old beliefs, less literal transliterations of the texts, and are looking for ways to adapt and evolve.
But if they feel abused, insulted or threatened they won't even open the book, as Arabian suggests.
The anti - al qada, anti-osama bin laden, anti-hamas, anti-hezbullah, anti-taliban, anti-islamofascist Muslims are are RARE as...
anti-al qada, anti-osama bin laden, anti-hamas, anti-hezbullah, anti-taliban, anti-islamofascist regime of iran, anti-castro dictatorship of Cuba, FAKE "anti-war" "progressives".
#5 Sophia,
Nonie Darwish, author of several books including, “Cruel and Unusual Punishment: The Terrifying Global Implications of Islamic Law,”
Sophia
Wafa Sultan said in my interview with her here, "And regarding the truth about Islam, you should know that most, maybe 95% of Islamic texts have never been translated to any other language, from Arabic, I mean to any other languages, even the translation of Koran is not honest translation.
If you take a look at the copy of Koran in English you will see the meaning of our holy book, it's not the absolute translation word by word. So it's sugar coating. So somehow we need to translate in a very honest way the Islamic texts from its Arabic sources to every other language in order for the whole world to know the truth, the naked truth about Islam. Otherwise, the West will never win the war on terrorism."