- Three weeks ago, Dr. Wafa Sultan was a largely unknown Syrian-American psychiatrist living outside Los Angeles, nursing a deep anger and despair about her fellow Muslims.
Today, thanks to an unusually blunt and provocative interview on Al Jazeera television on Feb. 21, she is an international sensation, hailed as a fresh voice of reason by some, and by others as a heretic and infidel who deserves to die.
In the interview, which has been viewed on the Internet more than a million times and has reached the e-mail of hundreds of thousands around the world, Dr. Sultan bitterly criticized the Muslim clerics, holy warriors and political leaders who she believes have distorted the teachings of Muhammad and the Koran for 14 centuries.
She said the world's Muslims, whom she compares unfavorably with the Jews, have descended into a vortex of self-pity and violence.
..."Knowledge has released me from this backward thinking. Somebody has to help free the Muslim people from these wrong beliefs."
Perhaps her most provocative words on Al Jazeera were those comparing how the Jews and Muslims have reacted to adversity. Speaking of the Holocaust, she said, "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."
...Dr. Sultan is "working on a book that — if it is published — it's going to turn the Islamic world upside down."
"I have reached the point that doesn't allow any U-turn. I have no choice. I am questioning every single teaching of our holy book."
The working title is, "The Escaped Prisoner: When God Is a Monster."
- – NY Times
I am deeply moved by the doctor's courage and integrity on this issue, despite repeated threats of violent death against herself and her family. In the article, Dr. Sultan states that she no longer identifies herself as a Muslim. It does sound like she's using the language of another religion here...
Gnosticism: It's Not Just for 2nd Century BCE Hellenized Alexandrian Jews Anymore!™
7 comments:
I think it is actually sort of sad that she, like so many, has rejected her mother religion because of its distortions and abuses. One of the great things about Gnosis is that it tends to sprout from the sort of spiritual soil she's currently tending in her spiritual garden (forgive the obtuse analogy). Perhaps, now that she is freed from a rigidly defined and oppressive Islam, she can find a more mystical and "gnostic" Islam like Sufism. Maybe she can develop into a "freelance monotheist" like Karen Armstrong.
At my Theosophical Lodge in October, we had an Ismaili speaker, who told us of her understanding of Islam.
I found myself most enthusiastically nodding along with her as she described her non-literalist, peace-based understanding of the Prophet.
Her talk portrayed Islam in a different way than what we generally see when we see the rioters. Fanaticism in any religion or group is what needs to be opposed and I applaud this Doctor's courage and that of the speaker who held her hand out in peace to us last October.
K+
The post is already a criticism of Islam, but it is not the vitriolic hatred you espouse. Your comments are based in ignorance, not in any kind of understanding of Islam. Take your neo-Nazi batshit elsewhere.
all YOU are doing: censor all who complain about the violence of islam.
Uh, this post IS a criticism, and I believe a fair criticism, of Islam. I didn't censor these ideas, I POSTED them.
I have deleted your comments due primarily to their incoherence and their lack of charity. You have an axe to grind, go grind it somewhere else.
Dr. Sultan has, in my opinion, reasoned criticism to add to the debate - a debate which must be undertaken respectfully and with humility and restraint.
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