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.When Dr. Sultan talks like this, you know she must be aware that she's painting a big fat target on herself:
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.
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."
She went on, "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."
She concluded, "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."
Preach, sister.
One of the things that seems to bother the religious fanatics the most is that they're being lectured sternly by someone sporting a pair of X chromosomes.
But really, we shouldn't be surprised that the person with the biggest set of cojones in the contemporary Muslim world turns out to be a woman... an educated, intelligent woman who has experienced extremism firsthand and and has a lot to say about it, and isn't afraid to stand up to the demagogues.
For Muslim Who Says Violence Destroys Islam, Violent Threats - New York Times
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