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Arabs Debate



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Mandy




 
 
    
 

Post Thu, Mar 02 2006, 9:14 pm
Click on the first link. Scroll down to find videoclip #1050. You will hear a debate between an Arab female psychologist ( secular) and a fundamentalist Muslim leader on the topic of waging war against the Jews. What struck me the most while watching this, was how brave the woman was to say all these things on national TV, knowing that her speaking out on this places her and her family in grave danger.

http://www.memritv.org/Search.asp?ACT=S1

http://www.memritv.org/Transcript.asp?P1=1050
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supermom




 
 
    
 

Post Fri, Mar 03 2006, 3:28 am
unbelievable I got that in an email. wonder how much danger can this woman be in though. Scratching Head unless free speach again is not allowed.

I got the chills when I heard her talking about us jews and arab from all people for that matter.
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sarahd




 
 
    
 

Post Sat, Mar 04 2006, 7:00 pm
Free speech in the Arab/Moslem world, supermom? When has that ever been allowed?
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daisy




 
 
    
 

Post Sat, Mar 04 2006, 7:26 pm
Yes that is brave of her. I assume she lives somewhere in the US, since she is Arab-American. I thought what she said toward the end about the Jews and Buddhists as opposed to the Muslims was well said.
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nechamashifra




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Mar 07 2006, 6:49 am
http://switch3.castup.net/cune.....=null
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Mandy




 
 
    
 

Post Sat, Mar 11 2006, 6:22 pm
For Muslim Who Says Violence Destroys Islam, Violent Threats



LOS ANGELES, March 10 - 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.

Dr. Sultan said the world was not witnessing a clash of
religions or cultures, but a battle between modernity and
barbarism, a battle that the forces of violent, reactionary
Islam are destined to lose.

In response, clerics throughout the Muslim world have
condemned her, and her telephone answering machine has
filled with dark threats. But Islamic reformers have praised
her for saying out loud, in Arabic and on the most widely
seen television network in the Arab world, what few Muslims
dare to say even in private.

"I believe our people are hostages to our own beliefs and
teachings," she said in an interview this week in her home
in a Los Angeles suburb.

Dr. Sultan, who is 47, wears a prim sweater and skirt, with
fleece-lined slippers and heavy stockings. Her eyes and hair
are jet black and her modest manner belies her intense
words: "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."

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."

Her views caught the ear of the American Jewish Congress,
which has invited her to speak in May at a conference in
Israel. "We have been discussing with her the importance of
her message and trying to devise the right venue for her to
address Jewish leaders," said Neil B. Goldstein, executive
director of the organization.

She is probably more welcome in Tel Aviv than she would be
in Damascus. Shortly after the broadcast, clerics in Syria
denounced her as an infidel. One said she had done Islam
more damage than the Danish cartoons mocking the Prophet
Muhammad, a wire service reported.

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."

Dr. Sultan grew up in a large traditional Muslim family in
Banias, Syria, a small city on the Mediterranean about a
two-hour drive north of Beirut. Her father was a grain
trader and a devout Muslim, and she followed the faith's
strictures into adulthood.

But, she said, her life changed in 1979 when she was a
medical student at the University of Aleppo, in northern
Syria. At that time, the radical Muslim Brotherhood was
using terrorism to try to undermine the government of
President
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/
a/hafez_al_assad/index.html?inline=nyt-per> Hafez al-Assad.
Gunmen of the Muslim Brotherhood burst into a classroom at
the university and killed her professor as she watched, she
said.

"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."

She and her husband, who now goes by the Americanized name
of David, laid plans to leave for the United States. Their
visas finally came in 1989, and the Sultans and their two
children (they have since had a third) settled in with
friends in Cerritos, Calif., a prosperous bedroom community
on the edge of Los Angeles County.

After a succession of jobs and struggles with language, Dr.
Sultan has completed her American medical licensing, with
the exception of a hospital residency program, which she
hopes to do within a year. David operates an
automotive-smog-check station. They bought a home in the Los
Angeles area and put their children through local public
schools. All are now American citizens.

BUT even as she settled into a comfortable middle-class
American life, Dr. Sultan's anger burned within. She took to
writing, first for herself, then for an Islamic reform Web
site called Annaqed (The Critic), run by a Syrian expatriate
in Phoenix.

An angry essay on that site by Dr. Sultan about the Muslim
Brotherhood caught the attention of Al Jazeera, which
invited her to debate an Algerian cleric on the air last
July.

In the debate, she questioned the religious teachings that
prompt young people to commit suicide in the name of God.
"Why does a young Muslim man, in the prime of life, with a
full life ahead, go and blow himself up?" she asked. "In our
countries, religion is the sole source of education and is
the only spring from which that terrorist drank until his
thirst was quenched."

Her remarks set off debates around the globe and her name
began appearing in Arabic newspapers and Web sites. But her
fame grew exponentially when she appeared on Al Jazeera
again on Feb. 21, an appearance that was translated and
widely distributed by the Middle East Media Research
Institute, known as Memri.

Memri said the clip of her February appearance had been
viewed more than a million times.

"The clash we are witnessing around the world is not a clash
of religions or a clash of civilizations," Dr. Sultan said.
"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."

She said she no longer practiced Islam. "I am a secular
human being," she said.

The other guest on the program, identified as an Egyptian
professor of religious studies, Dr. Ibrahim al-Khouli,
asked, "Are you a heretic?" He then said there was no point
in rebuking or debating her, because she had blasphemed
against Islam, the Prophet Muhammad and the Koran.

Dr. Sultan said she took those words as a formal fatwa, a
religious condemnation. Since then, she said, she has
received numerous death threats on her answering machine and
by e-mail.

One message said: "Oh, you are still alive? Wait and see."
She received an e-mail message the other day, in Arabic,
that said, "If someone were to kill you, it would be me."

Dr. Sultan said her mother, who still lives in Syria, is
afraid to contact her directly, speaking only through a
sister who lives in Qatar. She said she worried more about
the safety of family members here and in Syria than she did
for her own.

"I have no fear," she said. "I believe in my message. It is
like a million-mile journey, and I believe I have walked the
first and hardest 10 miles."
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gryp




 
 
    
 

Post Sat, Mar 11 2006, 6:41 pm
Mandy, have you seen this?
www.arabsforisrael.com

Quote:
Who Are We?

We are Arabs and Moslems who believe…

We can support Israel and still support the Palestinian people. Supporting one does not cancel support for the other.
We can support the State of Israel and the Jewish religion and still treasure our Arab and Islamic culture.
There are many Jews and Israelis who freely express compassion and support for the Palestinians. It is time that we Arabs express reciprocal compassion and support.
The existence of the State of Israel is a fact that should be accepted by the Arab world.
Israel is a legitimate state that is not a threat but an asset in the Middle East.
Every major World religion has a center of gravity. Islam has Mecca, and Judaism certainly deserves its presence in Israel and Jerusalem.
Diversity should not be a virtue only in the USA, but should be encouraged around the world. We support a diverse Middle East with protection for human rights, respect and equality under the law to all minorities including Jews and Christians.
Palestinians have several options but are deprived from exercising them because of their leadership, the Arab League and surrounding Arab and Moslem countries who do not want to see Palestinians live in harmony with Israel.
If Palestinians want democracy they can start practicing it now.
We stand firmly against suicide/homicide terrorism as a form of Jihad.
We are appalled by the horrific act of terror against the USA on 9/11/2001.
Arab media should end the incitement and misinformation that result in Arab street rage and violence.
We are eager to see major reformation in how Islam is taught and channeled to bring out the best in Moslems and contribute to the uplifting of the human spirit and advancement of civilization.
We believe in freedom to choose or change one’s Religion.
We cherish and acknowledge the beauty and contributions of the Middle East culture, but recognize that the Arab/Moslem world is in desperate need of constructive self-criticism and reform.
We are NOT:

Anti-Islam, Anti-Arab, confrontational or hateful.
We remember with deep sadness and respect the brave Arabs, known and unknown, who were killed or severely punished for promoting peace with Israel; a special thanks to President Anwar Sadat of Egypt who was killed at the hands of Militant and Radical Islamists after he signed the peace treaty with Israel.

We salute and commend Arab and Moslem writers, scholars and speakers, who found the strength, commitment and honesty in their hearts to speak out in support of Israel. We thank you for being the pioneers that you are and for holding such sophisticated and advanced views in the realm of Arab and Moslem thinking. You are inspiring us all.

ARABS AND MOSLEMS WHO WISH TO POST THEIR VIEWS IN SUPPORT OF ISRAEL CAN DO SO BY EMAILING US. WE WILL THEN POST THEM ANONYMOUSLY, IF THEY WISH. Please send all correspondence to: nonie@arabsforisrael.com
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Mandy




 
 
    
 

Post Sun, Mar 12 2006, 8:06 am
no, I hadn't seen that, thanks for posting.
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sarahnurit




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Mar 14 2006, 11:49 am
Very interesting!
I wish that more arabs spoke like this...
Happy Purim!! Haman will never defeat us!!
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mom3boys




 
 
    
 

Post Wed, Mar 15 2006, 5:16 pm
Very, very brave!
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Motek




 
 
    
 

Post Tue, Oct 24 2006, 1:45 pm
here's an article about her:

http://www.aish.com/jewishissu.....r.asp
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