Thanks to reader Herman Dost for pointing out this transcript of a February interview with Arab-American psychologist Wafa Sultan (with Al-Jazeera TV);
Wafa Sultan: The clash we are witnessing around the world is not a clash of religions, or a clash of civilizations. 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. It is a clash between freedom and oppression, between democracy and dictatorship. It is a clash between human rights, on the one hand, and the violation of these rights, on other hand. It is a clash between those who treat women like beasts, and those who treat them like human beings. What we see today is not a clash of civilizations. Civilizations do not clash, but compete.
[…]
Host: I understand from your words that what is happening today is a clash between the culture of the West, and the backwardness and ignorance of the Muslims?
Wafa Sultan: Yes, that is what I mean.
[…]
Host: Who came up with the concept of a clash of civilizations? Was it not Samuel Huntington? It was not Bin Laden. I would like to discuss this issue, if you don’t mind…
Wafa Sultan: The Muslims are the ones who began using this expression. The Muslims are the ones who began the clash of civilizations. The Prophet of Islam said: “I was ordered to fight the people until they believe in Allah and His Messenger.” When the Muslims divided the people into Muslims and non-Muslims, and called to fight the others until they believe in what they themselves believe, they started this clash, and began this war. In order to stop this war, they must reexamine their Islamic books and curricula, which are full of calls for takfir and fighting the infidels.
My colleague has said that he never offends other people’s beliefs. What civilization on the face of this earth allows him to call other people by names that they did not choose for themselves? Once, he calls them Ahl Al-Dhimma, another time he calls them the “People of the Book,” and yet another time he compares them to apes and pigs, or he calls the Christians “those who incur Allah’s wrath.” Who told you that they are “People of the Book”? They are not the People of the Book, they are people of many books. All the useful scientific books that you have today are theirs, the fruit of their free and creative thinking. What gives you the right to call them “those who incur Allah’s wrath,” or “those who have gone astray,” and then come here and say that your religion commands you to refrain from offending the beliefs of others?
I am not a Christian, a Muslim, or a Jew. I am a secular human being. I do not believe in the supernatural, but I respect others’ right to believe in it.
Dr. Ibrahim Al-Khouli: Are you a heretic?
Wafa Sultan: You can say whatever you like. I am a secular human being who does not believe in the supernatural…
Dr. Ibrahim Al-Khouli: If you are a heretic, there is no point in rebuking you, since you have blasphemed against Islam, the Prophet, and the Koran…
Wafa Sultan: These are personal matters that do not concern you.
[…]
Wafa Sultan: Brother, you can believe in stones, as long as you don’t throw them at me. You are free to worship whoever you want, but other people’s beliefs are not your concern, whether they believe that the Messiah is God, son of Mary, or that Satan is God, son of Mary. Let people have their beliefs.
[…]
Wafa Sultan: The Jews have come from the tragedy (of the Holocaust), and forced the world to respect them, with their knowledge, not with their terror, with their work, not their crying and yelling. Humanity owes most of the discoveries and science of the 19th and 20th centuries to Jewish scientists. 15 million people, scattered throughout the world, united and won their rights through work and knowledge. 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. The Muslims have turned three Buddha statues into rubble. We have not seen a single Buddhist burn down a Mosque, kill a Muslim, or burn down an embassy. 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.
Remarkable interview of a remarkable, courageous lady!
For those interested in watching the approx. 5 minute streaming video, it’s available online at MEMRI, at http://www.memritv.org/search.asp?ACT=S9&P1=1050
MEMRI is the Middle East Media Research Institute. They have literally thousands of streaming videos of Middle Eastern TV programs. Fascist, racist imams preaching hatred in mosques; TV programs for children teaching them hatred and contempt for Jews and other non-Muslims, the US, Western Civilization.
To watch these is to see true depravity. If Nazi Germany had had TV, this is the type of programming they would have broadcast.
We have not seen a single Jew blow himself up in a German restaurant.
The shortest and most powerful indictment of the sickness in Islam I’ve ever read.
with his “final solution” Hitler managed to get rid of a productive people and now Germany is saddled with Islamics
Tried to post this earlier…
For those interested, they can see this remarkable lady’s interview on Al Jazeera via streaming video at MEMRI’s website. Middle Eastern Media Research Institute-they have a LOT of streaming videos of what Middle Eastern people see on their TVs. Frightening…just like what the Nazis would have broadcast if they’d had TV in the 30’s, 40’s.
Anyhow, the MEMRI URL for Dr. Wafa Sultan’s bold and eloquent interview at MEMRI is http://www.memritv.org/search.asp?ACT=S9&P1=1050
The world health org says that on average 2 million girls die a year due to female circumcision. Add to that the number who are butchered for their families to ‘save face,’ etc.
This is genocide.
Islamites deserve no respect, compassion, or quarter.
They do, however, deserve ridicule and condemnation for their beliefs. Hell, why not a Nuremburg trial of Mohammad (damn him to hell) and Islam?
TIME Magazine 100: The People Who Shape Our World
Wafa Sultan
A Daring Voice Calls For a New Islam
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1187385,00.html
The Western world and Europe especially are to blame for this LARGE mess we have today.
32 years ago and more, there began a bombing hatered across the Israeli Lebanon culture.
For various vested interests reasons the principle of stopping the growing poison then and there was not genuinely delt with.
A pipeline of finance and terrorist backing developed, fed from Iran, syria and many others who wanted to protect their dictator fiefdoms from any encroachment of Democracy.
Democracy, where the family who has an iron grip on the people using religious intimidation, must consider returning some authority to the people.
Oh, NO! Can*t have any of that. Thus the endless funding of Hamas and Hizbullah.
Now we have to precision bomb Iran*s Nuke infrastructure and so focus all Muslim wrath well beyond the cartoon fiasco level, on the West.
Shoulda forcefully fixed things between Lebanon and Isreal 32 years ago. TG
Well, she is on my list of prospective candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize.
I have never heard the situation stated so succinctly and so eloquently by any other person before.
I salute you, Wafa Sultan, for your insight, your logic, and your courage.
You can say the west was negligent in not dealing with this threat before now. That would be accurate, although the dark ages would have been an even better time to deal with it – before the fall of Andalusia, Alexandria, Constantinople, Persia, etc… In other words when Mohammed was annexing the Eastern Roman Empire.
What you can’t say is that what is happening is the fault of the west. Shifting the responsibility for the actions of others is what the lefties do. The fault lies exclusively with the Muslims and their imperialistic aggression. Full Stop.
Ours is an existential fight to save the west from a 1400 year old aggressive force that is patient, willing to do anything and everything to win, is invading us with bombs as well as babies (demographics) and is winning.
Our side can’t even come together to recognize that a threat even exists.
Will we get our act together before it’s too late? Time will tell but I doubt it. We damn near lost the fight against the Nazis. It was so close only Hitler’s bad decisions saved the world from a Nazi victory. In other words, we were lucky once. Someone who counts on luck again is looking to be defeated – and deserves to be.
I do not accept her explanations as “gospel”.This is not about ideologies or even a “clash of eras”.It is about power and control,the same things that have motivated tyrants and conquerers throughout history.Religion is just,as has ever been in every culture,a very useful tool for indoctrination and motivation.
I believe the question we all need answered is: Where are all the good Muslims?
This deafening silence we have heard from the rest of the Muslim world needs to be explained!..Are they in fear of reprisal?Are they just ignoring it,as many good Canadians are?Or do they secretly support it?
In closing,I think I finally understand what happened to the Roman Empire.The liberals in western civilization are blindly trying to lead us down the exact same path,too fat and complacent to even consider doing anything as “uncomfortable” as fighting back.
I have some problem with many people usage of the term genocide.
1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide.
Article II describes two elements of the crime of genocide:
1) the mental element, meaning the “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such”, and
2) the physical element which includes five acts described in sections a, b, c, d and e. A crime must include both elements to be called “genocide.”
Circumsing girls as genocide?
The actions of Islamofascists would seem to qualify in many parts of the world though.
enough
Islamics must like the look of jackboots. Ahmadinejad and co. are quite content to saddle themselves with Hitler’s “final solution”.
Read: “While Europe Slept” by Bruce Bawer. It’ll tell you what the Muslims are doing in Europe and how blind the media and polticians are. In Holland the garbage disposal containers in the cities have instructions in both Dutch and Arabic.
“Circumcising girls as genocide?”
Yup. When it means 2 million young girls bleed to death a year. I also pointed out the number of women who are stoned to death, have their heads chopped off, or are simply shot or stabbed to death – for the crime of being raped.
How about the “mental element, meaning the intent to destroy.”
What do you think female circumcision is about? Women are considered chattel. Their worth half as much as a male. They must wear hijabs and are at the total mercy of men as to whether they live or die. An Imam in Saudi Arabia recently wrote a book on how to punish a wife – he informs muslim men that with a stick they can beat her anywhere, “but not about the face, because someone might see the bruises and scarring.”
Overall, I’d call the Islamite pogram against women genocide.
Yes, Warwick, That is what I meant. The West was wrong to not bite the bullet 32 years ago and fix a forced settlement if need be.
Tolerating martyr bombings and terrorism for 32 years was an avoidance of priciple.
The avoidance of priciple allows a cancer to flourish.
Canadian observer wonders about the *silent* Muslims.
I suggest they are aware of how easily heads can roll.
While silent, the majority may be wishing the West would get off the *Liberal hand wringing* and put real shoulder into slapping the genocide down!
In closing, I think I finally understand what happened to the Roman Empire. The liberals in western civilization are blindly trying to lead us down the exact same path, too fat and complacent to even consider doing anything as *uncomfortable* as fighting back.
Posted by: Canadian Observer at May 8, 2006 01:16
Seconded by TG
[Swiped, but admitting it]
In the 1960s, Jack Kennedy would appear on television, state clearly what Kruschev was doing with Nukes and admit resolve, under vast protest, that we had to fix it.
Today, what are the chances of George speaking to the nation and declaring that as Iran has vowed to vaporize Israel the United States has a moral obligation to destroy the nuclear equipment that Iran would use to do that.
The US understands and regrets that China and Belarus do not agree with the move but freedom only survives on the basis of human decency and principle.
It is time to put a stop to a growing flood of killing and genocide.
Today, I suspect everything is muddled by committe. We see how useless large committee procdure is with the UN. I wonder if we will be committeed into a Jihadist Muslim lifestyle.
Justice and warmonger are not the same thing. TG
TG…I consider that a compliment.Thanks.