ARAB-AMERICAN WAFA SULTAN BLASTS ISLAM

THE IRREPRESSIBLE AND FABULOUS Wafa Sultan continues to say some very harsh things about Muhammad and Islam, as she debates certain vitriolic Muslims on Arab TV. Her assertions are strikingly accurate in terms of Islamic history and theology—not that truth has ever mattered to the girded-loin jihad apologists, Muslim and non-Muslim, in the West, or to those who, even at the highest levels, are given to wishful thinking and fantasy-based policymaking instead of sober analysis.

If CAIR is so inclined, although we suspect this would be more likely if she had said this in English in some high-profile forum, her words would end up on the organization's "Incitement Watch." But the real incitement came from Al-Qaradawi, as she points out. Yet that salient fact will never show up on any CAIR "Incitement Watch." Now, why is that?

Thanks to Robert Spencer. The following paragraphs are excerpts from an interview with practicing Arab-American psychiatrist Wafa Sultan, which aired on Al-Hayat TV on May 29, 2008.

Wafa Sultan: When I examined the Koran, the hadith, and the Islamic books under a microscope, I came to the absolute conviction that it is impossible—impossible!—for any human being to read the biography of Muhammad and believe in it, and yet emerge a psychologically and mentally healthy person.

Do you remember the way that [the Prophet Muhammad] killed ‘Asmaa bint Marwan? His followers tore her body apart limb from limb, while she was breastfeeding her child. When they returned to him shouting “Allah Akbar,” he said: “No two goats will lock horns over her.” As you know, goals lock horns over the most inconsequential thing. For Muhammad, however, the killing of a woman while breastfeeding was too trivial a reason for goats “to lock horns over.” Is this a prophet of God?

It makes me very sad that Al-Jazeera TV allows an insane and terroristic creature like Al-Qaradhawi to use it as a medium for the spreading of his poisons, his terroristic fatwas, and his babbling. The words he used against me incited many young Muslims—who have been brainwashed and blindfolded, and who have been programmed to hate—to rain curses and threats upon me, right after the show in which he discussed my appearance on Al-Jazeera.

When Islam considers women to be deficient in reason, and I refute this assertion—in that case Islam attacks me, and I am merely attacking back. When Islam calls to kill whoever does not believe in it, and I refute this, in that case Islam attacks me, and I am merely attacking back. I do not attack Islam. I criticize it, but unfortunately, we, the victims of Islamic upbringing, view any criticism as an attack.

I always focus on the language—the language of Islam. The language of Islam is a negative, dead language, replete with violence, anger, hatred, and racism. Man is the product of language, the outcome of the negative and positive language to which he is exposed in this lifetime. If his life is dominated by negative language, he will emerge as a negative, reckless, and non-productive person, who rejects everything. On the other hand, if positive language dominates his life, he will emerge as a positive, happy, and productive person. This is why the negative language of Islam has failed. It has failed to produce people with a spontaneous and positive outlook. It has produced negative people. If we take a look at Islamic societies, we see what that negative man did.

I do not view Islam as a religion—according to my notion of religion. Islam is a political doctrine, which imposes itself by force. Any doctrine whatsoever that calls to kill those who do not believe in it is not a religion. It is a totalitarian doctrine that imposes itself by force. When I read, for example, the verse: “The adulterer and the adulteress—flog each of them with a hundred stripes, and do not let compassion for them move you”—I do not discern any spirituality in this verse. Whena certain faith manages to can strip its believers of their last grain of compassion, it strips them of their spirituality as well.

Jesus Christ is the symbol of peace. He did not carry a sword, chop off heads, or accuse anybody of heresy. The problem in Islam is that if we were to act similarly to the Christians of the Middle Ages, and we were to model our lives after the life, actions, and words of Muhammad, we would find ourselves in an even bigger mess than the one we are in, and we would end up like Osama Bin Laden and his ilk. Read about the life of Muhammad. What do you find there? Nothing but his raids and his wives, in addition to his hadiths, some of which make you shudder. I shudder when I hear the hadith: “A woman’s paradise is under her husband’s foot.”

The Islamic teachings have become dreadful in the skulls of the Muslims. I see no alternative but to open up these skulls, and to clean the life-threatening cancerous cells in these brains.

When the Syrian people swarmed the Danish embassy and burned it down, it burned my heart too. Why? The Syrian people are dying of hunger. The Syrians, despite their [ancient] civilization, chase after their daily bread. Why don’t they swarm the palace of their president, who has 40 billion dollars in European bank accounts, and burn down the palace, along with its occupant? They swarmed the Danish embassy, giving the West the wrong image of the moral and civilized Syrian people. Therefore, I describe their conduct as barbaric and backward.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a religious conflict. I support the Palestinian cause. I support the Palestinian children. I lose sleep over the suffering of Palestinian women. I cannot even step on an ant, so how could I possibly be against them? This is inconceivable. This is a political conflict, and they should ask their leaders about what they have done to resolve the problem. But the problem is rooted in religion. A week or two ago, I read a short story in an Islamic book, according to which Muhammad was walking with some of his followers when they heard a commotion. They asked him: “What is this, Messenger of Allah?” He said: “These are the Jews being tormented in the grave.” Regardless of the conflicts Muhammad had with the Jews back then, this statement indicates that the graves of their ancestors were in Saudi Arabia, correct?

Interviewer: Yes.

Wafa Sultan: They are people of this region, as is evident from the Islamic books and the Koran itself. The problem with the Muslims is that they do not distinguish between their prophet and their own noses. When you criticize Muhammad, his actions, and his life, it is as if you chopped off their noses.

UNDERSTANDING CHINA

There is a new book out that should form part of the canon of those who wish to combat the simplistic urges of the Marxist-Maoist movements in this country with inconvenient facts and common relationships that help sort out fictional fantasy from reality on the ground.

The author of China House, Lawrence Klepinger, explains:

The self-proclaimed desire of the Chinese government to “crush” the current Tibetan uprising is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. The horrifying effect of 60 years of Chinese communist rule is just now beginning to unfold. From unlawful land acquisitions and unfathomable slave labor working conditions to forced abortion, outright murder, rape and pillage by communist officials themselves, the world is only now starting to open its collective eyes. When it finally wakes up it will be horrified at what it sees.

As one reviewer, Dr. Michael D, Kruse, puts it: "China House is a straightforward, non-technical, popular attempt by an ex-resident of China to show us the dark side of the latest and possibly greatest of capitalism's glittering prizes. Using anecdotes, personal examples, conversations with Chinese people and, where available, documentary sources, the author makes a compelling argument for holding the "New China" at arm's length. He systematically exposes the government and business corruption, the failure of the health, education and (communist) agricultural and industrial systems, the "cosmetic" laws, the rape of the environment, the lying and cheating that seem endemic even in everyday business transactions, the suicide of children under unimaginable examination stress, the abuse of women and ethnic minorities, the lack of personal and political freedoms, in short, the utter betrayal of the people by the party and government that swore to protect them, and links all of these evils to blatant justifications in the wording of the Chinese Constitution itself.

"However, China House is not a racist polemic against the Chinese. The author is scrupulous in his efforts to show that the greater underlying evil that spawns this welter of lesser demons is a familiar one and not at all as exotic as the oriental locations. It is the greed of multinational (but mostly Western) companies, in the guise of "globalization". The author lists dozens of Western companies (and he names names) that have their snouts deep in the troughs of cheap labour and enormous markets that make the "New China" so attractive to the foreign investor. He paints a broad canvas showing how Western multinationals collude with the "communist" authorities to exploit both the Chinese worker and the Chinese consumer. It is a disturbing portrait. It is the reason, he claims, that "all free democracies willingly divert their attention to the other side of the room. If China were to become democratic and free-enterprising at the same time, there would be no way that the USA, let alone other Western countries, could compete."

Another reviewer named Klaus Kaltenthaler disagrees in some areas: "In this respect the book is a good eye opener and should be read by anyone getting ready to deal with China in any official way. However, many other publications should be consulted to afford the uninitiated student of China a more balanced view.

"The author, coming to China with all the Western values we have have come to expect and even take for granted, shows great compassion with the Chinese people in the face of the official abuse by their own government.

"However, I do not share the author's view that multinational corporations are in China to exploit the cheap labor market in order to produce ever cheaper products for the unsatiable Western world. Many companies have been trading with China for more than 100 years and are now investing in industrial production sites in China in order to serve the ever growing domestic market which otherwise could not be supplied with continuing imports. In the process of industrialization China not only acquires new and previously unobtainable expertise, but also obtains companies that are managed in a modern and worker friendly environment with individual incomes much higher than are achievable in a purely Chinese state-owned or even private company. Thus international cooperation and the exchange with other countries, training of employees abroad, et cetera, are possible. They can be the seeds for an admittedly slow, but steady improvement of the working conditions for all Chinese companies while at the same time benefiting the Chinese economy.

"Given the mutations of China throughout the millenia and centuries, adjusting to the ever changing world around them to survive and gain advantage, I do not see the possibility of an imminent downfall of the Chinese communist party system, but a continuing change and adjustement whenever China sees advantages for their long term goal of proving their own superiority to the rest of the world."

Nothing less is expected of, We the People, of the United States of America, writes Klepinger.

I tend to agree. And despite the fact that an ashcan of experts argue that untold number of even more experts are required to understand an alarming situation, I agree that an informed public is vital to a fully-conscious American citizenry. Fantasy is for children and intellectual misfits. Cold reality among the bold sandbox bullies is far more harsh a consciousness, but right preferable especially in critical and crucial times when the lives of millions of families are at stake like so many marbles in what is shaping up to be yet another geo-political slugfest.

JOY TO THE WORLD

Last week I had the pleasure of attending an art opening at Art Whino in Arlington. There I met a 19 year old female artist whose large works were exquisite in style and execution, sensuous and feminine, contemporary and dark. Her parents were artists. She had been painting her entire young life. After striking up a conversation, eventually the discussion stirred away from her work to my own as a painter. I mentioned the Islamic threat to the West as a topic of interest to me, and her response was cute, sassy, and pleasant to the ears of many, "Yes, I know, they think we are evil and we think they are evil. And so it goes."

Out of the mouth of babes? I think not.

Of course, we continue to hear from pacifist leftists, Islamochristians, Mainline Protestants, and other blind eye liberals, the same unbroken narrative of an "oppressed" people, a few Christians among them, persecuted by Zionist Israeli "occupiers." Since when were these a sovereign people living within defined borders? Lest we prove ignorant by our own standards of intelligence, we should recall that the Arabs rejected a two-state solution in 1917 (Balfour Declaration), in 1937 (Peel Commission Plan), in 1947 (U.N. Partition Plan), and in !967 (Israeli Peace Initiative). Hem and haw. Jack and Jill. This long winding road to an ever ephemeral peace plan isnothing but a protracted trick based on the Qu'ran that requires Muslims to fight the kaffir wherever he finds them. Period.

Are we to simply shed our relationship to the truth just to feel sorry for the collective lot of the these politically and religiously motivated Arabs and other Islamists around the globe who plot day and night, and blame Israel for its measures of self-preservation, and in a greater sense blame the West for its own stagnation? I think not.