Read

July/August 2006 Living Now
Warrior Woman - Dr. Wafa Sultan fights for enlightenment

Dr. Wafa Sultan is an Arab-American psychiatrist who has undertaken no less a task than to challenge the patriarchy and prejudices of Islam. She came to international prominence when she took on leading Arab clerics and theologians through interviews on Al-Jazeera, theArabic-language television channel based in Qatar.

In this no-holds-barred debate Dr. Sultan declared that “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 …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….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.”

“The Jews” she said, “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.”

When accused by Dr. Ibrahim Al-Khouli of being a heretic, and blaspheming against Islam, she shot back, “You are free to worship whoever you want, but other people's beliefs are not your concern.” Since the interview, she has been subjected to a stream of death threats, but remains undeterred.

In a subsequent interview on Israel Radio, Dr. Sultan described how her perspective on Islam changed after witnessing the murder of her college professor in the name of Allah by Islamic extremists.

“The year 1979 was the turning point of my life. I was a medical student at the University of Aleppo in Syria. At that time, the Brotherhood of Islam committed very bloody and ugly crimes against innocent Syrian people in the name of their God. I witnessed the killing of my professor, a great human being who had nothing to do with the government. They filled his body with hundreds of bullets before my eyes while screaming Allah is great. At that moment I was traumatized. I had just lost trust in their God and started to question his teachings. This event was the turning point that has led me to the present point.”

After immigrating to America, she met Jews for the first time, challenging the ideas she was raised with that Jewish people were not human creatures. She said that it was only through meeting and interacting with Jews on a personal basis that her views began to shift: “I have discovered how wrong we were. The more I work with them the more I find out we are all human beings. The first experience I had in the medical field was with a Jewish doctor. We were four Muslim women in his program, and he treated us very well. My experience is great, so I have to break this taboo and tell my people the truth."

Instead of perpetuating the cycle of hate and bloodshed, Dr. Sultan advocates creating connection and communication between Arabs and Jews to foster tolerance and compassion. “There is a saying ‘Get to know your enemy in order to know how to fight him.’ Far from this saying I would say, ‘Get to know your enemy in order to befriend him.’ Once you know how much suffering your enemy is going through, you will be more compassionate and eventually more tolerant. Get people on both sides to know each other, to communicate with each other,” Wafa implored.

Women in the Islamic world have traditionally been severely oppressed. Dr. Sultan called on them to take on leadership roles in the struggle to rid Islam of its militant influences, because it is the nature of women to compromise and to seek to make peace.

 “I would like to tell every woman in the Islamic world, 'you are a true leader. Our people are not going anywhere unless you get in the driver's seat and drive our new generation safely to their destination. You are by your nature more flexible.' I would like to tell every woman that men have proved nothing but their failure, by keeping you out of the big picture they misled us and took us from one disaster to another. I would like to tell every woman believe in yourself and play your role.

“Mother Nature has given you the ability to conceive and give birth to life, and I am sure has also armed you with the skills to preserve this life. You are by every means a peaceful creature and by practicing your natural skills and playing your natural role you will be able to lead your divided and broken world to a peaceful better life. The bright future I am hoping for is not too far away,” Wafa stated, envisioning a new reality in the future where all Muslim women will be free to speak their minds openly. “What I am saying right now, if a Muslim woman were to say it in ten years from now she will say it not from her home in the United States but from her home in Saudi Arabia.”

--staff

The Al-Jazeera video can be viewed at www.memritv.org.