Islam Fatally Flawed, Says Voice From Corona via Al Jazeera

[951-Riverside]

Basicly you have a bitter old woman who is trying to make a buck, by the way they said her inbox is filled with "well-wisher around the world" if thats true (probably isnt) whats her address?

She's no longer a Muslim, has never connected with progressive Islamic groups and does not know the writings of Islam's most respected voices of reform.

So why is Wafa Sultan, a 47-year-old Southern California woman, suddenly in the news as a fresh voice of reason and reform about Islam?


In a blunt interview on Al Jazeera television last month, Sultan harshly criticized Islam as violent and unfavorably compared Muslims with Jews. In remarks Sunday at her Corona home, Sultan, who said she left the faith after witnessing an act of religious extremism, went even further, saying Islam was beyond repair with teachings that exhorted Muslims to kill non-Muslims, subjugate women and disregard human rights.

"I don't believe you can reform Islam," Sultan said. Saying Islamic scriptures are riddled with violence, misogyny and other extremist ideas, she declared, "Once you try to fix it, you're going to break it."

Sultan's Al Jazeera remarks have been widely circulated by such groups as the Middle East Media Research Institute, a Washington-based translation service founded by a former Israeli colonel, and the American Jewish Congress. She made the New York Times front page and is being plied with interview requests from CNN, Fox, "Good Morning America" and public radio. Her e-mail in-box is filled with messages from well-wishers around the world — mostly non-Muslims — praising her "courage," offering donations and pitching proposals to make a documentary about her life.

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-sultan13mar13,0,5595073.story

[unschooler]

1. She witnessed a murder by Islamic fundies. Guess that makes you bitter.

The loyal believers say she is a "non-Muslim." Actually, she's an apostate Muslim. Who better to criticize a religion than its own apostates?

How the hell do you know she's "trying to make a buck"?

[Orrin_73]

2. She is a non-muslim she can not make te rules

of how the muslims should live. Thats up to the practising muslims.

[Speck Tater]

3. How is that different from saying so and so is a non-pedophile...

and should not be allowed to make the rules for how pedophiles behave? That's up to practising pedophiles.

You see, if that logic doesn't apply universally then it doesn't work at all.

[BushOut06]

4. There is a flaw in that logic

I understand what you're saying, but it doesn't apply equally in all cases. It would be like Methodists trying to make rules for Catholics, or Catholics deciding what Buddhist teachings should be.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

8. One of those is correct, one isn't.

It is just like methodists making rules for catholics, and that's also perfectly reasonable. It isn't like Catholics deciding what Buddhist teachings should be, and that isn't.

I have no business telling another person how to follow their religion. I am perfectly within my rights to vote to make laws that will impinge on them, even if those laws prevent them following that religion.

[Orrin_73]

5. You did not get my point!!!

There are certain rules within Islam that never change. Whats next non-muslims telling us how to pray or that we should not go the mosque?

[unschooler]

11. Of course they can tell you that. And you can ignore it. What's

the big deal?

[Malikshah]

6. Wow...pedophiles and Muslims in the same thread

just wow.

She's a ringer.

She's someone they can trot out.

She's free to voice her opinions-- unfortunately those who wish to sweep with broad brushes will use her -- and she appears to be going willingly along with--that is where she's a dipshit.

[unschooler]

10. She's an ex-Muslim, and she's not making "rules." She's speaking

her mind and trying to convince people of the rightness of her views (that Islam is lousy). How is that "making rules"?

[HamdenRice]

7. Hey Christians and Jews: Ever actually read the Old Testament/Tanakh?

I was brought up a Christian in the African American Baptist tradition, so I was familiar with the New Testament much more than the Old Testament. When I began to study theology in graduate school and began reading the OT, I was really shocked.

Much of it is the (approving) story of slaughter after slaughter, war, trickery, murder, theft, intolerance, xenophobia and wife-stealing.

So I don't think that the texts of the three religions are that different. The key is how these texts are used. Islam could be a different religion while keeping its ultra-violent, ultra-intolerant texts. In my opinion, Christians and Jews basically ignore the stuff that used to inspire them to slaughter and concentrate on parables, poetry and more gentle stories from the OT.

But to say that Islam is irredeemable because its texts are violent and intolerant is not true.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

9. Good for her

Far too many liberals assume that, because the American Christian right is opposed to Islam (for, admittedly, bad reasons) there are no good reasons to be opposed to it.

Everything she says is essentially right; a society organised on the principles laid out in the Koran will be a very conservative one, and not one I or any other liberal would wish to live in.

Islam is a religion even more unpleasant and conservative than Christianity or Judaism, and the fact the Muslims are currently being persecuted for bad reasons should not blind us to that fact.

[Warren DeMontague]

12. That's kind of how I feel about ALL western monotheistic belief systems.

Hey, I'm entitled to my opinion.

Welcome aboard, lady.