An Arabic lady talks sense about the conflict between East & West

[Gypsy Hack]

A female lady, now there's a thing.

 

Wafa Sultan does not do her cause much good. She is unnecessarily confrontational, inflammatory and blinkered, unsurprising for someone who shares platforms with the president of the Ayn Rand Institute and the founder of CampusWatch. Some of the things she said I agreed with, but unfortunately she puts 100% of the blame for what is going on in the world now on Islam, which is not only wrong but alienates some of her natural supporters. In this respect she's like the Christopher Hitchens of the secular Arab world.

 

There are many voices for secular democracy from within the Muslim world, and not all of them are as rabid as Sultan. Shout out to British Muslims for Secular Democracy, who have several stated objectives including:

 

to examine the role of the political parties which pander to retrogressive ‘community leaders’, who then deliver group votes, thus distorting democracy itself

 

and

 

to facilitate discourse to enable Muslims to become more aware of their autonomous rights, to question Muslim leaders who set themselves up as 'representatives' or ‘experts’ For example, some male clerics use the pulpit and the fatwa to direct followers even though Islam is a faith based on a direct relationship between humans and God

 

and, importantly

 

to work with other global progressive Muslims opposing radicalism, and its offshoots. We recognise that this harsh and intolerant practice of Islam has spread its influence widely. We will encourage young and old Muslims to interact with scholars and eminent personalities who will demonstrate and show that being enlightened, tolerant and eclectic is at the heart of being a Muslim – that there are many ways of being a good Muslim.

 

I find this sort of thing to be much more useful than Wafa Sultan's ranting, particularly as making radical clerics look stupid is like shooting fish in a barrel.

[plekhanov]

He said that he was not prepared to rebuke her because she was a heratic.

Could you answer her question? How many Jewish,Cristian,Buddist suicide bombers have you heard of?

What does it matter if people using political violence are suicide bombers or not? The fact is that Jews, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, Animists and adherents basically any religion of any significance you care to mention have demonstrated their willingness to use violence and murder against people they disagree with.

 

For a variety of reasons Muslims are currently prevalent users of non-state sanctioned political violence but it’s theism in general not just Islam that’s the problem.

[Plain Talker]

how many suicide bombers do we hear of?

 

well, there have been a couple of Hindu suicide bombers, nost notably (IIRC) the ones who killed Rajiv Gandhi in 1991...

 

"christian" suicide bombers? there are those who have attacked abortion Clinics... there's the Lord's resistance army, and of course, the IRA and the UDF in ulster and mainland britain.

 

Buddhist terrorists? the Aum Shinrynko sect...

 

just look for "christian terrorism" and "religious terrorism" on wiki.

[Alastair]

Uh-oh.... another thread about muslims on SF.

 

Surely it will end with the thread being closed...

[andco]

how many suicide bombers do we hear of?

 

well, there have been a couple of Hindu suicide bombers, nost notably (IIRC) the ones who killed Rajiv Gandhi in 1991...

 

"christian" suicide bombers? there are those who have attacked abortion Clinics... there's the Lord's resistance army, and of course, the IRA and the UDF in ulster and mainland britain.

 

Buddhist terrorists? the Aum Shinrynko sect...

 

just look for "christian terrorism" and "religious terrorism" on wiki.

 

I believe it is a fairly well known fact that the wiki site owner has declared the data on his site to be unreliable. Information from this source is also not admissible for University coursework. How then can we know whether any of the info re terrorists & their murderous activities in whatever shape or form is at all reliable.

[Alastair]

how many suicide bombers do we hear of?

 

well, there have been a couple of Hindu suicide bombers, nost notably (IIRC) the ones who killed Rajiv Gandhi in 1991...

 

 

Wasn't that the Tamil Tigers who killed Rajiv Gandhi?

[Grahame]

I am absolutely shocked and horrified by all of this. The violence and hate shown here is totally wrong. People are taking the Lords name in vein. They are using the name of God as an excuse to make war. It is people driven and of their own making.

 

I deplore all of this. Christianity is about having love for people and helping others, I have never heard such awful things in all my life and neither myself or other Christians who I know are nothing like this, they would run a million miles to separate themselves from all this awfulness.

[Bago]

I believe it is a fairly well known fact that the wiki site owner has declared the data on his site to be unreliable. Information from this source is also not admissible for University coursework. How then can we know whether any of the info re terrorists & their murderous activities in whatever shape or form is at all reliable.

Yet, a good reader who really wants the absolute truth in anything will cross reference a source with numerous sources. I believe it's how historians work and produce text on history. It probably is better if the original source is quoted, than to be doing research upon research based on flawed papers in the first place. Wikipedia can be taken as a pinch of salt. There are some jokes around on several numerous topics, but it does not detract from some important points made within its thousands of articles.

 

I do not understand why this lady is so revered and supported by many just because she is educated in America, and maybe talk in English. Therefore making her plight more emotionally in tune with the Western perspective.

 

I will admit that I don't know the Quran inside and out, but it is obvious to me that she is not being taken that seriously by that priest guy. It's also the first time that I watched any clips from Al-Jazeera TV (Qatar).

[Gypsy Hack]

Wasn't that the Tamil Tigers who killed Rajiv Gandhi?

Yes, and they are an avowed secular organisation. Which has carried out more suicide bombings than any other organisation in existence, or at least had until very recently.

[plekhanov]

Wasn't that the Tamil Tigers who killed Rajiv Gandhi?

The Tamil Tiger's are Hindus, the LLTE is a self declaredly secular group but the two sides in the Sri Lankan Civil War civil war are defined by religion with the ethnic Tamil's who are Hindu's fighting to secede from the Buddhist Sinhalese majority with Islamic Tamils apparently staying out of the fight.