Stand Up for Wafa Sultan
Friday, March 17th, 2006 11:23 am by Neal
Read Mona Charen’s excellent defense of Wafa Sultan, Stand up: Wafa Sultan is passing.
I thought of that after viewing video of a woman who must be one of the bravest souls on earth. A Syrian-born psychologist who now lives and works in Southern California, Dr. Wafa Sultan caused a sensation when she appeared on Al-Jazeera TV in a debate with an Egyptian professor of Islamic Studies named Dr. Ibrahim Al-Khouli. Speaking (in Arabic) as if the words could not come quickly enough to keep up with her thoughts, Dr. Sultan offered the most impassioned defense of Western civilization I have heard in a very long time. Certainly she was more ardent for the values we hold dear than most liberal Democrats.
She began by describing the struggle in which we are engaged as one between “two opposites, between two eras.” It is a clash, she said, “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 those rights on the other hand . . . ”
Dr. Al-Khouli was clearly taken aback.
You can view the video here. We quoted Sultan extensively in our compilation on Islamic terrorist attacks in the United States, Jihad: Battlefield America. A complete transcript of the debate is available here. One of our loyal readers, who initially alerted us to the video of this televised debate, put it this way: “that’s the biggest ripping of a new asshole that i’ve seen in a long time.” Charen notes that Sultan is a heroically courageous woman who will likely face retribution for standing up to Medieval thugs and tyrants:
…it requires truly remarkable courage to stare into the Al-Jazeera camera and calmly permit yourself to be labeled a heretic.
…
Courage is among the rarest of virtues. Most people will not risk even the displeasure of their boss, far less their very lives, for something they believe in. Sultan doubtless speaks for millions of Muslims who similarly deplore the barbarism that has come to dominate large segments of the Muslim world. But without leadership like hers, they must feel besieged and beleaguered. Her heroic stand deserves our awe and deep respect.
Stay tuned.