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Wafa Sultan Is Back……!

Wafa Sultan in a German TV interview: “The Mohamed cartoon crisis helped the Islamic world, we have to be grateful to hear how others view our religion, so we can improve it”

Interviewer: But hasn’t the cartoon crisis to the contrary help to radicalize Muslims in the Middle East?

Sultan: Maybe right now, but in the long run no. You are helping the Muslim world to get used to being criticized. More here.

Here is another interview in the German media, this time Spiegel International, with Bassam Tibi. Here. These are some very brave “modernist” Muslims that dare to speak out, and it’s these very same voices that our politicians should be heeding and supporting.

Tibi:

Muslims have to give up three things if they want to become Europeans: They have to bid farewell to the idea of converting others, and renounce the Jihad. The Jihad is not just a way of testing yourself but also means using violence to spread Islam. The third thing they need to give up is the Shariah, which is the Islamic legal system. This is incompatible with the German constitution. There are also two things they need to redefine.

SPIEGEL: Which are?

Tibi:

Pluralism and tolerance are pillars of modern society. That has to be accepted. But pluralism doesn’t just mean diversity. It means that we share the same rules and values, and are still nevertheless different. Islam doesn’t have this idea. And Islam also has no tradition of tolerance. In Islam tolerance means that Christians and Jews are allowed to live under the protection of Muslims but never as citizens with the same rights. What Muslims call tolerance is nothing other than discrimination.


What has been the message from our Finnish “powder puff” analysts on Islam been saying…? Nothing of value really, apologist for Islam, Jaakko Hämeen-Anttila, professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Helsinki tends to view things as if he lives in an alter universe. In an interview with the Finnish magazine Sixdegrees (issue 2/2003), Hämeen-Anttila opines:

“I have studied Islam for almost 25 years so it’s natural that I have a very intimate relationship with it”, admits Jaakko. “In my mind the border is blurred and I can’t see a very big difference between Islam and Christianity. Perhaps that explains why I have never felt any need to convert.” “When I go to Iran for example, I don’t feel like I’m in the middle of a strange culture“, continues Jaakko. “You have to go with an open mind and not be alarmed by external differences like women using veils. Sometimes it’s hard to see that the person under the veil is just the same as you. Originally all of us in Western and Islamic culture came from one great civilization around the Mediterranean, so the idea of some gap between cultures is impossible.”

This is pretty much the pyscobabble the Finnish academy regulary spoon feeds the public through the media. These types have a virtual lock on the dialogue here, without a dissenting voice to be heard. Even an Islamic one. It would be great for Sultan to debate Hämeen-Anttila, or to at least publically inform the Finnish people just how much crap he’s full of. KGS

P.S. Thanks to Michelle Malkin for originally posting the interview.

Update: To show just how difficult a job it’s going to be for the reformers; Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abd Al-‘Aziz:

“My brothers, the danger is even greater. Even those people have become tools in the hands of the enemies. Unless we face reality with truth, courage, and evidence, and if we do not stop all the transgressors, who try to distort Islam with their claims of reform and their corrupt progress – this will be dangerous. These people have been tempted by the West, and have been employed in its service. We are familiar with their relations with foreign elements. We are fighting them and will continue to fight them, and we will cut off their tongues.” More here.

2 Responses

  1. I disagree with Wafa Sultan. Islam can neither be “reformed” or “transformed” (how is the latter any different than the former?). Islam can either fully accepted or fully rejected. There is no middle ground. Because neither the example of Mohamed nor the Koran can be changed, transformed or reformed. These are fixed in stone and they both advocate the spread and/or the protection of the religion by the use of violence. What really need to happen is that it has to become acceptable for people who are born into the Islamic system to leave it openly — just as many in the West leave the Christian faith unhindered.

  2. Celal, I disagree. There are examples of ISLAM living peaceful co-existence with its neighbors. Sufi Islam, practiced in the mosque and in the home (as opposed to Salafism which is highly political and in your face) is the strain I hope to take hold in the religion of over 1.2 billion people.

    The only way for that to happen is for Salafism to be deemed destructive and counter productive and gradually replaced (transformed) with a more modern version. In order for your vision of Muslims openly leaving Islam (which is a prime feature in all religions though some demand a price of excommunication)you already need an openess in Islam to allow such a thing.

    Finnish Tartars offer a good example of a Muslim community maintaining its religious beliefs, cultural customs and identity while assimilating itself into society, so that it is indistinguishable from any other part of Finnish society. Even inter marriage with other religions occurs.

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